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Invisible commuters: assessing a university’s eco-friendly transportation policies and commuting behaviours

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  • Duque, Ricardo B.
  • Gray, David
  • Harrison, Mariah
  • Davey, Elizabeth

Abstract

To assess the efficacy of a private university’s environmentally friendly transportation policies, we administered a transportation and energy-use phone survey to a random sample of faculty, non-professional staff, and off-campus students. Statistical findings confirm that our sample population exhibits the Environmental Attitudes & Behaviours (A-B) and Behaviours & Behaviours (B-B) Splits observed in past studies. Those most likely to report environmentally friendly attitudes/behaviours are also the most likely to commute longer distances and in larger cars. Moreover, the least-compensated university sub-population, non-professional staff (i.e., office support, grounds keepers), is significantly more likely to contribute to a dramatically larger per-capita percentage of the university’s carbon footprint from commuting. University pro-environment transportation alternatives at the time of this study did not consider directly this commuter sub-group’s structural disadvantages. This incongruence in goals and execution reflects an institutional variant of the A-B Split explained by the New Institutionalism perspective.

Suggested Citation

  • Duque, Ricardo B. & Gray, David & Harrison, Mariah & Davey, Elizabeth, 2014. "Invisible commuters: assessing a university’s eco-friendly transportation policies and commuting behaviours," Journal of Transport Geography, Elsevier, vol. 38(C), pages 122-136.
  • Handle: RePEc:eee:jotrge:v:38:y:2014:i:c:p:122-136
    DOI: 10.1016/j.jtrangeo.2014.05.010
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    6. Khaled Assi & Uneb Gazder & Ibrahim Al-Sghan & Imran Reza & Abdullah Almubarak, 2020. "A Nested Ensemble Approach with ANNs to Investigate the Effect of Socioeconomic Attributes on Active Commuting of University Students," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 17(10), pages 1-17, May.

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