If university dreamer’s had their way, UAF students could be the first in Alaska to have a Disneyland-esque ride to class. It’s just another step in the aim to make UAF more practical for those without cars.

According to Deb Horner, a university planner, the dream situation would be cars around the perimeter and a monorail across campus—presumably heated. Not a strictly pedestrian mode of campus transportation, but an efficient, and enjoyable, one.

But the monorail has not yet even made it into the Campus Master plan.

According to it’s introduction, “The campus master plan is designed to guide and shape the physical environment of the University of Alaska Fairbanks main campus and to present a model for planning throughout UAF's branch campuses and remote facilities.”

The plan’s fourth goal is to “Promote safe and efficient travel throughout campus for pedestrians and non-motorized uses.”

Since it’s inclusion in 2002, Horner says UAF has taken a number of steps to realize that goal.

The entire length of Yukon drive except the Museum to the end on the North side of the street has had a sidewalk added, Horner said. University planning also worked with the Department of Transportation to ensure pedestrian access along as much of Thompson Drive as possible. As part of that plan, the sidewalk was extended along the adjacent-to-the-east section of Tanana Loop.

“Anytime we do work on a road, we try to make a separation between the road and the sidewalk,” Horner said.

The 4 ft. buffer is particularly necessary in the winter, when ice builds up on the side of the road, as it preserves space for people to walk, Horner said.

Horner said that another improvement was the addition of the crosswalk delineation behind the Brooks Building, and the crosswalk light at the wood center. From her experiences walking on campus, she thought another valuable light would be at the Nenana parking lot on Tanana Loop.

“One thing that has contributed to a more pedestrian friendly campus is that we’ve removed postage-stamp sized parking lots at central campus,” Horner said.

The lots removed include one across from the Moore-Bartlett-Skarland (MBS) complex, one across the street from the Chancellor’s house, one on the south side of campus near the College Road entrance, and one on Westridge, she said.

Each parking lot was replaced by green space, with more parking being added in other locations, such as behind MBS and in the Taku and Nenana lots on the perimeter of campus, said Horner.

The removal of small lots across campus has led some to feel that parking lots are being replaced with buildings.

“Every time a building is built a parking lot is not removed. Additional parking was added with the Museum project, and new parking was made for the Biological Research and Diagnostic Facility,” facility services personnel Jenny Barrett said in an email.

All of the created parking has been in line with the goal of the 1990 Campus Master Plan, which called for peripheral parking outside the campus loop road.

That goal is a relic of the old master plan, which Horner said was mostly redone in 2002.

Although the 2002 committee scratched most of the old plan, they did maintain the goal of extending the campus loop road to form a complete loop.

According to Horner, the plan is to make it go to Westridge, rather than end at the dorms.

“It would provide a more direct link between Westridge and lower campus,” she said.

By providing that link, Horner said that university planners think that Yukon Drive would get less traffic, making it more safe for pedestrian use.

However, the road is expensive, and there are a number of issues to be dealt with before it could be created, aside from the money. Horner said that it would cut through the trails system and research plots, including the IAB deer yard.

As for the monorail, Horner herself admits that it is a far-fetched dream.