Measuring the potential for bicycling and walking at a metropolitan commuter university

An attitudinal survey was disseminated to faculty, staff, and students at a metropolitan commuter university with the objective to ascertain what travel demand management (TDM) strategies will increase bicycling and walking activity. Using Geographic Information Systems (GIS), the groups were divided spatially into typical walking and bicycling zones from campus. Descriptive analysis was first used to determine attitudinal differences and similarities among the divided groups regarding hypothetical walking and bicycling conditions. It was found that all groups generally favored most bicycling interventions within a bicycling zone versus those who lived outside the zone. Accordingly, most walking facilitators were viewed positively among all groups. A binary logit model was then utilized to understand how distance from campus affected the likelihood that a bicycle or pedestrian mode shift would occur among faculty, students, and staff. Model results indicated that bicycle safety and education may cause faculty to bicycle, whereas higher automobile costs may cause staff to bicycle, and a visible bicycle culture would cause students to bicycle more in a bicycling zone. The probability that staff and students would walk more was linked to increased perceived personal safety. Increased automobile costs and traffic enforcement appeared to be the largest incentive to increase faculty walking activity in a walking zone. The results indicate that a commuter university contains a diverse population, with equally diverse utilitarian non-motorized travel needs. Therefore, effective TDM strategies should reflect this variety by incorporating appropriate bicycling and walking incentives and automobile disincentives that encourage active commuting.