Measuring the Use of Sustainable Modes of Transport at a University

Abstract

Measuring the use of sustainable modes of transport at a university can confer many benefits. Investigating how university members arrive on-site can create a sense of urgency for sustainable mobility, and showing how the use of these modes of transport affects the university’s total ecological footprint can be an effective way of doing so. Furthermore, scenarios about the effects of methods for increasing transport sustainability can be calculated, although they should be regarded with caution. It can also be crucial to examine why university members use a specific mode of transport. This enables sustainability officers to adjust sustainability measures to needs and environmental conditions that can be critical for their success. Therefore, this paper introduces a four-stage approach to assessing the ecological footprint of specific modes of transportation based on university members’ attitudes and motives, the situation and environment, their actual behaviour and the resulting environmental impact. In doing so, the construct of mobility can be analysed in a way that does justice to its complexity and multifaceted nature. This is demonstrated with an analysis of two studies at the Hochschule für Technik (University of Applied Sciences) Stuttgart in which all of these aspects were used to define target groups and adjust and prioritise corresponding measures targeting their mobility behaviour.