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College and university transit agencies share many similarities with their larger municipal and regional transit agency cousins. Both typically provide fixed route, paratransit, and other demand-response services including charter services. They use the same equipment and employ bus operators who are required to have the same qualifications. Vehicle breakdowns, accidents, employee turnover, and passenger complaints are normal events for both as well.

We have identified five important differences between these types of agencies which significantly affect how they manage certain aspects of their operations and planning. These differences affect how quickly the agencies can purchase new technology, how they will use that technology, and how their customers will react to that technology.

1. Funding

College and university operated transit systems are primarily self-supporting auxiliary enterprises that generate revenue through transit fees and/or parking fees. A minority of the systems receive financial support from the institution’s general fund. However, very few college and university systems have access to Federal and state transportation funds. These transit systems are typically operated as ‘closed’ systems whereby only institutionally affiliated individuals may make use of the service. Federal and state funding is usually only available to agencies which provide service to the general public.

This presents a challenge to college and university transit agencies. Passenger fares are often ‘pre-paid’ when the student, faculty, or staff member pays the transit and/or parking fee at the beginning of each academic period. Public transit agencies operate using traditional fares and can increase revenue through various fare pricing strategies and marketing campaigns. Academic institutions operate their transit systems on a fixed budget, and can only increase revenue by increasing the transit and/or parking fees. Increasing revenue by raising these fees is a lengthy process. Student fees provide the bulk of the funding and are set two to three years in advance.

The level of transit ridership does not directly affect the revenue collected at a university or college transit agency. Since the fares are ‘pre-paid’ the revenue is collected even if very few students actually use the service. This can be helpful to ensuring the transit agency’s financial success during periods of low demand, but can be a great challenge when demand increases. Improving and adding service as demand increases is very difficult due to this static nature of college and university transit budgets. Many of these agencies operate on a premise each year whereby they either use their funding completely or lose what money remains. As a result, very little money is set aside and not allocated to existing line items. This can make even minor service level improvements a difficult and lengthy undertaking.

2. Capital Improvements

Closely related to the funding considerations is the college and university transit agency capital improvements process. College and university transit agencies typically have a ‘plant fund’ for capital projects that is maintained through regular allocations from their operating budgets. The purchase of new rolling stock, parking structures, maintenance and administration facilities, and large scale Intelligent Transportation System (ITS) infrastructure are all funded through this plant fund.

All participants in the ITS market, vendors and transit agencies, must understand that the procurement cycle for college and university transit agencies can be much longer than that of their larger municipal and regional agency cousins. The combination of static annual budgets, difficulty in increasing revenue from year to year, and the long term allocation of plant funds to improvements in existing infrastructure, can make it very difficult for a college and university transit agency to purchase ITS enhancements. What capital money these systems have is often allocated years in advance to facility rehabilitation or rolling stock replacement.

The dilemma for ITS providers is that the transit agencies want the technology but have a difficult time finding the funding for it. The providers must be willing to invest several years into the relationship with the transit agencies in order to facilitate a sale.

3. Service Planning

Service planning at college and university transit agencies can be a delicate process. Students are highly vocal critics of what they foresee as a poorly operated transit system. This combined with equally vocal parents, money-donating alumni, and the wishes of the surrounding community, creates a situation where transit service is not provided as efficiently or effectively as it could be. Transit service that is underutilized may continue to be provided at the behest of an individual with political clout. Transit service that is sorely needed may be denied as a method to effect change in the student concentration of certain residential areas.

Even in light of their ability to access IT resources, college and university transit agencies can be very ‘data-poor’ when it comes to the population they serve. Few agencies invest the time and effort required to ensure that their finite resources are being used to perform the greatest good. Agencies should periodically obtain information concerning student, faculty, and staff residential addresses from their campus registrar’s office. This ‘geo-data’ can be used in a Geographic Information System (GIS) to determine where the highest concentra tion of campus affiliates is located, and whether or not the existing transit service is adequately serving them. A GIS can make this task very easy by overlaying the concentration of campus affiliates on an area map, and including layers representing the existing transit routes.

4. Customer Base

The students, faculty, and staff at institutions of higher learning are generally very technologically savvy. Colleges and universities are some of the most IT-connected organizations in the country and the use of technology is readily apparent throughout each institution. Students register for classes and pay their bills online. Faculty members conduct classes and assign coursework online. Staff members register for benefits and complete their timesheets online. This comfort level and familiarity with new technology provides ITS vendors the ability to make some advantageous assumptions. For example, communication modes such as the Internet, WAP-enabled cell phones, and SMS text messaging can all be incorporated into an ITS project with the assumption that the users will have both the knowledge and equipment needed to access the information.

Campus affiliates are used to incorporating new technology into their daily lives. The transit agency and ITS vendor will have relatively little difficulty in persuading the passengers to use new technology and to believe in the technology’s merits. An example of this new transit technology is the Real-time Passenger Information System (RTPIS). This system provides transit passengers with information concerning bus arrival times at each passenger stop instantly or in ‘real-time.’ Users can access this information through a variety of methods, including the Internet, WAP-enabled cell phones, SMS text messages, Interactive Voice Response (IVR) telephone systems, and digital signage located at the bus stops.

5. Employee Recruitment and Retention

College and university transit agency employee recruitment and retention presents several challenges. These agencies are typically much smaller than municipal or regional agencies and as a result, employee salaries can be much lower for similar jobs. This makes recruiting and retaining high quality employees difficult. Employees may work in their positions at these agencies just long enough to gain experience for a more lucrative private sector position. The resulting revolving door makes it difficult to maintain consistent policies, procedures, and strategic plans.

Many agencies don’t have a formal method for gathering and permanently storing the combined institutional ‘memory’ of their various employees. As critical employees leave, their knowledge is lost to the agency and their work must be recreated. Many agencies find that they are simply treading water and are not able to make significant advances in service improvements and institutional planning.

College and university transit agencies attempt to counter this problem by providing benefits that private employers cannot. Free tuition for the employee, employee’s spouse, and employee’s children is often provided and can have a significant financial impact on the family’s budget. Public colleges and universities may also allow employees to participate in state-sponsored retirement plans, including defined benefit pensions. Lastly, employee leave is often more generous with up to 40 paid days off (holiday, sick, and vacation) per year.

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