Overall Rating Silver - expired
Overall Score 60.64
Liaison Eva Rocke
Submission Date June 30, 2021

STARS v2.2

University of Montana
OP-16: Commute Modal Split

Status Score Responsible Party
Complete 3.03 / 5.00 Eva Rocke
Sustainability Director
Office of Sustainability
"---" indicates that no data was submitted for this field

Total full-time equivalent student enrollment:
10,487

Full-time equivalent of employees:
2,778

Part 1. Student commute modal split

Has the institution gathered data about student commuting behavior?:
Yes

Total percentage of students that use more sustainable commuting options as their primary mode of transportation:
63

A brief description of the method(s) used to gather data about student commuting:
In fall 2016, UM conducted a survey of students to assess commuting behaviors to and from campus. Working with the Office of Data & Institutional Research, we removed online-only students from the sample and selected a representative number of students across class (freshman, sophomore, juniors, and seniors), on-campus student residents and off-campus student residents, full time and part time, and undergraduate and graduate students. 37% of survey respondents elect to commute to campus alone by car, while the remaining respondents choose to commute by bike, carpool, van pool, bus, and on foot. We sent the survey to an even proportion of students in each year to ensure the sample wasn't biased by a largely freshmen sample (who presumably live on/near campus). Students were given 2 weeks to respond before we closed the survey and analyzed the results.

Submitting this report at the end of a pandemic year means that we did not administer another commuter survey in fall 2020. We plan to do so in fall 2021, but are using data from our prior report as a placeholder.

Part 2. Employee commute modal split

Has the institution gathered data about employee commuting behavior?:
Yes

Total percentage of employees that use more sustainable commuting options as their primary mode of transportation:
52

A brief description of the method(s) used to gather data about employee commuting:
In fall 2014, the ASUM Office of Transportation administered a survey to all campus users (census survey, not a sample), including administrators, faculty, staff, and students. Full-time and part-time affiliates responded, as we did not select for either group. Student participation in the survey was low (hence having to re-administer the survey to students in 2015), but faculty participation was high and staff participation was reasonable. We received a 38% response rate. The survey was sent to the campus community in early October 2014 and we allowed affiliates 2 weeks to respond before closing the survey and analyzing our data.

Optional Fields 

Percentage of students and employees that use the following as their primary mode of transportation:
Percentage of students (0-100) Percentage of employees (0-100)
Single-occupancy vehicle 37 48
Zero-emissions vehicle --- ---
Walk, cycle, or other non-motorized mode 31 26
Vanpool or carpool 11 18
Public transport or campus shuttle 21 8
Motorcycle, motorized scooter/bike, or moped 0 0
Distance education / telecommute --- 0

Website URL where information about student or employee commuting is available:
Additional documentation to support the submission:
Data source(s) and notes about the submission:
Used data from our 2015 commuter survey. Planning to administer another survey in fall 2021.

UMT Office of Transportation
E-mail: udash@umontana.edu
Phone: (406) 243-4599

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.