2022 VCA Annual Report - Parking and Transportation

Berkeley's Parking & Transportation (P & T) provides a full range of parking and transportation services to a diverse community of more than 44,000 students and 15,000 faculty and staff on campus, in the City of Berkeley, and around the San Francisco Bay Area. Parking & Transportation is dedicated to delivering transportation systems that complement long-term growth and development of the University, and that enhance and protect the physical attributes of the campus and surrounding area. Their FY21 Operating Results & FY22 Budget can be found here.

Parking & Transportation is under the leadership of Seamus Wilmot, Assistant Vice Chancellor & Executive Director of Business Operations.

Support during COVID

The pandemic gave P & T the opportunity to re-analyze the parking and transportation options they provide to the campus community. It became apparent that the new normal was going to be flexible work arrangements and they wanted to be adaptable and offer faculty, staff, and students more flexibility in their options. P & T now offers an easy way for those driving to campus to purchase a daily parking permit which can be purchased through My PT Online or through the mobile app PayByPhone. These options allow drivers to only pay for parking on the days they are on campus and the response has been overwhelmingly positive.

P & T also provided COVID testing program support by converting the entire first floor of the Underhill Parking Garage for the UHS drive-through testing program. This was another successful partnership between P & T and UHS as UHS was asked to provide a testing site for those who were nervous about standing in line with others while waiting to get tested. A covered location was needed, had power/data connections, and could allow for high vehicle traffic. The Underhill Parking  Garage was the best fit as it met all the requirements.

As the campus began sheltering-in-place, thieves, transients, and vandals realized that many wouldn't be returning to work and began taking advantage of the empty campus. Parking Enforcement and Maintenance staff served as visual deterrents and were assigned to patrol campus parking areas, roadways, and grounds, to report criminal activity, cleaning up debris and maintain parking lots and garages.  

In the height of the pandemic, Parking Enforcement assisted RSSP in the food services unit, helping with meal preparation for students living in the resident halls. The team also acted as Campus Ambassadors during the 2020 Move In Days answering questions and welcoming families during an already stressful time.

Berkeley Moves!

P&T's Transportation Demand Management (TDM) and Mobility Solutions Unit spent the year preparing for and ensuring that the campus was ready to return to in-person instruction. The goal was to provide shared and equitable transit choices beyond driving alone to campus. Accomplishments included:

  • Provided guidance while most people worked from home while supporting those still in Berkeley, and finding ways to "build back better" while the campus reopened. They had to be flexible with virus/vaccine rollout changes, be responsive to feedback regarding parking changes, working with transit partners to ensure changes were done equitably, and communicating those changes to a campus of over 50,000 affiliates.

  • Utilized social media and digital media to communicate the changes, and to promote the campus' various efforts.

  • Received the "Best University Workplaces for Commuters" designation for the 4th straight year. "P&T takes transportation and mobility solutions seriously, and it's the reason why we have been awarded this designation for four years straight," says David Sorrell who leads P&T's TDM Program. "The staff understood the value of providing sustainable transportation and the impact of improving our communities is vital to ensure our climate goals can be accomplished."

  • Renewed the Silver Award for UC Berkeley as a “Bike Friendly University,” by the League of American Bicyclists.

In the coming year, TDM will focus on advocating on behalf of the community for more integrated fares to connect the campus and the greater Bay Area, while providing solutions including grants to bring more sustainable transportation programs to campus. An intern was hired to assist with warehousing the sources of data but also use it to tell the story about the positive impacts of many of P&T's programs - transit ridership, EV Charging, vehicle miles traveled with the Electric GEM Golf Carts, Berkeley Moves! Carpool Program, just to name a few.

A Return to Campus

P & T restarted their campus shuttle operations in June 2020 to help support the essential workers coming to campus and worked with EH&S and UHS to ensure drivers were properly trained in COVID safety protocols. Additional physical protection equipment (PPE) was installed such as a plexiglass barrier in the buses to protect drivers, an enhanced bus cleaning procedure was created in accordance with CDC guidelines. 

In the fall of 2020, when students started to return to campus, there was a spike in COVID-19 exposures and in August, P & T was asked to provide transportation from the dorms to the isolation and quarantine site. Bear Transit also dedicated a shuttle and driver to transporting infected and exposed students to the quarantine area and back to residential units when cleared. Bear Transit has provided transport service 7 days-a-week for more than a year and will continue to do so for as long as needed.

Image of shuttle bus driver

Bear Transit running shuttles throughout campus

Mail Services

During the Shelter in Place order for campus, Mail Services was recognized as an Essential Service and remained open throughout the pandemic. Mail Services played a vital role during this time by supporting essential operations and ensured the campus stayed connected with mail delivery. This included essential services such as Blu Cards that were issued, masks and other PPE that was ordered, and delivery of essential items to labs/optometry. In addition, Mail Services remained open for every department to pick up and drop off mail to be processed. They also continued processing bulk mailings, selling postage stamps, and delivering shred bins. They were able to complete all these tasks and their staff remained COVID free!

Images of campus mail carriers

Mail Services staff at work delivering mail throughout campus

LOOP Services

The Special Events Unit worked tirelessly against staffing constraints to resume the LOOP service following the soft relaunch for Golden Bear Orientation. Due to the Oxford relocation, they purchased and installed new charging devices at the 1995 University Garage to charge their Gem carts. The hours of the LOOP are 7:45am – 10:00pm and include new routes that service the North side of campus due to a construction project.

While partnering with Accessibility, they were able to find funding to install benches at LOOP stops, which will be implemented sometime during the spring semester in 2022. Accessibility, P & T, and Capital Projects partnered to complete a walk-thru of every LOOP stop to determine the best locations to install a bench while also considering ADA laws. The teams have been very involved in determining where the benches will be strategically placed.

Additional Milestones

The team completed another milestone with the relocation of Transit & Maintenance offices. After decades of being housed in the historic 1952 Oxford Garage & Offices, the Transit & Maintenance Offices moved to 2111 Bancroft; the Maintenance workspace was relocated to the Underhill Parking Garage; and buses are being stored at the Fourth Street Building parking lot.

At the end of August 2020, P & T launched their new Reverse Perimeter Line. The line was requested through the Class Pass referendum and is now a very well used route. Until further notice, they will not operate the following routes due to limited activity on campus: Richmond Field (RFS), Fourth Street Building, Night Safety North (NS-N), and the Central Campus C-Line Service.

P & T partnered with Professor Scott Moura from the College of Civil and Environmental Engineering to install eight (8) EV chargers at the RSF parking garage. This provides the campus with some much needed EV charging infrastructure plus providing Professor Moura with a "living lab" in which to test his theories on how to optimize EV power delivery. For more project and registration information, go to SlrpEV. 

FY21 Operating Results and FY22 Budget

Parking and Transportation
Image of EV charging station

EV charging station in RSF garage