Students Using Sustainable Commuting Options (%)
Institution's students commute to and from campus using more sustainable commuting options such as walking, bicycling, vanpooling or carpooling, taking public transportation, riding motorcycles or scooters, riding a campus shuttle, or a combination of these options.
Students who live on campus should be included in the calculation based on how they get to and from their classes.
This metric is looking for the percentage of students that use more sustainable commuting options:
For WikiRate researchers:
Institutions who report to the STARS program are listed on the STARS Participants & Reports website.
Use the institution Index, CTRL F, or Command F to search for the institution you want to research
By clicking on the hyperlinked name of the institution, you will be redirected to the page where all their STARS reports are listed. You can select either the most recent report, or one of the older reports to start tracking their performance over time.
NB: While the values in the reports might apply to different points in time (performance year, baseline year, most recent, etc.), the submission date of the report should be listed as the “year” on WikiRate. This is to ensure that reports of the same submission year can be compared. Any time specific information for the individual values should be included in the comment to that specific metric value.
To narrow down your search, navigate the reports’ index using the Reporting Category - Operations - and Credit Category - Transportation - to finally select the Credit Title: Student Commute Modal Split.
You should now be on the report page that discloses the percentage of students that use more sustainable commuting options. To locate the exact value you can search the page using CTRL F or Command F with keywords like student commute, sustainable commuting, and sustainable transport.
Always check the metric question and methodology for the unit of measure or currency - researchers may need to carry out calculations or conversions before entering the final metric value
Add comments to include details of simple or complex calculations or conversions made to determine the metric value and document any relevant contextual information, like:
a brief description of the method(s) used to gather data about student commuting
the website URL where information about sustainable transportation for students is available
Further guidance on how to research values is available here, including detailed guidance on adding, editing and checking metric values.
STARS compliance guidance for institutions:
Timeframe
Institutions should report the most recent data available from within the three years prior to the anticipated date of submission.
Sampling and Data Standards
Institutions may use a representative sample to gather data about student commuting behavior. For information about how to measure commuting behavior, see the guidance provided by the Massachusetts Rideshare Program and the South Coast Air Quality Management District.
This credit is scored based on the percentage of students (graduate and undergraduate) using alternatives to single-occupancy vehicle commuting (i.e., more sustainable commuting options). Students who do not regularly attend the physical campus (i.e., distance education students) may be excluded.