Oregon State University
OP-16: Student Commute Modal Split

During November and early December of 2014, OSU solicited online survey responses via email from all students and employees studying or working at the OSU Corvallis campus. The survey received responses from 2,132 employees and 3,700 students, with representative portions of classified employees, unclassified employees, students living off-campus, and students living on-campus. Each response rate is statistically valid at the 95th percentile and a confidence interval of two. Survey respondents were asked to provide their primary mode of travel to campus for each day of one week, with the primary mode being the one that they used for the longest distance portion of their trip. For example, if someone drove alone four miles from home, then parked one mile from campus and walked the rest of the way to campus, the respondent would mark “drive alone” as the primary mode. Because survey respondents were able to select their primary mode for each day, the survey was able to account for people that use different modes throughout the week. Survey respondents also could indicate if they did not come to campus on the specified day. The calculation of campus mode share is a multi-step process that begins with a summation of the number of trips made by each mode for the five week days (Monday through Friday) and then calculates the separate mode share for off-campus student respondents and for employee respondents. The analysis then determines the portion of the survey respondent population that travels to campus on a typical day. The mode share percentages and portion of the population traveling to campus are then applied to the total population (separately for employees and students living off-campus). Finally, a weighted average is applied to determine the overall off-campus population daily commute mode share.