Tufts University
OP-19: Student Commute Modal Split

The Tufts Operations Division and Office of Sustainability administered an online commuting survey to all employees and students on the university’s three campuses between April 22 and May 23, 2014. The “simple random sample survey method” was used to obtain a representative cross-section of the non-residential student population on each campus. A 'census survey method' was used for the residential students where they all received the survey. A total of 2,883 students completed the survey, representing 24% of the student body, of which 1,686 completed the question related to commute method for the week of Apr 7-11, 2014. 44% of the respondents live on campus.

In the survey, students were asked how they commuted from home to Tufts during a typical 5-day week (Monday - Friday) from April 7 - April 11, 2014. Students who traveled by multiple modes of transportation (e.g., walk to the subway station) were asked to choose the mode with the most miles traveled. To obtain the numbers above, the totals for all 5 days of the week for each mode of transportation were averaged (e.g., 108 students biked to campus on Monday, 102 on Tuesday, 108 on Wednesday, 106 on Thursday, and 94 on Friday - these numbers were averaged to give a total of 103.6 students commuting by bike). The total number of respondents to the question (1,686) was used as the denominator. This includes an average of 205 people who indicated that they were not at Tufts or responded "other." Students completing the survey could select one of the following commuting modes: Drive Alone, Carpool, Vanpool, Motorcycle/Scooter/Moped, MBTA Bus, Tufts Davis Square Shuttle, Subway (the T), Commuter Rail/Regional Train, Bicycle, Walk, Telecommute, Flextime/Day off, Other, and Not at Tufts. For purposes of this questionnaire, Telecommute was included as an "other non-motorized means" with Walk and Bicycle. Flextime, Other, and Not at Tufts constituted 12.5% of respondents. The weather during the week was as follows (from wunderground.com): Monday: mean temp 49 degrees F, precipitation 0.04" Tuesday: mean temp 54 degrees F, precipitation 0.67" Wednesday: mean temp 50 degrees F, precipitation 0.00" Thursday: mean temp 47 degrees F, precipitation 0.00" Friday: mean temp 59 degrees F, trace of precipitation