Mobility of NDSU Faculty and Staff Transit Survey Results

Introduction

University campuses have unique transportation requirements that may be characterized with a high concentration of trips during multiple peak periods (i.e., morning, lunch and afternoon). These campuses are often one of the largest employers in small- to medium-size cities and it is therefore critical to coordinate campus mobility needs with the overall transportation system. Many colleges and universities recognize transit as an effective mode for meeting campus mobility and have developed transit systems to serve those needs. In the United States at least 48 colleges and universities have some type of campus transit program. Successful campus transit systems include several factors such as careful planning, understanding user preferences, efficient design of system services and coordination with existing city transit service. Universities are not homogenous (i.e., enrollment levels, campus locations, size of community) so they will have different needs. This study examines these factors for North Dakot State University (NDSU).

North Dakota State University is a major employer in the Fargo-Moorhead area. There are approximately 2,000 faculty and staff who travel to campus nearly every day to teach, conduct research, and facilitate information exchange for North Dakota and beyond. NDSU has experienced a recent surge of on-campus growth, which impacts personal mobility on campus. The growth is because of a number of factors including: 1) development of new graduate programs which draw more students and requires more faculty, 2) the development of the Technology Park on campus, and 3) the new research programs being implemented. These factors have required the expansion of the land used to house the buildings and programs requiring students and faculty to travel longer distances on campus. Further, the architecture, landscape architecture and visual arts program are using buildings in downtown Fargo, requiring students and faculty to travel to off-campus sites to take and teach classes.

The growth occurring on campus is not met without growing pains. Mobility has become a greater issue. The additional students and faculty need to travel greater distances on campus. Parking has not increased at the same rate. Parking is typically a problem for most universities, but the tremendous growth at NDSU has accentuated the problem. To address these issues, the Small Urban & Rural Transit Center (SURTC), a research program at the Upper Great Plains Transportation Institute on the NDSU campus, designed a research project. The overall project will address the transportation needs of the campus. This paper is a portion of the overall project. It contains the results of a survey conducted with the faculty and staff. There is also another paper that addresses the mobility needs of the students. The final product of this study will contain a literature review; additional methodology; the results from students, faculty and staff; conclusions and recommendations. The final report will be available this spring.

In fall 2002, President Joseph Chapman sent an e-mail message to NDSU faculty and staff requesting they complete a campus transit survey developed by SURTC. The objective of the survey was to identify transportation needs of campus employees to better meet needs as employees travel to and from campus as well as around campus. There were approximately 695 faculty and 1,052 staff who received the e-mail notice.² There were 319 faculty and staff who responded to the on-line survey, providing an 18 percent survey response rate. Of these responses, approximately 40 percent indicated they are classified as faculty and 60 percent indicated their classification as staff.

The results for the faculty and staff are presented in five main sections. These sections include: 1) location questions such as distance faculty and staff live from campus; 2) current mobility issues such as access to motor vehicles; 3) campus circulator; 4) utilization of MAT; and 5) campus accommodations for transit.

Location Results

Six location type questions were asked of faculty and staff categorized as "location type" questions. The questions include 1) how far they live from campus; 2) locations the respondents travel from when going to campus; 3) time periods spent on campus; 4) the number of one-way trips taken to campus each day; 5) how they most often travel to campus; and 6) how they decide on the travel mode taken.

Distance from Campus

The survey results revealed that 66 percent of the respondents live less than five miles from campus (Figure 5.1). A high percentage, (38 percent) live between two and five miles while nearly 34 percent of respondents live more than five miles from campus. In general, given the size of the Fargo-Moorhead area, residents who live within a five-mile radius of the NDSU campus should have access to the Metropolitan Area Transit (MAT) routes. However, residents may choose not to take transit, which was investigated in this study.

Locations Traveling From

The majority of faculty and staff indicated they travel from home before arriving on campus (94.04 percent). There were 3.76 percent who reported they travel from childcare locations. Because NDSU has a childcare facility on campus, it is possible that a portion of the 94.04 respondents reporting they travel from home may drop children at the childcare facility on campus. Given the one-stop destination of home to campus, public transportation has the potential to play an important role in mode choice of faculty and staff. Certainly, faculty and staff may want to make stops after work to the supermarket, etc., which makes using public transportation more challenging. However, with proper planning, faculty and staff could reduce the number of "drive days" they take their automobile to campus and take advantage of public transportation serving NDSU.

It would be beneficial for NDSU to work more closely with the Metropolitan Area Transit (MAT) to be certain that faculty and staff (along with students) have direct access to campus. SURTC attempted to gather the addresses of NDSU faculty and staff from Payroll and Human Resources, but they indicated this information was not available. We wanted to map the addresses to compare where faculty and staff live to the current MAT routes to ensure proper coverage. In addition to analyzing MAT routes, we could use the information to develop car pools for those commuting to campus. Car pools could work wonderfully for those faculty and staff who may live near one another and spend similar hours on campus. We did ask faculty and staff about the hours they spend on campus, which is presented next.

