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Collaboration & Connectivity

Enhancing Campus Connectivity and Sustainable Mobility

The goals, objectives, and principles of Campus Plan 2050 support Collaboration and Connectivity by creating multi-use spaces and hubs that encourage interaction and innovation among community members. It aims to boost interdisciplinary engagement across campus and improve sustainable mobility.

Goal 1: Enhance the sustainable mobility network across Ann Arbor.

Objectives

  • Reduce the number of personal vehicle trips within campus.
  • Eliminate gaps in the active transportation network for all modes of mobility.
  • Ensure that an integrated mobility system emerges.

Goal 2: Enhance collaboration opportunities across campus by creating hubs of connection that enrich student experiences, stimulate creative expression, foster interdisciplinary academic and research activities, and drive innovation.

Objectives

  • Increase opportunities for the U-M community to collaborate.
  • Enhance existing collaboration nodes on campus to further foster a sense of community.
  • Ensure that the U-M campus has optimal opportunities for innovation and connection.

Collaboration and Connectivity Principles

  • Prioritize human-powered mobility; establish human-powered mobility zones and a comprehensive network of accessible routes and pedestrian pathways on each campus.
  • Utilize universal design principles to guide the design and implementation of accessible routes and pedestrian pathways; eliminate physical barriers and stairs in the landscape where possible.
  • Encourage additional bicycle use by creating more on-street routes connected to city-wide systems. Establish an integrated and comprehensive bicycle network across campuses; locate bicycle parking at major campus destinations, transit hubs/stops, and consider covered parking where appropriate.
  • Connect the campus network with shared-use regional pathways and trails.
  • Enhance the transit experience by concentrating amenities and services at centers/hubs of intermodal connectivity, locating transit stations and hubs at major destinations, and providing shelter, amenities, and information to the user.
  • Coordinate transit and land use planning with a focus on the user experience.
  • Coordinate campus transit routes and services with those provided by AAATA.
  • Concentrate primary vehicular circulation on perimeter roads where possible.
  • Plan for delivery, service, fire, and emergency access to interior areas of the campuses and human-powered mobility zones.
  • Establish designated pickup and drop-off areas for ride-share services.
  • Locate amenities, collaboration areas, and social spaces on the ground floors of buildings facing major pathways.
  • Extend landscape corridors and pathways outward from the campus cores to link with existing community parks, trails, and woodland systems as feasible.
  • Consider all needs including children, families, and the elderly in the design and layout of accessible routes and pathways as feasible.
  • Utilize traffic calming techniques to enhance accessible routes and pathway networks.
  • Coordinate the accessible routes and pathway networks with land use planning to enhance the user experience
  • Prioritize accessible routes, accessible pathways, bicycle routes, and transit over private vehicles.
  • Accommodate parking at reasonable distances from major destinations; cluster regional parking on the perimeter of the campus connected to transit. Promote perimeter campus parking to capture vehicles before they enter the campus core.
  • Plan parking structures to be as unobtrusive as possible, using perimeter locations, architectural screening, and activation of the street level as feasible.
  • Provide adequate accessible parking in human-powered mobility zones.
  • Integrate service, emergency, and limited convenience parking as appropriate.
  • Provide adequate visitor/patient parking where programmatically driven.
  • Incorporate transit centers and transit stations at key locations throughout campus to provide active transportation users with amenities and secure parking.
  • Maximize the concentration of people, ideas, and resources to enable frequent, unexpected engagement opportunities.
  • Create spaces that attract and include individuals from various backgrounds and disciplines to boost creativity, collaboration, and inclusion.
  • Include coworking spaces, makerspaces, and more, complemented by nearby food service and retail options, with attention to well-being and the arts.