At the Student Government Association’s town hall on parking and transportation, panelists discussed a ride-sharing platform partnership and potential changes to the PC lot system.
Austin Chandler, SGA executive vice president of initiatives, said SGA has been looking into ways to partner with a ride-sharing platform for a while now. He said the student experience would greatly benefit, but there are some hurdles to be jumped.
Chandler said he’s seen ride-sharing platforms like Lyft and Uber have great success at Auburn, but there are unique challenges for Auburn to secure a partnership. He said the success of other universities at ride-sharing platform partnerships doesn’t equate to success at Auburn, because those places generally have bigger cities or more space for growth.
Don Andrae, parking services director, said a Request For Proposal (RFP) is in the final stages of development, which will allow ride-sharing platforms to bid for a partnership with the University. He said the chosen platform’s discount for students could be a flat-rate discount or a percentage discount.
Andrae said they are looking to offer the discount anywhere within a five-mile radius of the transit hub outside of the Student Center. He said students would be able to take their ride out beyond the five-mile radius and still take the discount.
He said they are also looking for the discount to still apply at airports for students, faculty and staff who are travelling for official business. He said he thinks expanding it beyond Auburn’s campus would make the partnership more enticing for ride-sharing companies to give the University a better deal.
Andrae said they are planning on having the RFP available for bid in late January, so that students may benefit from the partnership next fall.
Andrae said the Preferred Commuter parking pass selection system might see some changes by moving to a first-come, first-serve system.
According to Andrae, some students buy a Commuter parking pass so they can apply for Preferred Commuter parking, but whenever they don’t get lucky in the current lottery system, they choose instead to ride Tiger Transit. The parking pass they paid for goes unused, only being a wasted expense.
Andrae said percentages of the PC parking passes are reserved for certain student classifications, with graduate students, seniors and juniors each getting 30 percent of the passes, while sophomores and freshman each get five percent.
Andrae said a potential solution would be to open registration for PC parking at a certain time, so students who do not get a PC pass can then decide if they want to buy a C parking pass or just ride the transit.
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