Sustainable Transportation and Grounds in UIC - University of ...

Report to UIC Chancellor’s Committee on Sustainability and Energy
The findings reported in this section are based on analysis of existing
data as well as a primary data collection:
Existing Sources of Data
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• Analysis undertaken by the Urban Transportation Center:
- Analysis of the UTC’s Spatial Decision Support System, a
geospatial database of indicators on the Chicago metro
area’s economic, social and physical aspects: This
analysis allowed us to obtain aggregate-level
understanding of where UIC faculty and staff reside, the
characteristics of their neighborhoods, their possibility of
using transit and other higher occupancy modes of
transportation – in other words, a market analysis of faculty
and staff potential use of alternative modes of
transportation.
- Survey of UIC U-PASS users conducted as part of the
Center’s grant funded by the Chicago Transit Authority, in
fall 2008 and summarized in a master’s thesis by Swarup
(2009). U-PASS is a program administered by the CTA,
under which students have to pay a certain fee each
semester for unlimited usage in CTA trains and buses for
that semester. The same service is offered in Pace
suburban bus service. The survey was administered to
those full-time students at UIC who received (or were
eligible to receive) U-Passes during 2003-2007. A total of
3,327 completed surveys were received. The purpose of
using data from this survey is to understand student travel
behavior and incentives and programs that can be
developed to encourage more transit usage by students.
• Data provided by UIC Facilities Management. Information on
parking, vehicles, ridership, fuel consumption, program costs, and
other amenities was provided.
Primary Data Collection Effort
• UIC Campus Commuter Survey, conducted by the Office of
Sustainability. This survey was conducted as part of the active
transportation program that UIC participates in with the Chicago
Department of Transportation and was partially funded by a
National Wildlife Federation Campus Ecology Fellowship to refine
UIC’s Greenhouse Gas Inventory. The Office of Sustainability
surveyed the UIC campus community in November and December
2008 regarding the primary modes of transportation used to
commute to UIC. Responses from 2785 UIC campus community
members were used to prepare this analysis. Respondents
identified themselves as faculty, staff, full-time students, or parttime
students.
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