UMD Smart Commute is the sustainable transportation program at the University of Maryland, College Park.
Our goal is to provide the university community with options and incentives that encourage the use of sustainable transportation to reduce the number of single occupancy vehicles coming to and parking on campus.
Transit, carpool and vanpool (ridesharing), biking, walking, teleworking and Zipcar carshare are all sustainable modes of transportation.
smart commute success story: trading traffic for the train
UMD staff member Olivia Dent was feeling frazzled and exhausted after her daily commute. Her drive between the university and her home in Columbia could take as long as two hours. After rethinking her ride, she began taking the MARC Train to College Park, and then the Shuttle-UM 104 College Park Metro route to campus. Several months of car-free commuting later, Olivia has saved $3,000 and regained her work-life balance. Read on to learn how and why she made the switch.
Campus Transportation and the Climate Action Plan
The university, through the Climate Action Plan, is committed to achieving carbon neutrality for all emissions by 2050.
Investing in sustainable transportation is far less expensive than building more parking—it costs $31,500,000 to build and regularly maintain a 900-space parking garage. DOTS provides a variety of incentives to encourage the UMD community to try ridesharing, biking, walking and transit.