News Release

By RUSSELL C. CAMPBELL III
UNC News Services

CHAPEL HILL – Traffic congestion is a persistent problem on college and university campuses nationwide. University officials and administrators continually search for new and better solutions.

Dr. Spenser Havlick, a national expert in transportation and sustainable campus communities, will give a lecture at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill on Monday (March 7).

The 5 p.m. event will be held in the School of Social Work’s Tate-Turner-Kuralt Building auditorium and is free to the public. A question and answer session and reception will follow.

Havlick is a professor emeritus of architecture and planning at the University of Colorado at Boulder and co-author of "Transportation and Sustainable Campus Communities: Issues, Examples, Solutions."

He will deliver a lecture titled "Transportation and Sustainable Campus Communities – Yes, We Can Reduce Auto-Dependency," in which he will examine techniques available to manage transportation in campus communities.

Havlick will use case studies, accompanied by visuals, to demonstrate alternatives to single-occupancy vehicles. He also will address the programmatic and financial aspects of transportation-demand-management programs that reveal opportunities beyond the car.

Havlick, who has served lengthy terms on the Boulder City Council, came to the conclusion that excessive automobile use on campuses around the country is a vexing and ubiquitous problem. Parking shortages, traffic congestion, pollution, noise, and mobility inefficiency are widespread. However, he has found a number of towns and campuses that have stepped up to the challenge to provide innovative strategies for reducing problems associated with too many cars.

Havlick has worked with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and taught at universities in Michigan, Wisconsin, California, Colorado, Australia and Taiwan. His research, both nationally and internationally, includes transportation planning, natural hazard mitigation, and environmental impact assessment.

Havlick is also the author of "The Urban Organism: The City's Natural Resources from an Environmental Perspective."

In order to help reduce traffic congestion and the number of vehicles parked on campus, UNC-Chapel Hill created the Commuter Alternatives Program, designed to reward UNC-Chapel Hill faculty, staff and students who do not drive a single occupancy vehicle to commute to campus. The program encourages all forms of transportation including, bicycling, walking, transit, park and ride, carpool, and vanpool. UNC-Chapel Hill is the largest financial supporter of Chapel Hill Transit’s free bus service that serves all members of the community. As a result of its efforts, UNC-Chapel Hill has been designated a Best Workplace for Commuters by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and the US Department of Transportation.

The lecture is sponsored by the UNC Sustainability Coalition, the UNC-Chapel Hill Department of Public Safety and Students United for a Responsible Global Environment.

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Sustainability contact: Cindy Shea, 919-843-5251, cpshea@fac.unc.edu
News Services contact: Russell C. Campbell III, (919) 962-2091, rcc3@unc.edu