The University of Arizona’s Parking and Transportation Services (UA PTS) department is partnering with Metropia and its advanced mobility platform to help reduce on-campus traffic, incentivize car pooling, and capture vehicle flow data.
All UA students, faculty and staff will be encouraged to download the free Metropia app for Android and Apple devices and use it for their daily commute to campus. By entering their trip into Metropia in advance, the app will notify users when it is time to leave and take them along the least congested route.
With each trip, they will earn reward points that can be exchanged for gift cards to Amazon, Starbucks and other outlets. Extra bonuses will be given for sharing a ride to campus using Metropia’s DUO social car pooling feature, which allows both drivers and passengers to earn additional reward points for reducing traffic on campus.
Supporters of UA’s Wildcat football team will also gain improved parking at home games this season. By using the Metropia app, drivers can find real-time available parking options before leaving for the stadium on game day. The app will guide them to the best parking spaces, while avoiding the heaviest traffic. Car pools of three or more fans will also be able to park for free at Tyndall, Main Gate, Park Avenue and Highland Avenue garages using Metropia’s DUO social car pooling feature.
Metropia’s Synergy platform brings together real-time information, predictive algorithms, and behavioral economics, to influence personal travel choices and help agencies manage transportation systems operations. The Synergy platform supports strategies aimed at reducing congestion and enhancing the efficiency of existing transportation infrastructure, while improving commutes for individual drivers.
UA PTS’s mission is to provide transportation options to students, faculty, staff and visitors to the university by improving accessibility and mobility throughout the campus. As part of the partnership, Metropia will provide UA PTS with an enhanced analysis of campus traffic flow, which can give new insight on the university’s transportation network, as well as help shape construction projects, and other measures to improve on-campus mobility. This semester’s program marks the latest continuation of Metropia’s growing partnership with UA PTS in a collaboration designed to enhance UA campus mobility, including providing detailed parking lot availability and fees, traffic control plans, and traffic condition information. The groups have previously worked together to improve mobility at UA Spring Fling and the Tucson Festival of Books.
