Overall Rating Gold
Overall Score 72.32
Liaison Merry Rankin
Submission Date Aug. 29, 2022

STARS v2.2

Iowa State University
OP-17: Support for Sustainable Transportation

Status Score Responsible Party
Complete 0.60 / 1.00 Kathy Wellik
Manager
Transportation Services
"---" indicates that no data was submitted for this field

Does the institution have a bicycle-sharing program or participate in a local bicycle-sharing program?:
No

A brief description of the bicycle sharing program:
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Does the institution participate in a car sharing program?:
Yes

A brief description of the car sharing program:

ZipCar is a membership-based car-sharing program, serving Iowa State University. During COVID, all ZipCar vehicles were removed from campus and are currently still pending for return.


Does the institution offer preferential parking or other incentives for fuel efficient vehicles?:
No

A brief description of the incentives for fuel efficient vehicles:
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Does the institution have one or more Level 2 or Level 3 electric vehicle recharging stations that are accessible to student and employee commuters?:
Yes

A brief description of the electric vehicle recharging stations:

A total of seven public Level Two EV charging stations are available in the Ames community, including one-two plug station at the Ames Intermodal Facility (one block from campus) and two-two plug stations on-campus at Transportation Services.


Does the institution have incentives or programs to encourage employees to live close to campus?:
No

A brief description of the incentives or programs to encourage employees to live close to campus:
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Does the institution have other programs or initiatives to encourage more sustainable modes of transportation and/or reduce the impact of student and employee commuting?:
Yes

A brief description of other programs or initiatives to encourage more sustainable modes of transportation and/or reduce the impact of student and employee commuting:

Iowa State University offers two carpool/vanpool matching programs. The first is through ISU Transportation Services, which organizes a vanpool program. Specifically, they provide University-owned vans to groups of University employees who have regular work hours for the purpose of getting to and from work. One member drives and is responsible for the van; others pay a monthly fee to support the operating cost. Also the Iowa State University RideShare Facebook group offers students a resource for coordinating rides to and from nearby cities.

CyRide is a jointly-funded city bus program supported by the City of Ames and Iowa State University. With routes both throughout campus and the entire city, passengers can access any point in Ames within two blocks. CyRide fees are included with each semester's tuition and all CyRide on-and-off-campus routes are free to ISU students presenting a valid ISU card. Discounted passes are also available to staff and family. Free on-campus circulator routes provide service between campus facilities. In the 2021 calendar year, CyRide ridership was 2,792,048 riders. The Orange 23 route, subsidized predominantly through the ISU Parking Division, which travels from central campus to the commuter lot to minimize campus traffic, had 715,538 riders.

A Bicycle Infrastructure Enhancement Plan in place to dedicate $170,000 to improving bike parking and paths on campus over a 5 year time period. This project will aim to increase the feasibility of biking to and around campus through adding parking facilities, repairing sidewalks, etc.

Systematic Communication Objectives and Telecommunications Technology Investigations and Evaluations, or SCOTTIE, is a remote collaboration tool that can replace most business travel. The ISU research team behind the project is investigating collaboration effectiveness, i.e. the ability for participants to communicate effectively and achieve their collaboration objectives within a situational context. By creating and validating a set of metrics, they can use results to quantify differences associated with communication media (e.g. Face-to-Face vs. VideoConferencing vs. Virtual Reality). SCOTTIE's Travel Substitute Threshold (TST) is an empirically informed model that articulates when in-person is more appropriate, and virtual can replace or even exceed performance in Face-to-Face meetings.


Website URL where information about the institution’s support for sustainable transportation is available:
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Additional documentation to support the submission:
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Data source(s) and notes about the submission:

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.