UC San Diego Receives Diamond Award from SANDAG for Alternative Transportation

Article Content

The University of California, San Diego has received a SANDAG iCommute Diamond Award in recognition of the university’s contributions to alleviating the region’s traffic congestion and greenhouse gases with alternative transportation options. UC San Diego was honored in the University/College category. Currently 59 percent of campus commuters utilize alternative transportation options.

“We are thrilled to receive this countywide award, which underscores the benefits of alternative transportation to our community,” said Robert Holden, director of Auxiliary Business Services, which oversees Transportation Services at UC San Diego. “The university is continually working to provide innovative transportation options that help reduce UC San Diego’s carbon footprint and minimize traffic in surrounding neighborhoods.”

As alternatives to driving a vehicle to campus, UC San Diego Transportation Services offers a wide range of commute solutions including: public transit options, carpool, vanpool, Coaster Club, Pedal Club, carsharing, Zimride ride-matching access, campus shuttles and more.

According to SANDAG, “Diamond Awards winners help people get to work or school without adding traffic to the region’s roads and freeways, reduce greenhouse gas emissions, and improve mobility.”

UC San Diego also placed first of SANDAG’s 2012 iCommute Rideshare Corporate Challenge. UC San Diego employees logged the most alternative transportation commutes in the competition’s “Mega Company” category during October 2012.

During the past year, Transportation Services has led a process of evaluating the ever-changing transportation needs of the campus community with the goal of developing a plan to ensure that the department is able to run in an environmentally and financially sustainable manner. As part of that effort, the department recently hosted a series of campus town hall meetings to gather input from students, staff and faculty.

“Campus input is essential to our success,” said Holden. “We are in the process of reviewing the feedback to fine-tune transportation services changes that meet the unique needs of the campus community.”

According to Holden, Transportation Services will plan additional town halls in the future to discuss new proposed solutions to continue to keep UC San Diego moving sustainably.

For updates and information, please visit moveucsandiego.ucsd.edu.