Figure 16: Percent of Staff Trips Made Using SOVs

Reducing automobile traffic in the University District is a long-term endeavor for this campus and our community transportation partners. Efforts in this direction are greatly influenced by the initial work enacted through the Campus Area Transportation Study (CATS) technical and policy advisory committees’ cohesive planning.

 The core campus has experienced a vehicle traffic reduction since the turn of the century; however, there is a long road ahead. While only 10% of the student population drives alone, this tends not to be the case for staff and faculty members, many of whom commute to campus in single-occupancy vehicles (SOV).

Outside of the emissions generated from driving to work, high SOV usage has many environmental consequences. For example, while many campus commuters possess a designated parking space, some do not; for these individuals, finding an available space can pose problems. “Parking hunting,” or driving for excessive amounts of time in search of a space, expends gas and generates emissions. To remedy this issue, a smartphone application could assist in locating available parking spaces. The app would work in tandem with the parking pay application, and could reduce total time spent parking hunting. To better understand and make decisions about parking availability, iSEE funded the Campus as a Living Laboratory (CALL) project “City Traffic as a Reservoir System.”[1] 

 Objective #3.4, which aims to decrease negative fallout from driving both to and around campus, is directly related to choices made by individuals. In the last five years, we have decreased the percentage of staff driving alone from 65% to 60% (Figure 16). We are proud of this achievement and commend our campus and community members for their environmental consciousness.

 While our key performance indicator reflects the percentage of staff who regularly travel in SOVs, this objective is centered on behavioral choices and sustainability consciousness. Though our intent is to produce quantifiable results by reducing SOV usage, we acknowledge that the factors influencing personal vehicle choice are complex (e.g., cost-effectiveness drives many students to live off-campus and commute). Moving forward, F&S will strengthen our progress toward lowering SOV usage by fostering conditions supportive for individuals getting where they need to be in a sustainable fashion. The Transportation Demand Management department at F&S will continue to lead this effort for our campus transportation systems, using the established methods of the "five E's" — Engineering, Education, Enforcement, Evaluation, and Encouragement.We will support the transportation strategies outlined in the 2017 Campus Master Plan, such as closing streets to private vehicles and implementing an autonomous shuttle on a university-owned street. Through our continued commitment to an emphasis on walking, bicycling, and public transit, we expect that more students, staff, and faculty members will shift to sustainable, healthy, and active travel modes.

iSEE will disseminate a travel survey every three years to keep our metrics updated and track our progress as we strive for a 45% SOV use rate by FY30. 

[1] https://go.illinois.edu/campuslivinglab