Opposition to closure of Campus Drive during summer grows

Critics continue to pile on for the university's plan to close Campus Drive to all cars and all but two on-campus bus routes during the summer.

Administrators say the move would help to make the campus more friendly to pedestrians. They plan to use the June 19 to Aug. 13 trial period, when traffic is typically lighter than during the academic year, to test the effects of the road's closure.

But since the plan came to light last month, reaction has been largely negative. Many have supported closing the road to cars but question the logic of banning buses even as the university has a stated goal of encouraging the "use of alternatives to driving to campus."

Cavan Wilk, a board member of the Montgomery County transportation advocacy group Action Committee for Transit, is the latest to voice disapproval, joining students and College Park City Council members in their opposition to the university shutting down the main road to most transit.

In an open letter to university President Dan Mote, Wilk wrote Campus Drive's closure "will lengthen transit trips and reduce ridership, in contradiction with University of Maryland and Maryland policies."

"Any rerouting to the fringes of campus will increase travel times on the buses, and consequently increase expenses to [Montgomery and Prince George's counties]," he added.

At a Student Government Association forum May 4, about 50 students grilled administrators on the closure, and the next day, the SGA unanimously passed a bill in opposition to the change. The city council will vote tonight on whether to send a letter to Mote asking for more public transit to be allowed on the road, according to the development blog Rethink College Park.

As it is now, several internal and external bus routes stop at the Stamp Student Union. Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority spokesman Reggie Woodruff said the change would affect two Metrobus routes, including the C4 line that connects Greenbelt and Twinbrook. Higher fuel consumption on the new routes could lead to increased costs, but the organization does not expect significant hikes and will not pass the costs on to riders, he said.

"We're not clear on the exact impact; how many student riders it would affect," he said. "This whole issue is particularly sensitive. ... In a hearing [in Prince George's County] it was mentioned that there was not sufficient Metrobus access in the area, so this detour kind of makes it a little less accessible for those riders along those routes."

Some critics of the plan, including Wilk, have also alleged the closure is designed to scuttle the proposed Campus Drive alignment of the Purple Line — a light-rail system that would connect Montgomery and Prince George's counties — that is favored by the Maryland Transit Administration. The university has long favored a Preinkert Drive alignment administrators say would minimize disruption to university research projects.

cox at umdbk dot com