Changing the culture of driving on campus

Louisiana State University, Master Plan Mobility Implementation

With parking dominating the historic core and an explosion of new student housing a short distance from campus Louisiana State University (LSU) wanted to implement a new plan for mobility as part of its master plan. The focus? Changing the culture of driving to, from, and across campus. Their strategies included restructuring parking pricing and incentivizing more walking, biking, carpooling, and transit use. Programs are currently underway to incrementally eliminate 2,000 core parking spaces as new academic and residential buildings come online.

Following the comprehensive master plan, our Urban Mobility team was asked to work with LSU to implement the plan’s mobility and parking strategies. Initial tasks focused on developing a new mobility policy, a parking pricing and management program, an audit of existing parking technologies, plans for a new remote parking shuttle, and new bicycle facilities. Thanks to our team’s earlier master planning efforts, LSU was able to build internal consensus around funding these and other improvements that avoided new garage construction.

LSU immediately decided to invest in a robust “Park & Geaux” shuttle, complete with multi-modal hubs, frequent service, and rider amenities with Stantec providing transit design and traffic engineering support. The COVID-19 pandemic saw students returning to school and a big enrollment jump, forcing LSU to speed up the implementation of the system. We and our partners are finalizing construction documents and operations plans to launch Park & Geaux in the fall of 2021.

The successful implementation of our mobility plan will help realize the master plan vision for improved quality of life on campus. When complete, the plan will deliver greater equity, choice, affordability, and convenience for staff, faculty, and students in travel to, from, and about campus.