University of Alberta
OP-16: Student Commute Modal Split

OVERVIEW The 2017 Greenhouse Gas and Commuting survey was distributed to staff, faculty and students across the university's five main campuses in March 2017. Participants reported their primary commuting mode for the course of the year. Distance traveled was determined by a respondent’s forward sortation area — the first three digits of a postal code. The survey was sent to a statistically representative sample of the university community and data was collected over a period of three weeks. Facilities & Operations worked with the university's Population Research Laboratory and an external contractor on this project. SAMPLING METHODOLOGY To determine a sample size, an online sample calculator took into account population size and set the margin of error at 5% with a 95% confidence level. Once sample size was determined, the following measures were taken to ensure that the sample chosen was representative of the university population and the distribution of the three key populations: students, staff, and faculty. 1) When the random sample was drawn, the sample was compared to the total population to ensure that none of the sub-populations were accidentally excluded in the random sample. 2) The random sample was often compared to the population. This was done to determine whether the survey results were representative of the entire population and not skewed to any particular sub-population. 3) Once the survey was sent out, several reminder emails were sent to increase response rate until an acceptable response rate of 20-30% was reached.