Transit transitions

This is the third in a four-part series examining the interaction between UAB, students and the city of Birmingham. In the August issue, we’ll explore how UAB students impact the city’s economy and what influences recent graduates’ decision to stay – or leave – here.

With a goal of reaching enrollment of 20,000 students by 2018 and 24,000 in the next five years, something will have to change on the University of Alabama at Birmingham campus.

Some of those changes already have been seen, including new educational facilities and student buildings, as Iron City Ink explored in the first two parts of this series. Also in the works to accommodate a growing student population are new dining and residence halls. But in order to keep a centralized feel on a campus that already sprawls across more than 93 city blocks, there must be give and take. One take will be parking.

UAB is working to provide more density within the campus’s core, according to James Fowler, director of Planning, Design and Construction. To do that, he said, the school must consider taking away surface parking lots around the core of campus.

“We want to consolidate some of that surface parking into parking decks, but that’s expensive, so we won’t be able to capture all of it,” Fowler said. “We want to migrate some of that surface parking out to the perimeter areas of campus, but again, we’re an urban campus, so even that is a challenge.”

Addressing parking issues also requires a need to increase transportation options. By making walking, cycling or public transit more appealing, the campus would be able to decrease a need for parking, Fowler said.

The school took some of its first steps toward changing movement around campus in 2013, when it established the Blazer Express transit system. That fleet of 12 buses replaced the campus’ ride and escort services, which it had outgrown. Before Blazer Express, the campus was an auto-oriented culture, Fowler said, but is currently shifting that mindset.

Blazer Express provides around 50,000 total rides each month, said Director of UAB Parking and Transportation Andre Davis, but numbers could be higher. 

“Student passenger numbers have not been as expected to date, but we recently improved routes to make them more convenient,” Davis said. “We feel student ridership will go up as word of those improvements continues to spread.”

Since the bus system was implemented, there have been fewer personal vehicles driving around campus, which decreased traffic congestion, Davis said. More routes have also been added to the system in order to get students and employees to and from parking lots, which are increasingly moving to the edges of campus.

This perimeter parking is often seen as inconvenient, Davis said, but is necessary to accommodate the school’s primary goal of providing an education.

“Our mission is to provide an education, not necessarily provide a parking lot,” Davis said. “… You don’t want to build an academic building on the far edge of campus. That’s not good for the university. It’s easier to put the parking on the edge.”

Matter of convenience

Parking is a common complaint among UAB students, Davis said, but added that university data show there are an adequate number of parking spaces. According to UAB's website, the school operates more than 80 off-street facilities with 12,645 spaces. The issue for most students, however, comes down to convenience.

“It’s not that bad,” Davis said, in regard to parking and catching a bus from the lot to campus or walking to an academic building. “But that student who’s running late for class doesn’t see it that way.”

Adim Premani, a junior information systems major from Hoover, sees it as a prevalent issue. “Something that is a constant gripe by me and many other students is parking,” Premani said. “Parking is horrible.”

And the problem is not that UAB is over-assigning lots or handing out too many parking permits, Premani said.

“They are not over-assigning, obviously, but there is still the issue of students who don’t get [parking] tags but come to campus and park in the lots anyway,” he said. 

Instead of creating more bus systems, Premani said he sees building larger decks to accommodate more cars as a more effective solution.

Other students say they recognize parking decks are not always the best solution. Nadia Harden, a sophomore and orientation leader, said she hadn’t realized how “ridiculously expensive” decks are to construct.

“So balancing that and how long it takes to make a parking deck, I recognize why there’s problems,” Harden said, adding that she acknowledges the administration is taking steps toward making parking and transportation more convenient for students.

Hassan Sadruddin, a 20-year-old sophomore at UAB, said increased difficulty in finding parking is to be expected in a city. He sometimes chooses to walk to campus rather than drive, mainly because finding parking can take just as much time.

“I try to walk to campus when possible. It takes 20 minutes,” he said. “If I drive, it takes five minutes, but then 15 minutes to park.”

That time spent finding a place to park has meant Sadruddin was late for class or accepted a $20 ticket to avoid missing class. Those 15 minutes spent parking are also in part due to UAB’s current “license to hunt” system. Commuting UAB students — both graduate and undergraduate — receive permits for lots starting with the number 15. There are more than a dozen commuter lots spread across campus, meaning students have to “hunt” — or drive around between the lots — to find a parking spot. 

Growing numbers mean UAB has started to outgrow this “license to hunt” system, Davis said, and options for zoned lots are under consideration.

“We’re looking to create a zone-based parking system where you still will have to look in different lots, but instead of looking in 20 different lots, you now have to look in three different lots,” Davis said. “It cuts your hunt down considerably.”

With the current system on campus, however, Davis said new students could help a culture shift. Encouraging incoming freshmen to utilize the bus system and perimeter lots is easier than changing the mindset of older students, Davis said.

“The way it is when they come in, that’s what they’re accustomed to,” he said, adding that introducing students to a bus-oriented system can make those resources a habit in the future.

“You see all those [UAB] buses passing by,” said junior Eli Ussery. “Those buses are not used, that go out to those lots, and no one is really using them. So if students would realize that these resources are here, and have been here, and are not being taken advantage of, they would ease up the pressure on parking and transportation.”

A cultural change that is ongoing around Birmingham could also reduce the overall demand for parking, Fowler said. Downtown is becoming denser and more walkable, and as the need for cars to go between destinations decreases, so could the need for parking. 

To lean into this change, Fowler said, UAB plans to “change the character of our streets.” This includes increasing protection for pedestrians and making the area more attractive for pedestrians, cyclists and mass transit riders.

This fall, work on 10th Avenue South will reduce the number of automobile lanes on the road, giving more room for wide bike lanes. Zyp bikeshare stations sprinkled across campus also mean students can use those lanes even if they don’t have a bike of their own. “We’re hoping to have a really safe, comfortable, attractive network for walking and cycling,” Fowler said. 

Sadruddin said he has seen cycling grow in popularity around campus, and he recognized UAB aims to make it safer. 

BJCTA/MAX options

While Birmingham sees a shift in mass transit options, it opens up options to UAB students as well. Since the Birmingham-Jefferson County Transit Authority improved its fleet of MAX buses, Davis said he has seen an increase in people riding MAX buses around campus. 

“We’ve seen a 30 percent increase in ridership just on that route [the Magic City Connector], since we launched that,” said BJCTA Executive Director Barbara Murdock. “And that’s taking people up and down 20th [Avenue] North and 20th [Street] South from Five Points South to Uptown. We’re currently working to provide similar service to the Lakeview district.”

Increasing usage of public transit takes making the option “seductive,” Murdock said. Riders need to see the option as “more than just getting on a bus,” she said, and updates such as Wi-Fi on the buses, new designs and new routes are helping increase that appeal.

“Public transit ridership is down all over the country. Ours is down slightly, but not that bad, and that’s because cost of gas and, someone told me, car dealers are almost giving cars away, so we have to compete with that,” she said. “But there will always be a need for public transportation.”

Millennials are also looking toward using fewer cars and moving to areas with greater walkability. As Birmingham and UAB move toward that direction, Murdock said she hopes the BJCTA buses will provide a good option to those individuals.

“Going from what once was a very auto-oriented downtown and auto-oriented culture, we can’t necessarily switch to being a transit-oriented campus over night, but we have seen a lot of good, positive steps and our administration is very supportive and is excited about being a more multi-modal campus,” Fowler said.

– Lexi Coon and Jesse Chambers contributed to this report.