Alternative Transportation Options

Having a personal vehicle on campus is convenient, but can be expensive to maintain, fuel, and pay for parking.  There are a few options available to access the convenience of a personal vehicle, but helps you avoid the cost and environmental impact of a single-occupancy personal vehicle.  And remember, if you are driving to campus and need to park, make sure you follow the regulations put in place by Parking Services to ensure everyone has fair access to safe and well-maintained parking facilities.

Informal Ridesharing

There are a variety of ways you can connect with fellow students or employees to arrange rides. Many people travel daily from the Madison or Milwaukee area and a simple carpool, even if you meet at a nearby Park and Ride, can save you a significant amount on fuel and maintenance while lowering your carbon footprint. 

Fleet Vehicles - UW-Whitewater Transportation Office

UW-Whitewater Facilities Planning & Management Transportation Office provides a fleet of minivans for rental for university business travel purposes. Travel must be within 200 miles roundtrip and drivers must be authorized with Risk Management and Safety Office. Enterprise rental vehicles also provides delivery service for individual rentals to the General Services building on the Whitewater campus. Travelers must have an active Enterprise rewards account attached to a university-approved travel payment method to get vehicle delivery to Whitewater from the Janesville location on Milton Avenue. Rental arrangements must be made through the UW TravelWIse portal.  Please visit the Transportation Office page to make your reservation to help facilitate your next small group outing. 

Paid Peer-to-Peer Ridesharing - Uber, Lyft

Uber and Lyft are well-known alternatives to providing on-demand rides traditionally provided by taxis.  Janesville is in the Madison market and Whitewater is in the Milwaukee market for both services, although rides are only consistently in Janesville.

Traditional Taxi Services - LME, Park City Taxi, Brown Cab

The City of Janesville is served by LME Transportation LLC, Janesville City Taxi, and Park City Taxi for traditional taxi services.  The City of Whitewater is served by Brown Cab Services and has also partnered with the City of Whitewater to offer the Whitewater Shared-Ride Taxi Program. Call 920-563-6303 and give the location you desire to be picked up or dropped off. The average pick-up window is 15 minutes and calling ahead with specific times is always helpful. Need assistance from your home to the vehicle, getting in and out of the vehicle or help carrying your packages or groceries? No problem. The Ride Share vans are also wheelchair accessible. They offer affordable rates and student discounts.

The City of Whitewater might not seem like it offers a lot of transportation options to navigate to other cities in our region, but in fact there are ways to get to a long list of destinations throughout the Midwest and beyond by utilizing a few key daily services to connect to larger cities with more transportation options.  The most frequent daily option is to connect with options out of Janesville using the Warhawk Shuttle service to Van Galder bus depot.  The most flexible daily option is the once-daily service along the Milwaukee-Janesville Daily Loop, which opens up a wide variety of transportation options noted below from key stops on that route.  With a little planning, you can get access to these options and travel without using a personal vehicle!

Intercampus Shuttles - Janesville-Beloit

The Warhawk Shuttle between the UW-Whitewater campus in Whitewater and the UW-Whitewater at Rock County campus in Janesville provides free transportation for all faculty, staff, and students. The service provides a stop at the Van Galder bus terminal for access to a wide range of city and regional bus services. Please visit the Warhawk Shuttle page for the current schedule.

Weekend Buses - Whitewater to Madison/Milwaukee

Wisconsin Coach Lines provides weekend bus routes on Friday and Sunday during the fall and spring semesters from Drumlin and Esker Hall on the Whitewater campus.  This bus stops in Waukesha, Brookfield, and Milwaukee. Click here for a printable schedule, but visit their web page and use the search tool to ensure you are getting the most updated schedule.

Badger Bus operates their College Connection service to varioius UW System schools and the University of Minneapolis-Twin Cities.  All routes connect with the UW-Madison campus at 816 Langdon Street.  This schedule is available Fridays and Sundays during the fall and spring semesters and note there is NOT an active UW-Whitewater stop (nearest is in Johnson Creek). Visit the College Connection page to ensure you are getting the most updated schedule.

Daily Regional Bus Services - Milwaukee-Janesville

Wisconsin Coach Lines operates the Milwaukee-Janesville Daily Loop with a stop in Whitewater at the Whitewater Historic Train Depot in city parking Lot A. Click here for a printable schedule, but visit their web page and use the search tool to ensure you are getting the most updated schedule. This service provides daily access to a wide variety of connections to other transportation options that serve numerous destinations:

• Cities:  Milwaukee, Muskego, East Troy, Whitewater, Milton, and Janesville.
• Airports:  Mitchell International Airport in Milwaukee and East Troy Airport in East Troy.
• Buses:  Bus options are available at the Milwaukee Intermodal Facility, Mitchell International Airport, Janesville Van Galder Depot, and Janesville Transit Center from servies including Badger Bus, CoachUSA, Greyhound, JTS City Bus, Indian Trails, Lamers, Megabus, Milwaukee County Transit, and Van Galder.
• Trains:  Milwaukee Intermodal Facility connects with Amtrack Trains with service on the Empire Builder and Hiawatha routes.

Van Galder operates a popular daily bus service to O'Hare, Midway & Downtown Chicago with additional service to South Beloit, Rockford, and Madison. When used with the Warhawk Campus Shuttle or the Milwaukee-Janesville Daily Loop to travel from Whitewater to Janesville, it is possible to connect to a city bus services in Madison, Janesville, Rockford, and Chicago using this regional service along the I-90 corridor.   Click here for a printable schedule, but visit their web page and use the search tool to ensure you are getting the most updated schedule.

City Bus Services - Janesville

Janesville features the Janesville Transit System, which includes five routes to serve the City of Janesville.  The Kellogg Avenue Route and Beloit-Janesville Express Route has direct service to UW-Whitewater at Rock County campus.  The Warhawk Campus Shuttle provides some JTS connection at the Rock County Campus stop and the Milton Avenue and  Milwaukee Street routes are accessible from the Warhawk Shuttle Van Galder Bus Depot stop.

The City of Whitewater has recently adopted a Bicycle and Pedestrian Master Plan, which includes recommendations for a Complete Streets ordinance that recently passed Common Council. While there is no specific commitment to following this policy on campus, the general effort to provide connectivity and accommodation to the city efforts (particularly the city streets that intersect the campus) is already underway as the campus has been an active partner in the city's process.  Take a look as this map to learn about existing bike routes in the Whitewater area.

On our campus, there are several efforts to improve the user experience for individuals using bicycles to travel to and from campus locations.  Bike racks are found throughout campus and long-term bike lockers are also available near residence halls for added protection and security.  Starin Hall also features covered racks for use to keep your bikes out of the elements.  Finally, there are two bike repair stations located near Drumlin Hall and Wellers Hall so students can perform their own basic maintenance and help save money for basic repairs.

We have two electric vehicle Level 2 charging locations on campus that are connected to the ChargePoint network. One is a single-post charger located at the General Services building and is designed to serve an electric vehicle in the service or rental vehicle fleet. The other location is a dual-post charger in the parking lot adjacent to Upham Hall and is designed to serve the wider campus community with a convenient location. Both charging stations are free to the public if the user already has a ChargePoint card.