I grew up in a small town in southern Vermont. I attended Georgia Tech for my undergraduate, and I started out my career in the construction industry working on light rail transit projects. I decided to start my own business, and then made a career pivot by getting my Master’s Degree at Johns Hopkins. My career has focused on several different areas in the transportation industry including transit, biking, and transportation demand management. I’m a “recovering consultant,” which gave me exposure to different clients and projects. When I joined UCSC, I was ready to bring that knowledge to an institution that was making a difference in the world. I love working in higher education, and UCSC has been the best part of my career journey.
What does Sustainability mean to you?
Sustainability means meeting our needs without exploiting social and environmental ecosystems. It’s about making sure there is a world where humans, animals, and plants can symbiotically thrive. Sustainability means achieving balance by creating regenerative, circular systems that always take into consideration the historical power structures.
Tell us about your work at TAPS. What are your responsibilities in your role and what are you proud of?
In my role, I get to work with our transit team, parking sales/operations teams, and our sustainability programs. My #1 priority is the safety of everyone that is using the transit, parking, vanpool, and active transportation resources on UCSC’s campuses. Our TAPS team works hard to support student success and the mission of UCSC, and I’m privileged to work with such a talented and committed group of professionals. I’m proud of so many of things that our TAPS team has accomplished such as our new bus driver training program, expanding ParkMobile options, Slug Bike Life, the bike share system, new vanpool/DVS vehicles, Safe Ride, the Silicon Valley Connector, more Zipcars, our newsletter (Slugs on the Move), and so much more. I also want to shout out our field operations staff, our sales team, and the transit team. They all do a great job to keep our services running and make ongoing improvements in our operational practices.
These last two years have changed the way and frequency in which students, staff and faculty need to be on campus, therefore affecting TAPS’ operations directly. What were the changes you experienced and how have they affected your work? What are some measures you had to adopt, to deal with constant changes?
One of the silver linings of the pandemic was that many employees have continued to work remotely or on hybrid schedules. While in-person work has value, remote work helps to reduce the number of vehicles on campus and lessen parking demand. It is one of the best tools in our toolkit for reducing our emissions, and it has allowed us to offer more flexible daily and hourly parking options through ParkMobile since there are more spaces available.
One of the biggest impacts from COVID-19 was our vanpool program’s ridership because of social distancing requirements and remote work. Many regular employees stopped riding, but TAPS continued to operate the vans with lower capacity for essential employees that needed to come to campus. The program has fully rebounded and grown because of our dedicated Transportation Demand Management Coordinator, Julie Munnerlyn. We are now up to 15 routes and we will be introducing two hybrid minivans later this year.
While COVID-19 was disruptive, I witnessed the incredible work of our team, and the campus community, to persevere through tough times and keep doing everything in our power to maintain operational excellence.
The Santa Cruz County community is excited about the e-bike share launch, and we know you have been hard at work to make it happen. The new Electric Bike Share program has taken extensive coordination with all involved, including campus, cities of Santa Cruz, Capitola, Watsonville and County partners. What do you hope to accomplish with the new program?
I want to highlight Teresa Buika (former Sr. Planner at TAPS, and currently a Contracts and Grant Writer in RECS), who has been working on bike share for several years before I joined UCSC. Teresa helped assemble the other 5 jurisdictions that will be part of the bike share system, and facilitated the procurement process. She also helped TAPS receive funding from Caltrans for Slug Bike Life. We’ve had incredible support from our Executive Director, Dan Henderson, multiple staff members, and our campus leadership. It has been fantastic to see everyone rowing in the same direction to get e-bike sharing at UCSC.
We know this new option will improve mobility for our affiliates, and reduce emissions from transportation. I’m confident that it will improve access to everything UCSC has to offer including education, employment, research, and recreation. This system will lower many of the barriers to using e-bikes for transportation because you don’t have to own, maintain, or store the bike. It will provide better first and last mile connectivity throughout the county. I look forward to seeing affiliates safely using bike share, and I hope to grow the program over time.
Sign up for Slugs on the Move to stay up to date on the bike share launch and special affiliate rates!
Is there anything else about the work you do that you would like to share?
One of the misconceptions about TAPS is that we only sell parking permits and issue parking citations. While that is part of what we do, we also provide many other services to the campus community. While paying to park isn’t always fun, it is an important tool in mitigating traffic congestion and ensuring parking availability for those who need it. Here’s a video from our Executive Director that explains parking in more detail. I recommend getting to know our TAPS team - they are a dedicated and knowledgeable group that is friendly and committed to serving the campus community. Come to a Slug Bike Life event, a transportation focus group, invite us to a lunch and learn, or apply for the Advisory Committee on Campus Transportation and Parking (ACCTP).
I love to be outdoors as much as possible. I enjoy biking, hiking, skiing, backpacking, traveling, and gardening. At some point, I’m going to be able to stand up on a surfboard!
Jonathan can be also found teaching for the Sustainability Certificate Program. His class, Transportation for All: Sustainability, Land-Use, and Mobility Justice has been a success and you can catch the last offering of the year this coming March 22nd.
