Davis campus bicyclists and would-be vanpoolers are invited to talk transit next week and the week after.

Transportation and Parking Services, or TAPS, announced a pair of brown bags, Jan. 27 and 29, for people interested in joining or forming vanpools, while the Office of Resource Management and Planning is putting on two workshops Feb. 5 to take comments on the campus’s draft Bikeway and Transit Network Study.

One of the vanpool brown bags is for people who drive in from the east via Highway 50, and the other is for people who drive in from the northeast via Interstate 80. However, even if you live in some other direction, you are invited, too, said Mary Maffly, transportation demand and marketing coordinator for TAPS.

She said the meetings offer an opportunity for people to meet their fellow commuters — and perhaps forge vanpool relationships.

Similarly, a group of UC Davis staff members came together 17 years ago to form the I-80-Eight vanpool — named after the route it follows, Interstate 80 from the east, and the number of people in the founding group. This vanpool is still going strong today.

The campus’s only other vanpool is even older — having thrived for more than 24 years running to and from El Cerrito in the San Francisco Bay Area.

Altogether, the two vans serve about 35 riders. Maffly, of course, would like to see more vans and more van commuters.

“With gasoline costs fluctuating and increased awareness of the impact of auto emissions, a lot of people are looking for alternatives to driving by themselves every day,” Maffly said. “TAPS offers incentives and support to get you started.”

A vanpool consists of at least seven people, including the driver. From an economic standpoint, vanpools work best for commutes of more than 15 miles one way. Carpooling is ideal for distances less than that.

Maffly said representatives of two van leasing companies will attend the brown bag meetings to offer guidance on the vanpool process.

Vanpools save you money on gas, of course, because riders share the cost. Vanpools also save wear and tear on your own car. Additionally, a variety of government subsidies are available for start-up vanpools.

For example, the Sacramento Area Council of Governments pays $300 a month for six months, and vanpools coming from north Natomas are eligible for an additional $300 a month for the first six months.

“The vanpool leasing companies really hold your hands and help you find all the subsidy money you are entitled to,” Maffly said.

Also, TAPS offers discounted parking ($26 a month, or $312 a year), reserved parking, and reimbursement of up to $75 for medical exams for primary and backup drivers.

TAPS also provides two complimentary daily parking permits per month per regular rider. Then, if riders cannot take their vanpool on a particular day — say, because they are coming in late or leaving early — they can use their complimentary permits. Also, vanpool participants are eligible for emergency rides home.

Bike and Transit Network Plan

In gathering data, ORMP last year invited people to Freeborn Hall where a 600-square-foot aerial photo of the campus had been laid out on the floor. Planners then asked people to walk all over the map to mark the trouble spots — for example, paths where bicyclists and pedestrians or bicyclists and buses were too close for comfort.

People jotted their comments on Post-it notes, then stuck them on the map — hundreds of comments in all. The university contracted with Walnut Creek-based Fehr & Peers Transportation Consultants to review the comments and prepare the Bikeway and Transit Network Study.

“It offers the most detail ever on improving the campus circulation network,” ORMP’s Matt Dulcich said. The associate planner explained that the study is intended to guide improvements that will help people get where they are going, with convenience and safety.

Dulcich said the purpose of the Feb. 5 workshops is to review the recommended projects and consider prioritizing them. Then, when the study is completed, “we can determine where to put our limited resources.”

Anyone who has ever been on the campus knows the bicycle is king. A 2007 survey showed that nearly half of students and a quarter of faculty and staff ride their bicycles to campus — the combined average is 38 percent.

The Bikeway and Transit Network Study “focuses on developing a flexible bikeway network that can accommodate incremental growth and that provides for improved connections between the central campus and the planned West Village, as well as to transit services on campus.”

The study calls for the continued development of a network of bike paths that run roughly parallel to sidewalks, thereby giving people a place to walk without dodging bicycles, and bicyclists a place to ride without having to maneuver around pedestrians. Dulcich said everyone benefits from better safety with this kind of set-up.

One of the “separated” routes would run north-south through the campus interior: from the Segundo residence area and the ARC, south through the Life Sciences District, across Hutchison Drive, past the Silo, going all the way to Meyer Hall on the southernmost section of La Rue Road.

The parallel paths on this interior route would run alongside the soccer-lacrosse field, remedying what is now a single, congested path for pedestrians and bicyclists.

East-west “separated” routes would link La Rue Road and Mrak Hall, and the ARC and the Quad.

Elsewhere, the study calls for additional on-street bike lanes, for example, along the southernmost section of California Avenue where it provides access to the new Robert Mondavi Institute for Wine and Food Science.

Another part of the study proposes a “bus-bike boulevard” along Hutchison Drive between Bioletti Way and

A Street in the central campus. Dulcich said the boulevard’s bus and bike lanes would be clearly designated by pavement marking or with different surfaces.

The study also recommends reworking the Howard Way bus terminal, on the north side of the Memorial Union, and providing additional bicycle parking around campus.

Planners had previously announced Jan. 29 as the date of the public workshops, but the date has now been pushed back a week.

More information on the Bike and Transit Network Study: www.ormp.ucdavis.edu.