Spectacularly situated above the Pacific Ocean, the Skyline College campus can be a little challenging to get to. When community leaders and members of the Skyline College campus community convened for the President’s Council Success Summit in September 2013, “Transportation – The Last Mile” was one of the discussion themes.
Skyline College however is more than a mile from key transit hubs. San Bruno and South San Francisco BART stations are four miles away, and Daly City and Millbrae BART stations are what seem a distant seven miles.
The President’s Council, taking the input of the Success Summit attendees who voted with “clicker technology” to focus attention on this problem, has developed a plan to move forward a new initiative on transportation. The project goal is to identify and create sustainable opportunities for students, faculty and staff to conveniently and economically travel from public transit stations (or other locations) to the campus.
Richard Hsu, Skyline’s Sustainability Coordinator and members of the Sustainability Ambassador’s Network, have met with Greg Cochran and Cindy Abbott, representing the President’s Council, and John Ford and Brenda Valencia of the Peninsula Traffic Congestion Relief Alliance (Commute.org) to kick off the project. A survey developed in collaboration with the Planning, Research, and Institutional Effectiveness (PRIE) office and members of the working group, will find out how people currently travel to campus and to assess their needs. It is anticipated the data collection will take place in February, with results of the survey available by April.
Concurrently, the President’s Council is working with regional transit organizations to learn about opportunities that include technical assistance for planning and funding sources, carpool and other commuter options. Updates on this initiative will be provided every few months.
