The Transportation Advisory Committee at the University of Connecticut convened for their semiannual meeting on Oct. 20. The event mostly consisted of functionaries from Parking Services but also included faculty from other departments.
This committee is tasked by the executive vice president of administration and chief financial officer to work with the director of logistics of administration in order to discuss plans, happenings and other operations as they relate to transportation on campus. Topics of discussion frequently include shuttle service, parking, and traffic, among other things.
Andy Kelly, the associate director of logistics at UConn, took the lead, first speaking about the new SmartBoots being utilized by Parking Services.
“When we have all of them available, we’ve got 14 in circulation,” Kelly said. “The most we’ve ever had deployed at one time actually happened last week. That was nine that were out at one time.”
The boots have been deployed “about 80 times,” according to Kelly.
Moving on, Kelly spoke about a shortage of bus drivers affecting shuttle service on campus.
“We had a good number of drivers, close to what we need to comfortably run the service that we advertise,” Kelly said. “This year, we are down five from that. We’re at 19… If we had 28 drivers, we would very comfortably be operating all [bus routes]. 28 is the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow.”
UConn outsources bus services to the Windham Region Transit District, which has faced driver shortages in the past. Reasons for driver shortages usually include retirement among the aging workforce, as well as because of compensation or work schedules.
Kelly also described issues related to the bus tracking app in use for these transportation services, “Passio GO!”
“To make matters worse, our primary bus tracking app, Passio, has been challenging, not at all performing as advertised,” Kelly said. “Getting inaccurate information out to people is probably worse than nothing at all. And so we are firmly engaged with Passio… There are other products out there that require a more significant level of administration on our part, but we’re looking at those… to give it a run and see if we could kind of use that and do better ourselves.”
Kelly raised another transportation challenge on campus relating to rental scooters on campus. The university is looking to partner with another e-scooter vendor to “come up with a more managed solution than the free for all that currently exists on campus.”
Kelly also mentioned working with the Undergraduate Student Government to make an agreement with Uber in an effort to supplement the shuttle services’ off hours.
“In doing that, the intent would be to subsidize those rides,” Kelly said. “There’s a lot of different ways you can divvy that up, and several different universities have tried different ways. The university is working on a more comprehensive agreement with Uber… [USG] is putting up a very large sum of money to contribute to the subsidizing of rides, and we would also contribute to that pot of money.”
Kelly also mentioned the possibility that the university will organize the construction of a new parking garage on campus.
“It does seem like there’s some really good traction towards putting in a new parking garage,” Kelly said. “[On] Parking services’ side we’re advocating strongly that that garage be somewhere in the South.”
The next meeting for the Transportation Advisory Committee at UConn is slated for March 18, 2026.