Imagine traveling from Central Campus to North Campus without stepping on a bus or waiting in traffic. While this currently sounds like a far-off dream, it could soon become a reality.

Stephen Forrest, the University's vice president for research, spoke to the Senate Advisory Committee on University Affairs yesterday about transportation plans to move faculty and students to the North Campus Research Complex and other areas on North Campus in new, more innovative ways.

“If you had a clean piece of paper, what would you do?” he asked the faculty’s leading governing body. “I’m pretty sure you wouldn’t come up with the situation that we have today.”

Forrest said the opening of the NCRC has forced the administration to look at new ways to revamp transportation between Central and North Campuses.

“It has made those problems real and urgent,” he said.

The NCRC is scheduled to become fully operational for research purposes this spring. The 2 million-square-foot complex is expected to create more than 2,000 jobs over the next decade.

But University officials have expressed concerns during the last few months about how to handle the expected increase in traffic to North Campus.

In October, President Mary Sue Coleman announced in her State of the University Address she would form a committee focused on improving transportation and avoiding problems from the expected flow of people to the NCRC.

According to Forrest, one of the main issues with the University’s transportation system is that very few faculty and staff members ride the bus. In fact, Forrest said he drives from North to Central Campus about once a day, which usually takes about 15 minutes including time to get through traffic and find a place to park.

“I find the whole process stressful, but there’s no alternative really,” he said. “It’s far more efficient than taking the bus, so therefore that’s the problem, and until we can get professors to use it, it’s really not a transportation system that’s serving the community.”

SACUA members agreed with Forrest’s remarks.

Wayne Stark, professor of electrical engineering and computer science, said he believes 95 percent of people who ride the buses are students, while SACUA Chair Michael Thouless, professor of material science and engineering, said he sometimes avoids traveling between campuses all together.

“I would go to physics seminars, but I don’t,” Thouless said.

Stark suggested that a new system with monorails or trains would be more efficient than the current bus system.

Forrest shared a similar opinion, and said a “usable system” would involve something that was connected indoors, came in 10-minute intervals or less and had predictable arrival and departure times.

“There has to be a predictability that it will go there or be here within a certain time,” Forrest said, “and to have it so you don’t feel like you’re walking across vacant lots and open air and snow to get there waiting for that thing to happen.”

The major drawback of creating a new system is that it will be expensive, but Forrest said the project is necessary to unite the two campuses.

“We need to get people to feel that the campus is not two or three different campuses,” he said.

In addition to discussing transportation to North Campus, Forrest also talked about the University’s decision to continue to partner with General Motors, despite the fact that the company filed for bankruptcy in June.

“We stuck with them, and they stuck with us,” he said.

Forrest highlighted the rich history between the company and the University.

Last May, GM and the University teamed up to form the GM/U-M Institute of Automotive Research and Education.