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Qualify for your MOJO ribbon by reading a Planning article this fall, then commenting on it. Find out more. Sign up now.

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More than finding your way. Touch a screen, and learn about the sustainability inside this building; or about the generous donor whose name is on it.

People see a screen and want to interact with it. Colleges and universities are catching on, finding innovative ways to let their community members do just that.

Among the most common and advantageous uses are wayfinding and donor recognition, shares Spencer Graham, manager of operations of West Virginia University Information Stations responsible for behind-the-scenes operations of WVU’s digital signage network. WVU was an early adopter of digital signage, creating a 10-sign network for emergency messaging in 2005 immediately following the Virginia Tech tragedy. That network now includes more than 100 screens, including interactive ones, across four campuses.

“Higher education is a new vertical market [for interactive digital signage] as far as I’m concerned, because you’re not selling like you are in retail,” says Graham. “This is an area that digital signage has a very specific usage in. Wayfinding certainly comes in. We also see donor walls as a big thing, because you can only put so many brass plaques on the wall.” And for all of WVU’s interactive digital signage installed and to be installed, “the functionality we’re planning on leveraging makes for a very pleasant experience for whoever is interacting with our signage,” from students, to faculty, to visitors to the university.

This is a brief video talking about and sharing images of the development of a 12'x12' intelligent solar roadway prototype; a roadway intended to carry communications and to generate enough power to pay for itself. Apparently, you can lock up the brakes on a glass road without destroying it. We can definitely see a campus using this as part of its overall carbon management, as well as for the smart connections. The primary researcher says that over time asphalt will become too expensive and these kinds of materials will become cost effective. The Solar Roadways project just won the GE Ecoimagination challenge prize.

Don't miss out on joining nearly 1,500 of your colleagues and peers at higher education's premier planning event of 2010, SCUP–45. The Society for College and University Planning's 45th annual, international conference and idea marketplace is July 10–14 in Minneapolis!

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Here's your SCUP Link to Signs That Work: Hospital Wayfinding.

Hospitals are complex spaces. An innovative student project at the University of Cincinnati's School of Design has been working on a set of symbols that it is hoped will be adopted universally, to help patients and others more effectively find their way. The symbol at right indicates mental health services. Student teams on this project are also working on the campuses of California Polythechnic State University, Iowa State University, and Kent State University. This story reveals some of the pedagogical benefits of a project intended to improve the effectiveness of facilities planning, specifically wayfinding. The symbols will also be useful in virtual spaces.

Don't miss out on joining nearly 1,500 of your colleagues and peers at higher education's premier planning event of 2010, SCUP–45. The Society for College and University Planning's 45th annual, international conference and idea marketplace is July 10–14 in Minneapolis!

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Here's your SCUP Link on Go With the Flow: Campus Traffic and Parking Solutions

For University Business magazine, Ann McClure finds 20 tips/best practices regarding campus transportation management. They are divided into categories: Parking Practices, Mass Transit Options, Traffic Flow Tactics, Ride Shares, and Bikers Haven.

“The old-time pressures of parking and congestion are combining with the sustainability issue,” says Philip L. Winters, director of the Center’s TDM Program. Parking lots are not only expensive to build but take up valuable space that can be better used for classrooms or even green space. Solo drivers are also a big contributor to the campus carbon footprint. Safety is another issue because the more traffic you have the more accidents you might have, points out Sara Hendricks, the center’s senior research associate. However, improving traffic flow and parking on campus is very place dependent, Hendricks notes. Not every campus can tap into a strong local mass transit system. “It boils down to making sure you have options and not focusing on a single strategy,” Winters advises.

From The Scout report, a useful site for SCUPers:

Planners, engineers, and designers have been interested in creating healthy and livable urban environments for decades, and the general public's penchant for such matters has grown exponentially as of late. The Livable Streets Initiative is one such measure designed to assist citizens who might be thinking about how to put these ideas into practice. The Initiative is produced by The Open Planning Project, which is a non-profit technology incubator designed to enhance civic participation. First-time visitors to the site will find the following sections: "Streetsblog", "Streetfilms", "Streetswiki", "Community", and "Education". In the "Streetsblog" section, visitors can read recent posts about designing pedestrian friendly streetscapes and also view short films about different planning projects related to such modifications. Moving on, the "Streetswiki" area is a community-created online encyclopedia for transportation, urban environmental, and public space issues. Visitors can read recently edited articles, sign up to help edit, and also just wander around to pieces on "Sidewalks", "Light Rail", and "Bus Rapid Transit". Finally, visitors should also check out the "Community" area to learn about different local community groups that are working on these issues. [KMG]

It sure looks like a combination of gas costs, the economy, sustainability, and even fitness considerations (No more Freshman Fifteen!) has created a strong push toward bicycle use on campus: (And a recent related article is College Students Adapt to High Gas Prices; plus once you get the students using bikes, then you have more problems as noted in Stanford U. Tries to Calm Bike Traffic at 'Intersection of Death'.

The University of New England and Ripon College in Wisconsin are giving free bikes to freshmen who promise to leave their cars at home. Other colleges are setting up free bike sharing or rental programs, and some universities are partnering with bike shops to offer discounts on purchases.

The goal, college and university officials said, is to ease critical shortages of parking and to change the car culture that clogs campus roadways and erodes the community feel that comes with walking or biking around campus.

“We’re seeing an explosion in bike activity,” said Julian Dautremont-Smith, associate director of the Association for the Advancement of Sustainability in Higher Education, a nonprofit association of colleges and universities. “It seems like every week we hear about a new bike sharing or bike rental program.”

Ann Arbor, where SCUP's offices are located, recently became the 47th US city completely mapped out in GoogleEarth. The entire industry and technology realm of mapping has left the illusion of linear growth behind. We are now in an era of obvious exponential growth in capabilities. Map services are definitely hitting the street. Get current with the latest functionalities and offerings in an article by Evan H. Shu from Architecture Week. One example of something you might not already know:

Of prime interest to architects is a very nice viewing option called "Bird's Eye" view. At last report, in over 100 U.S. cities and over 80 European locations, a Bird's Eye view offered aerial photos showing images at higher resolution than the aerial shots and, in some cases, provided quite a bit of detail.

Another nice feature of the Bird's Eye view is that you can use the turn arrows to give bird's eye views from four different aerial angles of your site.