Assessing the impact of changes in mobility behaviour to evaluate sustainable transport policies: Case of university campuses of Politecnico di Milano

Abstract

Started in 2011, the “Città Studi Campus Sostenibile” project (CSCS), promoted by Politecnico di Milano and Università degli Studi di Milano, is aimed at turning the common university district in a model for quality of life and environmental sustainability. One of the topics of this project relates with transport and sustainable mobility. In this framework, during the last three years, the Sustainable Office of the University, in collaboration with the university mobility manager, carried out two surveys on mobility and commuting, among students, professors and administrative staff. In 2015 were surveyed about 12.000 people and about 14.000 in 2017, respectively 27% and 24% of the total population of each year. Through the analysis of the data of the last survey, we firstly provide a description of the current mobility patterns of the university population, then we calculate CO2 emissions from mobility activities to access Politecnico campuses. In order to estimate CO2 emissions of every trip, we utilize local emission factors for each transport mode. Previous studies evidenced how this component accounts for more than 40% of the total emissions of Politecnico di Milano. Lastly, in order to identify in which context policy packages, aimed at increasing the modal share of sustainable transport modes, are more effective and efficient in reducing CO2 emission, we analyse a set of scenarios involving both different territorial contexts inside Lombardy region and different campuses population.