Commuting To Campus | University College Cork

UCC is located in the western part of Cork city, 1 km from the city centre. The main parts of UCC’s campus are along Western Road and College Road.

Car parking facilities at UCC are limited, so when visiting UCC, please consider using public transport.

To the right are a number of maps that visitors to UCC may find useful. Below is some info and tips on taking low carbon transport to and from UCC.

Walking to UCC

Pedestrians have absolute priority in all UCC Campus areas. UCC aims at further facilitating pedestrian traffic on and around Campus and co-operates with Cork City Council where public footpaths are concerned.

Walk Times To Campus

UCC Campus Bikes

UCC Buildings and Estates operate a communal bike hire scheme for UCC staff members, called UCC CampusBike. It provides all UCC members of staff with access to a bicycle for hourly use during the working day. A number of bicycles are available at various locations around the greater UCC Campus.

At present, 14 bicycles are available at the Main Campus (4), Brookfield (2), Western Gateway (1), the ERI (2), the North Mall (Enterprise Centre, 2), Lee Maltings / Tyndall (2) and College View (Workshops, 1). More bikes will become available shortly.

The scheme is open to all UCC staff members, however they first need to register and agree to the Conditions of Use(see below). The completed Registration form, along with a photocopy of the staff ID, shall be sent to UCC Buildings and Estates. Both registration and the use of the service are free of charge.

UCC CampusBike started as a demonstration project in March 2011, supported by the Department of Transport’s SmarterTravel fund.

For any further information, contact commuting@ucc.ie

UCC Park and Ride

In 1999, UCC became the first University in Ireland to operate its own Park+Ride scheme.

At present, there are three car parks available for UCC P+R:

Pouladuff Road (near the N40 South Ring Road, Togher exit)
Dennehy’s Cross (PCB sports grounds, single shuttle services only)
Black Ash (near N40, at Kinsale Rd roundabout, Term time only)

Updated schedules can be found on the Buildings and Estates website https://www.ucc.ie/en/build/commuting/parkandride/

Shuttle buses operate frequent services from the Main Campus (Boole entrance) on College Road and Brookfield (outside gate). In the morning and evening peaks, the service also includes UCC’s Lee Maltings Complex on Dyke Parade / Prospect Row (using the bus stop on Dyke Parade/Mardyke St., opposite the Granary Theatre).

Both Pouladuff and Dennehy’s Cross car parks are open all year, while Dennehy’s Cross operates during the summer months as a Park & Walk facility only (approx 5 mins walk to Brookfield, 10-15 minutes to Main Campus). Black Ash is linked to UCC only during Term times.

P+R facilities are open to all UCC staff and students (ID spot checks by security staff may occur). Parking and the use of the shuttle buses are free of charge.

Car Pooling And Car Sharing

Share the daily car trip to UCC with a partner and find a guaranteed space on Campus until 10am!

In order to improve access to UCC and to redcuce the demand for car spaces at the staff car parks, UCC operates a Car Pooling scheme. Through a higher rate of car occupancy there will be fewer cars on the roads and thus less congestion.

The UCC Car Pooling scheme is operated by the Commuter Plan Office in co-operation with General Services (both part of the Department of Buildings and Estates).

To avail of this service, please fill out the Registration form and return to the main Buildings & Estates office – Car Pooling – Registration form.

For more information, please see Car Pooling – Regulations in brief

Car Sharing (also known as “Car Club” in the UK) is a scheme that provides subscribers access to a fleet of vehicles whenever they need one. Relatively new to Ireland, such schemes have been operating successfully in many European countries and North America for more than 15 years and are becoming increasingly popular. Car Sharing in Ireland started in 2008 in Cork, provided by the operator “GoCar“, and is also running successfully in Dublin since 2010.

Since the start, UCC has a corporate account with GoCar. One car is based on College View / College Road, opposite the Library. UCC staff members can register with this account to use the cars (4 more locations existing in Cork) for work purposes. As the service is open to the general public, anybody can sign up as a private user.

Please note: Car Sharing is not to be confused with Car Pooling (e.g. UCC Car Pooling scheme), where two or more persons are sharing their car trip on a regular basis. (Unfortunately, both terms are used in Ireland in a rather inconsistant way.)

To find out more, have a look at the documents below or follow the link to www.gocar.ie . For any further queries, please contact commuting@ucc.ie

Some Useful Documents:

Electric Car Charging

As the move to electrification of cars gathers momentum UCC has invested in its charging infrastructure to provide our staff with the facilities to charge on site, should they require a charge to complete their return journey. Our charging stations are spread across the campus with the objective of having a charging station per large geographical area. The locations of the charging stations are shown in the below table. All persons using the PEV charging space must already be a UCC staff member and be entitled to access a car space on the UCC staff parks.

We are looking to expand the offering to the public facing car parks in Perrots Inch and College Road to allow students and visitors the option of charging while they visit the University. Our PEV charging stations are available on a first come, first serve basis and in the interest of fairness to all, users of the PEV charging stations must remove their car within a reasonable timeframe of the charging process been complete.

We have recently sourced an online platform that will allow drivers to see availability of the high use stations on Main Campus and North Mall as well as having the ability to start / stop their charging sessions. The new platform will also allow drivers to pay for the energy consumed during the charging process. We will be rolling the platform out to the other sites over time.

Monies collected through this mechanism will be used to cover the electrical costs and maintenance costs while also supporting the rollout of additional charging stations on campus. We will contact all our users when this platform is being rolled out.

If you wish to apply to avail of the service please read our UCC PEV Charging Policy that can be viewed here and complete the registration form which can be access here.

If you have any questions about this service, please contact us at evcharging@ucc.ie

Green Campus Team