Overall Rating Gold - expired
Overall Score 66.56
Liaison Suchi Daniels
Submission Date Jan. 28, 2011
Executive Letter Download

STARS v1.0

University of South Florida (Tampa)
Tier2-11: Prohibiting Idling

Status Score Responsible Party
-- 0.00 / 0.25 Christian Wells
Director
Office of Sustainability

This credit was marked as Not Pursuing so Reporting Fields will not be displayed.

Multiple edge campus intersection improvements have been completed in collaboration with Hillsborough County to reduce greenhouse gas/air pollution due to excessive idle time. USF presently does not have a regulation or policy regarding motor vehicle idling; however, in December 2008 a Florida Administrative Rule was passed prohibiting operators of heavy duty diesel engine powered motor vehicles from idling more than five consecutive minutes (with several exceptions detailed). The intent of the Rule is to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. For the last five years, researchers at the USF Center for Urban Transportation Research have been working to develop software for GPS-enabled cell phones with an aim to analyze and mitigate transportation problems. One such application is a tracking tool called TRAC-IT which records GPS traces from a user’s cell phone (after the user opts in). A GPS trace, using Google Earth, can track and illustrate the idling times and locations of a participating commuter. Methods are currently being developed to automatically identify these “idle” locations so GPS data can be processed on a larger scale, for example, to identify these locations within a university campus. Such data could be used to optimize traffic signals as well as identify locations that require additional trip reduction strategies. Furthermore, USF’s Climate Action Plan provides as a recommended course of action to adopt a policy to reduce motor vehicle idling.

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