Samantha Aramburu and Jamin Rowan, Department of English

Introduction

Public transportation is an entity that is fast-growing in the state of Utah. While the Utah population is generally dependent on their cars, there are growing amounts of people that rely on public transportation to get where they need to go. There are several different transit systems that are available for Utahns that serve the differing and fluctuating needs of individuals within the population. Among these are a commuter train (FrontRunner) that connects three different counties across the Wasatch Front, a light-rail system (TRAX) with three different lines that run through Salt Lake County, several different bus routes, ski buses and paratransit services. These services allow people greater mobility, especially if they want to save money, time and contribute to a healthier environment.

Plans for a Bus Rapid Transit line in Utah County began as long as 10 years ago, and plans were approved by the Federal Transportation Commission in 2015. This line, later named “Utah Valley Express,” has three stops around Brigham Young University that will be highly accessible to students. Along with the opening of UVX, Utah Transit Authority and Brigham Young University signed a ten-year contract in fall 2017 that designated the university to pay for “free” transit passes for students, faculty and staff of BYU, along with their spouses and dependents. With the combination of free passes and the opening of the BRT system, Brigham Young University was at a crossroads with the culture of transportation at their university. Traditionally, BYU is not known as a “commuter school”, as most students live on or near campus in BYU-approved housing. This, combined with the car culture of the state and the lack of an emphasis on transit among the students, has historically prevented BYU from participating fully in developing a culture of transit among their students. This has contributed to various negative effects on different aspects of life as a BYU student, including difficulty finding or paying for parking, a demise in air quality, traffic congestion, and fewer opportunities for students without cars to leave Provo. My project was based on the premise that BYU could take steps forward to change the transportation culture at the school by encouraging students to more fully utilize public transportation.

Methodology

I used several different types of methodology to conduct my research and use it to move towards positive results in my project. When I started working on this project in Dr. Rowan’s class, my group and I gauged the interest in and knowledge of public transportation by conducting a survey of a random sampling of BYU students. We set up a booth in the Wilkinson Center and gave people doughnuts if they were willing to take the survey. Of the population surveyed, the vast majority lived within two miles from campus, and less than seventy five percent responded that they had previously ridden public transportation. Most of the students that we talked with were aware of the construction going on in Provo and Orem, but most weren’t aware what it was for (the upcoming BRT line.) Once the survey was complete, it was clear that more outreach needed to be done to students, faculty, and staff about the benefits of public transportation. After the survey was complete, my group and I started several different social media pages to further promote public transportation to a BYU-specific audience. Between our pages on Instagram, Facebook and Twitter, we experienced a 200% increase of followers from the time that we started the project to the end of the semester. After the semester finished, we were also made aware that BYU had signed the “free-pass contract” with UTA. This was a great contribution to the goal of my project, which continued past the end of the class. After the success on social media, I decided that the next steps would involve public outreach towards both BYU faculty and the students themselves. My goal was to create changes within the institution so that those changes could trickle down to the students at the school. This public outreach campaign involved a bus tour that was conducted between UTA and members of BYU administration, including Vice President Jan Scharman and attorney Steve Sandberg, among other faculty and staff. This tour was followed by several community booths that I initiated and helped oversee on BYU campus. These booths allowed us to interact directly with students and explain the ins and outs of public transportation and how it could benefit them as BYU students. I also spoke publicly about the upcoming changes of transportation at BYU, including at the English Symposium and in front of the Peer Mentor group on campus. The information that I presented was intended to be passed onto a greater population of students, especially freshmen or first-year students, who would likely be the demographic that would most need to use transit due to lack of cars. I also had the opportunity to attend a Bus Rapid Transit Conference in Los Angeles, California in order to learn more about this type of system. This three-day conference was a major part of the research that I conducted for my project, as I learned about a variety of issues that go along with the implementation and promotion of new types of transportation within communities. These efforts, along with articles and blog posts that I wrote and social media coordination and public outreach that I helped coordinate, all contributed to the beginning of changes that can now be seen at BYU.

Results

This research project played a part in the changing attitudes and opinions about public transportation at Brigham Young University. This can be seen in small and large ways. The most visible and impactful change is the free passes that are now provided through BYU. The “free” aspect, more than anything, has encouraged BYU to begin to accept and promote using public transit as a way of campus life. Ridership has already risen among BYU students, and is expected to exponentially increase when classes start on September 4 of this year. BYU has made other changes to further promote transportation, as well. There is now a transportation website for the university which encourages the use of both public and active transportation, including transit, biking, and shuttle services that are in use around campus. BYU also recently included information about UTA services on their official Instagram pFW. They had a “student takeover” of their Instagram story, where a student demonstrated how to ride UTA and get where she needs to go at and around campus. According to Andrea Christensen, BYU’s Media Relations Manager, this story takeover received significantly more traffic than any other takeover that the university has conducted. There is still work to be done to change the culture surrounding public transportation at BYU, but significant steps have been taken in the right direction.

Discussion

The use of both public and active transportation at BYU has the potential to contribute to a more viable, active, and social community. This is a change on campu and must be promoted both from bottom-up and top-down, with both students changing their uses of transportation at grassroots levels and faculty setting the example and encouraging them to do so. The question that remains is if BYU will continue to encourage these changes and contribute to the growing culture of active transportation on campus.

Conclusion

I consider my research project a success. I was able to work with people at BYU from all different backgrounds and positions to encourage the success of public and active transportation on campus. With the help of the people that I worked with and the community that I was welcomed into, I was able to work to make a difference in the culture of transportation at this university. The difference in the knowledge of the student body before this project began up till now is astronomical. A recent survey conducted showed that over 90% of students were aware of their free passes and were planning to utilize them. This shows great promise. BYU is becoming a more diverse, accessible, and encompassing campus, and will continue on that path as the people there are able to further expand their boundaries and horizons. This can be done, quite literally, on the bus or the train.