Overall Rating Silver - expired
Overall Score 51.18
Liaison Joseph Kahn
Submission Date April 20, 2017
Executive Letter Download

STARS v2.1

Central Michigan University
OP-16: Student Commute Modal Split

Status Score Responsible Party
Complete 0.99 / 2.00 Morgan Hummon
Sustainability Advancement Graduate Assistant
Facilities Management, Great Lakes Institute for Sustainable Systems
"---" indicates that no data was submitted for this field

Total percentage of students (graduate and undergraduate) that use more sustainable commuting options as their primary means of transportation:
49.66

A brief description of the method(s) used to gather data about student commuting, including the timeframe for when the analysis was conducted and how a representative sample was reached, if applicable:

For this credit, Parking Services at Central Michigan University, provided a break down of all different types of parking permits that were sold during the 2015-2016 academic year. These permits were broken down by permit type (please see below attachment for details). The total permits sold, were then counted up and divided by the total number of students. This number amounted to 46.87%. This represents the number of students who use a vehicle as their assumed main means of transportation. Therefore, the remaining 53.1% of the student population is assumed to be utilizing different means of transportation such as walking, man-powered vehicles, or public transportation services.

Additionally, a walking interview was conducted over a one week period. Students, staff and faculty around campus were asked the following question:

1. What is your overall primary means of transportation right now? Individuals were given the list below, in the same order each time.
-car/traditional vehicle, carpooling, vanpooling, public transit, scooter or motorcycle, bicycle/skateboard/roller blades/man powered vehicle

Recipients were also asked to only give one answer, as an overall response.
-The interviewer created a tally of how many responses were traditional or sustainable.

These interviews were informally and verbally conducted over a five day period. Each day, the data collector went to a different part of campus from 9am-11am, from 3:30pm-5pm and from 5pm-7pm, in order to reach out to a representative population. Tallies for primary means of transportation were marked as traditional or sustainable. In all, 357 individuals were surveyed. Of the total number of recipients, 165 individuals reported utilizing sustainable means of transportation as their primary method. The corresponding percentage of individuals surveyed is 46.21%. Therefore, to ensure accuracy within this investigation, both percentages were averaged together, resulting in a total of 49.66%. This number represents the believed fraction of individuals utilizing sustainable means of transportation as their primary mode of moving at Central Michigan University.

More extensive studies are to be conducted in the future.


The percentage of students that use each of the following modes as their primary means of transportation to get to and from campus::
Percentage (0-100)
Commute with only the driver in the vehicle (excluding motorcycles and scooters) ---
Walk, bicycle, or use other non-motorized means ---
Vanpool or carpool ---
Take a campus shuttle or public transportation ---
Use a motorcycle, scooter or moped ---

The website URL where information about the programs or initiatives is available:
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Additional documentation to support the submission:
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Data source(s) and notes about the submission:
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The information presented here is self-reported. While AASHE staff review portions of all STARS reports and institutions are welcome to seek additional forms of review, the data in STARS reports are not verified by AASHE. If you believe any of this information is erroneous or inconsistent with credit criteria, please review the process for inquiring about the information reported by an institution or simply email your inquiry to stars@aashe.org.