Washington University in St. Louis
OP-16: Student Commute Modal Split

The percentage indicated above is based upon the number of active parking permits assigned to WashU students as of November 6, 2019, on the University's main campuses (Danforth, West, and North campuses).
The date of November was chosen as it is the peak of parking permits distribution during the year: it is far enough in the fall semester so that wait-lists have been open, and before the spring semester which is when most studying abroad programs are taking place.

As of November 6, 2019, 14.9% of WashU students had received an individual parking permit. This means that the other 85.1% likely didn't use their personal vehicle as their primary mode of transportation going to the university, and therefore we can assume that they used a sustainable mode of commute.

As a large majority of the student population lives on campus (all the first year students and a large part of sophomores) or in nearby neighborhoods, driving alone to campus appears less convenient than most of other modes of transportation. The University also passed a policy removing the distribution of parking permits to sophomores (since school year 2017/2018). The first year students were never allowed to request a parking permit.

The percentages indicated in the optional fields above are estimations based upon the results of a Mobility Survey, a tool developed in part to assist in formulating and informing the Mobility Framework Study. The survey offers insight into the existing movement patterns of the WashU community and provides a baseline for the future development of new and improved mobility infrastructure to make a more inclusive, safe, accessible, and robust campus.
The survey was distributed on-line over a 4-week period, between October 7th and November 7th, 2015. In order to represent the total community of WashU, this survey was distributed not only to students but also to faculty and staff. The representative populations were limited to those that are primarily based at the Danforth, West, North, and South campuses. In total, 1,181 people participated in the on-line survey.

Additional data is available regarding: the number/percentage of public transit passes distributed to students, the number/percentage of car-share members, etc. While we have this data, we have no system in place as of yet to determine how many of these transit passes/ alternative permits are relied upon as a primary means of transport.