Author(s)

J. L. du Toit

Abstract

The University of Pretoria is the largest contact university in South Africa with more than 45,000 contact students. A significant increase in students over the last decade has contributed to severe parking shortages on and around the main campus. Consequently, the University has been considering four alternative modes of transport to reduce car usage, including (1) pedestrian routes, (2) bicycle routes, (3) a hop-on/hop-off campus bus, and (4) park-and-ride. A campus-wide voluntary online survey was conducted to determine students’ preference for each mode, including a fifth one – a fare-free bus. The latter is based on ‘Unlimited Access’, a concept that has been successfully implemented at numerous universities in the US, whereby the university pays the transit agency for student ridership. A total of 755 students responded to the survey while responses were weighted to represent the actual student population. The survey showed the fare-free bus to be most preferred, even for car-users, suggesting that the University should rather, or at least also, consider an intervention similar to Unlimited Access. The paper examines possible reasons why the fare-free bus was most preferred, and argues the importance of consulting best-practice and student preference surveys in campus planning interventions.

Keywords

alternative modes of transport, unlimited access, fare-free transit, campus planning, preference surveys