About Us
Mission Statement
We partner with the University to provide a variety of parking and transportation options in support of the University's primary mission of teaching, research, patient care and community service.
Who We Are
The PTS Department provides parking and transportation services to employees, students, departments and visitors at the University of Michigan Ann Arbor campuses. Exceptions to this are parking areas controlled by Athletics on South Campus and parking areas at satellite locations that are not controlled by permits.
We employ about 150 full-time employees and 60 part-time student employees. Our four main functional areas, as shown on the organization chart, are: Parking Customer Services, Parking Maintenance and Operations, Fleet and Garage Operations and Transit Services.
What we do
Parking Services
We manage the U-M employee permit parking system, three Health System patient/visitor parking facilities, as well as providing cashier-attended and central pay station parking areas for visitors to our campuses. We also provide parking services for special events that take place in campus venues.
We operate and maintain more than 22,000 parking spaces in 13 parking structures and about 100 surface lots. Planning new parking facilities to meet university growth, while maintaining existing facilities for long-term use, are two vital responsibilities carried out by PTS.
The PTS parking system is 'self-funded', which means that the rates we charge must be sufficient to operate and maintain the system, as well as fund future major renovations and new construction. Of the $16 million annual budget, about half is spent on debt service and providing funding for major repairs and new construction.
Basic Transportation Services
We manage the university vehicle fleet and provide campus bus service for employees, students, visitors and departments who need charter bus services.
All U-M vehicles are purchased through PTS. We operate and maintain a fleet of about 1,000 vehicles, including sedans, minivans, light-duty trucks, service trucks and vans, buses and heavy-duty vehicles. We have a full-service garage where we maintain and repair these vehicles.
Vehicles can be leased on a short-term basis from our motor pool, or they can be leased on an annual or monthly basis, depending on the needs of the user department.
We operate campus bus service 360 days a year, with 60 buses on routes that connect the four main Ann Arbor campuses, as well as the East Ann Arbor Health Center. Our buses provide more than 120,000 annual service hours and carried 5.8 million passenger trips in fiscal year 2007. Charter bus service is also offered to departments who need bus transportation for large groups.
Alternative Transportation Services
PTS manages the MRide contract with the Ann Arbor Transportation Authority (AATA). This program provides fare-free rides on all AATA bus routes for U-M faculty, staff and students. The program is funded by a combination of federal funds (earned by the U-M bus system), general funds and parking revenues. This past year, 2 million passenger trips by U-M students and employees were taken using the MRide program.
Subsidized vanpools are available for employees through the PTS Department. We can also assist with people interested in forming carpools.
We administer a variety of taxi cab programs that supplement transit services. The Ride Home program is the most widely used, providing shared cab rides during hours that the U-M bus service does not operate. In addition, there are other programs available for emergency needs, as well as providing business trips between Health System work locations.
Bike lockers can be rented from our department. There are a limited number of lockers, and they are typically rented by the year. PTS also works closely with the University Planner's Office to help plan for improvements to bicycle parking and traffic safety.
ZipCars are available at three locations, providing cars that can be rented by the hour or by the day.
Key Strategies and Goals
Parking Supply, Land Use and Commuter Options
As the University grows, and precious real estate is used for new buildings, priority for the use of remaining land has become a very important topic of consideration for planning. The U-M and PTS strategy for meeting these growth needs is to provide a mix of a limited number of new parking structures (as opposed to surface lots), combined with enhancing and promoting transportation options. Enticing more employees and students to commute to work/school and to not park in core campus areas will reduce the need for more parking. Options such as MRide, vanpools, carpools, off-site parking and someday even Commuter Rail service are tactics being used to implement this strategy.
Environmental initiatives
Strategies to encourage more people to utilize public transportation, vanpools and carpools will reduce local traffic, resulting in less air pollution and fuel consumption. In addition, we utilize the following practices to reduce the environmental impact of PTS operations:
- Using E-85 ethanol fuel in more than half of our fleet vehicles
- Using B-20 ultra-low sulfur biodiesel fuel in our buses and trucks
- Installing particulate filters on our transit coaches
- Purchasing five hybrid-electric sedans
- Using zinc instead of lead wheel weights
- Recycling engine fluids