Methodology

With a student population of roughly 2,500 people and 340 acres, cars are not a necessity on campus. To embed this ideology into the minds of incoming students, first-year students are generally not allowed to park on campus. Instead, with the hopes of discouraging the use of vehicles, most first-year students park in Forks Township and must take a shuttle back to campus. Upperclassmen are permitted to park on campus, albeit registration costs a steep $400. Along with the registration costs, there are also restrictions to where students can park their cars during the day; in general, until 5 pm students must only park in their assigned lot, meaning that by driving to class or the other side of campus risks getting a ticket from Public Safety.

The main issue from a policy standpoint is that Lafayette is taking actions to discourage driving through the use of costly registration, parking tickets, and off-site parking lots, but is not providing an alternative method of transportation to its students. Regardless of the number of discouraging consequences that Lafayette may implement, individuals will continue to drive unless there is an alternative method of transportation available.

By following a series of analytical steps, a well-defined policy analysis can be formed that will help form a rational decision. This process includes defining the problem and indicating goals and objectives, considering a range of alternative solutions, developing evaluating criteria for each of the alternatives, assessing them, and finally drawing a conclusion. These steps in the policy analysis process are the templates for creating a successful solution. The formal version of this policy-driven approach can be seen in the chart below.

 

 

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To navigate accross the page please use the following links:
• Bike-share Meets Lafayette
• The Team
• Defining the Scope
• Challenges and Mitigating Factors
• Solutions
• Conclusion
• Bibliography