University of Richmond
OP-16: Commute Modal Split

The UR Office for Sustainability Commuter and Sustainability Culture Survey was administered online from November 13 to December 4, 2023, to faculty, staff, and students. The purpose of the anonymous survey is to evaluate commuting behavior to campus and to gain a better understanding of sustainability-related values, behavior, and awareness. Of the 6,991 individuals invited to participate in the survey, 956 responded, resulting in a 14% response rate.

Of the 3531 FTE students, 1328 parking permits were issued. Of those 1328 permitted travelers, 93.64% of the trips taken were in cars. The remaining trips were via walking, biking, carpooling, or shuttling to class. The majority of the undergraduate class lives on campus without vehicles.

The UR Office for Sustainability Commuter and Sustainability Culture Survey was administered online from November 13 to December 4, 2023, to faculty, staff, and students. The purpose of the anonymous survey is to evaluate commuting behavior to campus and to gain a better understanding of sustainability-related values, behavior, and awareness. Of the 6,991 individuals invited to participate in the survey, 956 responded, resulting in a 14% response rate.

Detailed internal methodology:

Commuting

The Office for Sustainability works with the Office for Institutional Effectiveness to send out a transportation survey to faculty, staff, graduate, and undergraduate students biannually. The most recent survey was completed in Fall 2023, with the following questions:

 Data Format: Number of commuters, trips per week, weeks per year, percentages of each mode, miles per trip for each mode) separated into faculty, staff, and students

 SIMAP Specifications, Number of One-Way Trips:

Faculty – (faculty less residential staff/faculty) 40 weeks per year

Staff - 48 weeks per year

Students - 32 weeks per year

 SIMAP Specifications, Number of Commuters:

Faculty: [(Full-time + Part-time Faculty) – Residential Faculty] in Populations section

Staff: (Full-time + Part-time Staff) in Populations section

Students: (Undergraduate + Graduate Commuting Permits Issued)

1. Start by sorting the data into occupational categories (faculty, staff, and student).
   1. Note: It is likely that IFX will have already done this.
1. Remove any incomplete entries from the survey.
2. Create separate spreadsheets for each category.

 Now, this information should be subdivided into Faculty, Staff, and Students . It may be helpful to “hide” the columns with survey questions not directly used in the calculations below.

Survey respondents have listed how far they live from campus and what mode of transportation they use if travelling to campus for each day of the week. The goal is to count the number of times they use each mode and multiply this by their distance from campus to calculate each respondents one-way commuting distance.

 Using the same example entry, here is how you can complete this:

2. Insert nine columns and label them as above.
3. In the distance column, make the cell value = the response to Q8.
1. The response for how many miles a respondent lives from campus should then match the distance values in this column.
4. For each of the transportation modes, use the following formula:

=COUNTIF(range, “Bike”) * N3

1. The range will be Q4_1 - Q4_7 in the example entry for each day of the week. N3 in the formula above is the cell value in the distance column.
2. When using the COUNTIF function, use the Ctrl+F function to find an example of a survey response with the transportation mode of interest (ex. “Bike”) in order to the precise formatting and allow excel to find all occurrences
3. Repeat for the eight transportation modes.
4. Copy these formulas for all entries for each category.

Next, we will calculate the data format needed for SIMAP calculations: the percentage of trips that each mode represents and the average number of miles per trip specific to each mode.

6. To the side, insert and label nine new columns
7. Since SIMAP uses different categories of transportation than our survey, we will need to condense some modes for our calculations. In these cases, we will sum the data from multiple modes to form a new category
   1. If the majority survey respondents who specified what they meant by “Other” indicate a ride-share program, the category should be included in “Drive”; otherwise, another category may be more appropriate
1. “Carpool” will include the former categories of “Carpool/Vanpool” and “Dropped off by Friend/Spouse”
2. “Drive” will include the former categories of “Drive Alone,” “Motorcycle/Moped,” and “Other”
8. To calculate the total miles, use the =SUM(range) function to total the commuting distance for each mode of transportation and combine the modes as specified above to fit the new categories.
1. This is the one-way total commuting distance by transportation type for one week.
9. To calculate the count of trips for each mode, highlight the columns with the survey questions,  search for the mode (ex. “Bike”), click “Find all,” and record the number of cells found as the . An example is shown below. Use the =SUM(range) function to find the overall number of trips across categories. 

10. To calculate the % trips for each category, divide the count of trips for a category by the total number of trips across all categories. Repeat for each transportation category.
11. To calculate the average number of miles for a single trip according to their mode of transportation, divide the total miles for the transportation category by the count of trips for that category.
12. Repeat Steps 6 through 11 for each occupation category (Faculty, Staff, Students).