What can be Learned from Analyzing University Student Travel Demand?

Abstract

To improve regional travel demand models, transportation engineers and planners desire appropriate representation of subpopulations. University students are a relatively neglected group of the population, often missed in regional behavioral surveys and not well represented in travel demand models. Many students attending a university reside, take classes, work, and perform other activities in the university environment, which is often mixed use, alternative mode friendly, higher density, and livable. The purpose of this paper is to understand the travel behavior of university students and to model associations with their attributes that include personal characteristics, residential location (residing on campus or off campus), and academic status. The data used in this study are from a unique Internet-based survey (N = 1,468) of students at Old Dominion University in Virginia. This effort was conducted in 2010 and was part of the Virginia University Student Travel Survey (USTS) supplement. With USTS data combined with spatial data, rigorous statistical models of automobile and walk–bicycle trip rates are estimated to explore associated factors. Results showed that students living on campus or near campus were significantly more likely to walk and bicycle and less likely to drive automobiles and indicated the value of living in a campus environment with greater accessibility to activities and a walk-and bicycle-friendly network. The behavioral models provide helpful information that can be used to represent better the behavior of university students in regional travel demand models and to improve strategic transportation planning.