Thompson Rivers University
OP-17: Employee Commute Modal Split

Single Occupancy Vehicles (SOV) and High Occupancy Vehicles (HOV) data:
Data for carpooling were gathered by counting vehicles coming on to campus during the 2018 reading week during February 13th to 18th from 7 to 9 am. Data was collected from all entry points on campus as well as drop off zone every morning over the 5 days. The survey was conducted during reading week when classes are not in session and students are not expected to be commuting to campus during the 7:30 - 9:30 am period. The five days were totaled and averaged to factor in for less commuting on Friday and Monday. The total number of expected commuters (1274) was calculated by IPE based on full time full time employees (faculty and staff) and factoring in an average number of people away throughout a week.
o All vehicles entering campus with single occupants were counted as SOV – 36% (commercial vehicles and day care traffic were excluded)
o Vehicles entering campus with multiple occupants were counted as HOV - 19% HOV
o Transit data for that period reported 10 % use – data form transit authorities deemed proprietary
o Number of motorcycle commuters 1% - based on # of parking permits issued for motorcycle stalls (throughout the year)
o Remaining number deemed cycle, pedestrian, scooter or other alternate modes - 34% - head counts of cyclists and pedestrians have been conducted previously
o Of note – the numbers related to alternate commuting are also consistent with the staff e-mail lists of active alternate transportation commuters that we communicate with regularly

Walk, bicycle, or use other non-motorized mean:
The university has participated in more Sustainable commuting challenges this year than ever before, as we saw an increase in participation in programs like Bike to work week this year as well. TRU has participated in the bike to work week in the past, but this year we added the BC commuter challenge (https://commuterchallengebc.ca/) and the Academic Bike Challenge (https://www.go-abc.org/start/) which has been instrumental in increasing the "walk, bicycle, or other non-motorized means" category this year. RideShare has been implemented at TRU to help drivers find commute partners, passengers, and pair people up, this program is being promoted at all events the Sustainability office participates in and when we get emails that are related to HOV. A program has been implemented to allow staff to give up their parking space a number of days a week to encourage them to take alternative transportation allowing two people to share a reserved stall, this program gives staff a reserved parking space.

Take a campus shuttle or public transportation:
TRU participates in the Propass Program, it is an initiative of the local transit authority to provide discounted passes paid directly through payroll deductions. For information about the Propass Program, please see this website: https://bctransit.com/victoria/fares/propass. In addition to this, the transportation survey that includes roughly 30% staff respondents indicates a dramatic increase in total transit users since we changed the structure of our parking program. Our parking system prior to 2017 was such that there were lots reserved for staff use only, and those would require long-term permits to use. There were also general and discount parking lots over most of campus for students or staff/faculty to use as they saw fit. In the spring/summer semester of 2017 the program was changed to a tiered style parking structure that made all the lots immediately adjacent to buildings higher cost and open to students and staff willing to pay for the long-term pass required. This has led to a general decrease of SOV traffic to TRU with data showing an increase in HOV and bus transit traffic. Combined with the alternative transportation competitions and e-bike purchase programs this parking change has caused the most significant decrease in SOV traffic TRU has ever seen. Higher parking rates have also lead to more pedestrian commuting.