Auburn University--a prominent land-grant and comprehensive research institute in Alabama--is no exception to the need to grapple with transportation planning. Auburn launched its transit system (called "Tiger Transit") in 1997 to address the needs of student commuters and a shrinking parking supply. However, by 2007 Tiger Transit faced a number of issues, prompting the university to conduct an investigation into the capabilities of Tiger Transit to more effectively serve the student population. The objective of this study was to improve the effectiveness of the Tiger Transit system through better route planning, and a methodology using a geographic information system (GIS) as a route sketch-plan tool was proposed for this purpose. A GIS is a computer-based system that links spatial data (streets, buildings, vegetation, etc.) with tabular data, making it possible to analyze, store, and query the data in map format. Properly used, GIS can determine the optimum bus route distance, identify student residences, analyze bus stops and their proximity coverage, describe types of land use, and provide road and pedestrian characteristics. The rest of this article describes the use of GIS for transit route planning at Auburn, including the GIS data collection and data setup, the transit route planning analysis, and the route modification approach and results. (Contains 12 figures.)