Hours Spent on Campus

There are 47 percent of faculty and staff who reported being on campus before 8:00 a.m. (Figure 5.2). Some workers regularly arrive as early as 4:00 a.m. to take care of the university grounds and buildings. More than 90 percent of the faculty and staff indicated they are on campus between 8:00 a.m. and 4:00 p.m., and 80 percent reported still being on-campus between 4:00 p.m. and 6:00 p.m. Approximately 10 percent of the faculty and staff are on campus until 10:00 p.m. The faculty and staff who are on campus between 8:00 a.m. and 6:00 p.m. would have access to MAT, which serves the NDSU campus between the hours of 7:00 a.m. and 10:00 p.m. Further, the similar time patterns also indicate a possibility of successful car pools.

Travel Mode to Campus

We asked three questions relevant to travel mode to campus. First, we asked faculty and staff how they most frequently travel to campus. Second, we asked if their travel mode changed during the winter. Third, we asked what factors influenced their travel mode choice.

It was evident faculty and staff value their independence because 91 percent reported they travel to campus by automobile (Figure 5.3). This number is equivalent to the number of respondents who reported they have access to a motor vehicle, so it is evident that a large number of employees use their autos to commute to campus. However, 10 percent of respondents indicated they ride their bicycle to campus and nearly 12 percent indicated they walk to campus. Given 14 percent of respondents live fewer than two miles from campus, several of them may choose to walk or ride bicycle. About 2 percent reported they ride MAT to campus (Figure 5.3), which is surprisingly low.

Nearly 16 percent of respondents indicate they chose a different mode of travel during the winter (Figure 5.4). Therefore, some of those who ride bicycles during the spring, summer and fall may opt to ride MAT or drive their automobile during the winter months. There are a number of reasons that individuals chose their mode of travel.

Convenience, time and parking availability are the greatest factors that influence the mode choice of faculty and staff (Figure 5.5). The question on the survey asked faculty and staff to indicate the level of importance each of the factors had on influencing mode choice to and from campus. It is not surprising that nearly 100 percent of the respondents indicated that convenience was very important, important, or at least somewhat important. Time (97 percent) and parking availability (96 percent) were also high in influencing mode choice to and from campus. The cost of the vehicle and the cost of parking were viewed as very important and important by 51 percent and 49 percent, respectively. The high level of importance of convenience, time and parking availability exemplifies the suggestion made earlier to map the addresses of faculty and staff to better coordinate with the MAT routes as well as identify car pool opportunities. Of course, the number of daily trips individuals make to and from campus can play a major role in their decision to take MAT or car pool.

Number of Daily Trips to Campus

Only about 20 percent of faculty and staff make multiple trips to campus. Nearly 80 percent reported two one-way trips to campus, which equates to one round trip to and from campus. Using public transportation or riding in car pools would be more accommodating for those faculty and staff making one round trip to and from campus.

Current Mobility

We asked questions to gain insight into faculty and staff current mobility. This section contains the responses to questions about access to motor vehicles, ownership of parking permits, attitudes toward parking convenience and cost.

Access to Vehicle and Parking

Most of the faculty and staff surveyed have access to a vehicle (92 percent) (Figure 5.6). This accessibility may seem imperative to some faculty and staff. They may need access to an automobile in case of emergencies such as ill children, etc. Addressing these emergencies without an automobile can be difficult so it is understandable why some faculty and staff rely on their autos. Further, some faculty teach courses certain hours of the day allowing time to run errands during their day, making their auto even more appealing. Nearly 93 percent of the faculty and staff indicated they own a parking permit (Figure 5.6), which is slightly higher than the number who indicated they have a vehicle.

We probed to learn how faculty and staff felt about the convenience and cost of parking on campus. We asked them to rate both parking convenience and parking costs. They could rate them as either very good, good, neutral, poor or very poor. For reporting purposes, we combined very good and good, and also very poor and poor. Nearly 43 percent of the faculty and staff feel parking convenience on campus is very good or good while 25 percent feel that parking convenience is very poor or poor, with 31 percent being neutral (Figure 5.7). The individuals who perceive parking convenience as poor may park a great distance from their building or experience over-crowding in their lot, making it difficult to find a parking spot.

Of the respondents, 45 percent viewed parking costs as very good or good while 18 percent felt parking costs are very poor or poor, and 31 percent viewed them as neutral (Figure 5.8). Parking permits at NDSU cost $60 annually, which is relatively inexpensive compared to other campus parking that can cost more than $400 annually.³ There are some mixed feelings with regard to parking convenience and costs. Some good planning on the part of NDSU in regard to transit could potentially reduce the demand for parking. Some individuals may be enticed to ride public transportation or car pool, particularly if there is convenient service for them. This is further justification for mapping where faculty and staff live, and trying to develop the best MAT routes to serve their residential areas. This shift would help reduce the demand for parking and address problems of over-crowded lots (e.g., PP).