P&TS eUpdate

Parking & Transportation Services
eUpdate
January 2008 edition

You are receiving this Parking & Transportation Services (P&TS) eUpdate as a member of the Stanford campus community. We believe the content of this message, and other periodic updates, will be of interest to you as a parking permit holder and/or user of alternative transportation. We also want to share information with you to help the campus meet certain transportation-related goals in the General Use Permit.¹

Visit our website at http://transportation.stanford.edu for more information.

1) VTA implements new bus service beginning January 14
Significant changes to existing service

2) Revised Marguerite shuttle schedules
Changes for Line B (PM Express only) and MLK Jr. Holiday

3) Commute Club members just received up to $78 each in Clean Air Cash
See your pay or bank statements around December 19, 2007

4) Request your free car-rental vouchers for winter quarter
Commute Club members, send us an email, and they're yours

5) Want to get fit and shed some holiday pounds?
Consider these tips for all commuters

6) A $20 gift card could be yours
Answer January's Factoid Quiz to enter this month's drawing

1) VTA implements new bus service beginning January 14
Significant changes to existing service

Santa Clara Valley Transportation Authority (VTA) is implementing significant bus route and schedule changes to improve countywide bus service as of January 14, 2008. As a result of these changes, some current routes will be discontinued, while many other existing routes will experience routing or scheduling changes. VTA also is introducing a number of new, lower-fare community bus routes and two new express bus service routes.

For additional details about VTA's new bus service, please visit the following pages of the VTA website:

VTA Home Page: http://www.vta.org
VTA Schedules: http://www.vta.org/schedules/schedules_bynumber.html
VTA Bus and Rail Map: http://www.vta.org/schedules/schedules_bymap.html

A limited supply of new bus and rail maps is available at Stanford's Parking & Transportation Services office at 340 Bonair Siding. For additional information and commute planning assistance, contact VTA Customer Service at 800.894.9908 or TDD only at 408.321.2330. You may also send an email to commuteclub@stanford.edu.

2) Revised Marguerite shuttle schedules
Changes for Line B (PM Express only) and MLK Jr. Holiday

As of January 8, 2008, slight changes were made to the Marguerite Line B Counter-clockwise PM Express schedule to improve the connection with Caltrain. The changes only affect the PM Express line. View the revised schedule online at http://transportation.stanford.edu/marguerite/MargueriteSched.shtml.

During the Martin Luther King Jr. holiday on Monday, January 21, there will be no Marguerite service except the Medical Center Loop and the Medical Center to Hillview/VA shuttles, which will operate on their regular schedules. Send questions or comments to marguerite@stanford.edu.

3) Commute Club members just received up to $78 each in Clean Air Cash
See your pay or bank statements around December 19, 2007

If you were a Commute Club member during fall quarter, Clean Air Cash should have appeared in your pay statement or by direct bank deposit around December 19, 2007 – perfectly timed for the holidays! If you were in the Commute Club from September through December, your Clean Air Cash deposit should be $78. Please note that Clean Air Cash is normally paid by the quarter, so the winter payment in March will be adjusted to cover only two months – January and February – since December was included in the fall quarter payment.

If you have questions, send us an email at commuteclub@stanford.edu. If you're not in the Commute Club but want to receive Clean Air Cash, see if you are eligible to join. Visit our website to learn more: http://transportation.stanford.edu/commuteclub.

4) Request your free car-rental vouchers for winter quarter
Commute Club members, send us an email, and they're yours

Commute Club members, your free Enterprise hourly car rental vouchers for winter quarter are now available. You can pick up your vouchers at the P&TS office or request them by sending an email to commuteclub@stanford.edu. Please provide your mail code or home address where you would like the vouchers mailed if you request them by email.

P&TS offers Commute Club members 12 free hourly car rental vouchers every academic year (three every full quarter). Hourly vouchers for 2007-08 may be combined during the academic year for multiple-hour rentals, but will expire on August 31, 2008. Vouchers may only be redeemed at Enterprise's Stanford branch in the parking structure at 360 Oak Road. Please visit our website for offer restrictions: http://transportation.stanford.edu/enterprise.

5) Want to get fit and shed some holiday pounds?
Consider these tips for all commuters

Is your New Year's resolution to "get fit" or "lose weight"? According to the American Heart Association, most sedentary adults take only 2,500 to 3,500 steps a day, but they recommend 10,000 steps or more each day. In addition to walking, using alternative transportation to work can help you keep your resolution by making exercise a regular part of your day. Here are some tips:

- Walk. Consider walking to work and wearing a pedometer. According to the Journal of the American Medical Association, those who wear a pedometer walk about 2,000 more steps a day – or about one extra mile. (Try Stepping Out with Stanford, an online program that provides a pedometer and behavior change booklet with registration at http://steppingout.stanford.edu.)
- Bike. Most adults need at least 30 minutes of moderate physical activity at least five days per week, says the Center for Disease Control and Prevention, and biking is among the activities they recommend. A 15-minute bike ride to work will add up to 30 minutes of exercise when you complete the trip home each day.
- Train. Walk or bike from the station to your workplace. By walking to Stanford from the Palo Alto Caltrain station, you could burn about 900 calories a week.
- Bus/shuttle.Get off at an earlier stop and walk to your destination. Walk or bike to catch transit rather than drive.
- Carpool or vanpool. Simply park farther from your building to squeeze more walking into your day.

Need more ideas? Visit the BeWell website at http://bewell.stanford.edu. Need tips on commute routes or gear? We can help. Just send us an email at commuteclub@stanford.edu.

6) A $20 gift card could be yours
Answer January's Factoid Quiz to enter this month's drawing

Here is this month's Factoid Quiz question: For which of the following transit services can eligible employees purchase passes through pre-tax payroll deduction? A) ACE Train, B) BART, C) Caltrain, D) Muni, E) SamTrans, or F) all of the above? If you don't know the answer, visit our website to find out: http://transportation.stanford.edu. Submit your answer through our website quiz page at http://transportation.stanford.edu, and you'll be entered in our $20 monthly gift card drawing.

Congratulations to our December winner: Chia-Wei Kuo, a graduate student with the Department of Energy Resources Engineering who won a $20 StanfordCardPlan (accepted at Stanford Dining, Stanford Bookstore, and other campus locations). She answered correctly that the Parking & Transportation Services Office would close at 11 a.m. on December 13, 2007.

Each month, our team at Parking & Transportation Services challenges you with a new quiz question about our office, programs, and services.* Send us your suggestions for our Factoid Quiz question, and if your question is selected, you will win a $20 gift card! Fill out the suggestion form on our website: http://transportation.stanford.edu/quiz/quizQuestion.html. If you have a question that needs an answer, ask us directly at commuteclub@stanford.edu.

* Members of the Stanford community may play once each month. If you select the correct answer, your name will be added to a drawing at the end of the month. You are eligible to win only one prize per academic year, but you are welcome to complete the quiz each month. On the last weekday of each month, respondents with the correct answer that month will be entered in a prize drawing; the winner, chosen at random, will receive a $20 gift card. If your quiz question is selected, you will receive a $20 gift card.

¹ It is important for Parking & Transportation Services to communicate parking and alternative-transportation information to the campus. Under the 2000 General Use Permit (campus growth plan approved by Santa Clara County), the campus has a goal of "no net new peak-hour commute trips" over the life of the permit and must accommodate campus growth with a limited number of new parking spaces. Failure to achieve this goal will result in the campus being faced with costly mitigation measures.