Commuters urged: Try a different mode to campus

Leaving the car at home and walking, biking or riding the bus to campus is the focus of the third annual Try a Different Mode Week, Sept. 27-Oct. 1.

Bus, bike, car: Two out of three of these modes will be promoted as good ways of getting to work on campus during Try a Different Mode Week, Sept. 27 – Oct. 1. Campus commuters can ride buses for free and cyclists can get free bike adjustments. Photo: Brian Moore For more information: http://wiscinfo.doit.wisc.edu/trans/TDMWeek.htm

Hosted by Transportation Services, the week encourages university employees and students who normally drive to campus alone to bike, walk, bus, car pool or van pool.

“More people need to get out of their cars and try a different way of getting to campus if we are to reduce congestion and maintain a quality campus,” says Rachel Martin, coordinator of the university’s Transportation Demand Management program and a frequent bicycle and bus commuter.

During Try a Different Mode Week, UW–Madison employees can ride Madison Metro and campus buses for free by showing their faculty/staff ID cards. Free bicycle adjustments will be offered at registration locations on campus, along with free T-shirts to the first 100 people who register at each site.

The registration sites will be open from 7 a.m. to 5 p.m. daily. Locations include: Monday, Sept. 27, Library Mall; Tuesday, Sept. 28, UW Hospital (north entrance); Wednesday, Sept. 29, Engineering Mall; Thursday, Sept. 30, Wisconsin Alumni Research Foundation; Friday, Oct. 1, Bascom Hill.

The event begins with a free pancake breakfast for students and employees (weather permitting) from 7-9 a.m. Monday, Sept. 27, on Library Mall. The pancake breakfast is an opportunity for Transportation Services to celebrate its 75th anniversary, Martin says.

“We will also celebrate alternative forms of commuting,” she adds. “It’s an opportunity for people to meet each other and meet people who are already commuting alternatively.”

Sponsors include Mobile Mechanics, Trek Bicycle Store and Williamson Bicycle Works, which are providing the free bike adjustments; Rocky Rococo Pan Style Pizza, which will serve free pizza starting at 11:30 a.m. Friday, Oct. 1, on Bascom Hill; Victor Allen’s Coffee & Tea, which is donating free coffee all week; and WMAD-FM, which will broadcast from campus on Monday, Sept. 27, and Friday, Oct. 1.

Martin says she hopes the event also raises awareness of new transportation programs for 1999, which allow employees to purchase bus passes through payroll deduction with pre-tax dollars.