Duke to offer deep bus discounts for university affiliates

Speaking of transit, even if the state and federal dollars aren't flowing as freely to public transportation as many would like, folks working or studying at the largest educational institution in the Bull City have a chance to focus some Blue Devil dollars on their own commutes.

Duke announced this week that students, faculty and staff can now purchase discounted transit passes through the university's parking and transportation office. A 30-day DATA pass can be purchased for one-third the list price -- $12 instead of $36 for staff using automatic payroll deduction and renewal. For $24-32 per month you can get a 30-day Triangle Transit pass good on regional and Raleigh buses, too.

Employees using payroll deduction to purchase passes can do so with pre-tax dollars, too, under Federal tax rules -- making a 30-day Durham unlimited bus pass available for the price of a couple of lattes.

It's good to see Duke step up to create incentives to help get more employees using transit. Besides being good for the environment and our congested roads, it's a good thing for a university, too, for which transit-using employees lower demand for expensive parking spaces on campuses.

More information is available at Duke's web site.

Comments

[John Schelp]

This is very good news.

Transit subsidies for Duke employees was one of the issues the Old West Durham Neighborhood Association pressed (again) at our working dinner in June -- with Duke's Phail Wynn et al.

These new transit subsidies will help reduce the number of cars driving through the communities near campus, help improve air quality, offer transit options for employees, support DATA and Triangle Transit and help improve bus ridership numbers (as a similar program has done in Chapel Hill).

Good things are beginning to happen at Duke, especially when Dr. Wynn is involved.

best,
John Schelp

[Seth Vidal]

A friend of mine works for stanford university in palo alto, ca. They have a good program for non-car transportation incentives.

To park on campus you pay $X a month. If you do not drive to campus but you walk/bike/take bus/train, etc. You don't have to pay the parking fee AND they give you the amount of the parking fee you would have paid in your salary.

Not driving saves you twice as much.

Kinda cool.
-sv

[Michael Bacon]

About. Damn. Time.

[Jack]

This is great to hear, kudos to Duke for taking this step. This action really sets the stage for Duke to create meaningful and well-documented pedestrian and parking (in particular, bicycle parking) plans. Implementing effective pedestrian and bicycle plans will provide these mass-transit commuters a safe and efficient way to cover the "last mile" from home to bus stop, or bus stop to work site.

Jack