ACT Discusses Area Transportation

Funding for the $3.8 million used by the Chapel Hill Transit system is provided by student fees, the department transit tax and UNC's parking system.

While committee members agreed that the transit system is valuable, they did not come to a consensus as to whether continuing to use parking permit fees to pay for the transit system is justified.

"The University has to find a way to pay for transit," said Eugene Bober, committee member and planner in the School of Medicine. "But it doesn't have to come from parking."

"I don't like the sin-tax flavor of this," said Todd Peterson, committee member and executive vice president and chief operating officer of UNC Hospitals.

He said the burden of transit fees should be shifted from students, faculty and staff who park on campus to both University and hospital employers.

"Most of our competitor employers offer free parking," Peterson said. "This is not realistic, but hardly any of our competitors charge their employees for transit."

He said that because less than one-quarter of hospital employees live in areas served by the transit system, it is not reasonable to expect those employees to pay for the transit system.

"Transit ought to be supported on its own merits," Peterson said, suggesting the use of parking fine revenues, not parking permits, to subsidize transit fees.

But Tammy McHale, senior associate dean of finance and planning, said that although people who park on campus subsidize the cost of others riding the bus, public transportation helps free up parking spaces.

Peterson said that when he presented this information to a group of hospital employees, however, he "suffered a lot of ridicule, laughter and anger."

Jim Zimmerman, a consultant with Kimley-Horn and Associates Inc., said he investigated how institutions similar to UNC pay for transit. He said the funding for other transit systems is comparable to the University's.

"We've got to have transit, and it has to be funded with other sources," Zimmerman said. "We are unfairly taxed for what we don't use."

Derek Poarch, committee chairman and director of the Department of Public Safety, said he did not feel comfortable drawing the discussion to a close without the input of committee members Sue Estroff, Faculty Council chairwoman, and Dean Bresciani, interim vice chancellor for student affairs.

Estroff left the meeting early, and Bresciani was unable to attend the meeting.

In addition to discussing the philosophy of using parking fees to fund transit, the committee members also listened to presentations by representatives from Chapel Hill Transit and the Triangle Transit Authority.

Committee members will continue discussion on the issue at a later date.

The University Editor can be reached at udesk@unc.edu.