Dickinson College
OP-20: Employee Commute Modal Split

On Fri Oct 5, 2012, students in Psych 340 (Rsch Mthds in Soc Psych) phoned 187 randomly selected college extensions and successfully connected with 82 employees (response rate = 44%) who answered up to a dozen questions about how they commute to work at Dickinson. The next week, a link to an online survey containing the same questions was emailed to 300 randomly selected employee email addresses; 157 (52%) replied during a 3-day period, none of whom overlapped the phone sample. Total sample (phone + online) = 239 employees. The gender (F=62%) and job category distributions (30% administrators, 28% faculty, 41% staff) of respondents were a good match to the population of employees who have individual phone extensions and/or email addresses. Only 37/239 = 15.5% of respondents had NOT driven a motor vehicle to work in the past 5 days, and biked, walked, or both to work; none of these reported using public transportation. Of the 202/239=84.5% who drove to work in the past 5 days, only 13 (6.4%) shared a ride with at least one other person. Of this small number, fewer than half rideshared all 5 days. None of those in the samples reported commuting via motorcycle, scooter, etc. Usable vehicle make/model/year info was obtained from 195 of the 202 driving commuters and the corresponding MPG and CO2 was calculated using EPA vehicle averages. The mean MPG of the vehicles was 22.6 (sd=6.98), median = 21 MPG. The mean annual CO2 emission for the vehicles was 6.9 US tons (sd=1.62), with a median of 7 tons. In November 2013, another commuting survey was conducted. A solicitation and survey link was sent to 400 randomly chosen faculty and staff (FAS) email addresses. There were 188 respondents (47% response rate; 64% F), almost equally divided among administrators, faculty, and staff. Staff outnumber both Administrators and Faculty in the college employee population, so the sample under-represented Staff members. 185 respondents said they actually had been to campus during the preceding five working days. They replied to this multi-item checklist of methods for getting to work, as shown below: In the past five working days, how did you commute from home to Dickinson? Choose all that apply: • I biked. • I drove my personal vehicle, with no other passengers • I drove my personal vehicle, with at least one other passengers. • I rode a bus. • I rode with a Dickinson employee • I rode with someone who is not a Dickinson employee • I walked. • Other (please specify): (8) ____________________ Respondents were allowed to check more than one method of commuting. Nonetheless, over half (n=100; 54%) chose only the response, I drove my personal vehicle with no other passengers. A substantial minority (n=69; 37%) reported having bicycled, taken a bus, or walked to work at least once during the previous five working days; many of these had also driven at least once. Ridesharing -- either as driver or passenger -- was rare; only 26 employees (14%) checked any of the ridesharing options. A more accurate transportation survey is being developed and will be administered this spring.