Overall Rating Silver - expired
Overall Score 57.39
Liaison Tina Woolston
Submission Date Nov. 12, 2015
Executive Letter Download

STARS v2.0

Tufts University
OP-20: Employee Commute Modal Split

Status Score Responsible Party
Complete 0.97 / 2.00 Tina Woolston
Director
Office of Sustainability
"---" indicates that no data was submitted for this field

Total percentage of the institution’s employees that use more sustainable commuting options:
48.40

The percentage of the institution's employees that use each of the following modes as their primary means of transportation to and from campus::
Percentage (0-100)
Commute with only the driver in the vehicle (excluding motorcycles and scooters) 51.60
Walk, bicycle, or use other non-motorized means 7.90
Vanpool or carpool 3.60
Take a campus shuttle or public transportation 24.70
Use a motorcycle, scooter or moped 0.15
Telecommute for 50 percent or more of their regular work hours 1.14

A brief description of the method(s) used to gather data about employee commuting:

The Tufts Operations Division and Office of Sustainability administered an online commuting survey to staff and faculty 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 employee population on each campus. A total of 1,974 non-students completed the survey, including staff, faculty, post-docs, and others who didn't fit nicely into a student, faculty or staff category. This represents 32% of employees, of which 1,878 completed the question related to commute method for the week of April 7-11, 2014.


The website URL where information about sustainable transportation for employees is available:
Data source(s) and notes about the submission:

In the survey, employees were asked how they commuted from home to Tufts during the period of Monday, April 7 to Friday, April 11, 2014. Those 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 employees 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 employees commuting by bike). The total number of respondents (1,878) was used as the denominator to calculate the above percentages.

Note in particular that the percentage for telecommuting provided above was calculated in the same manner and reflects the average number of people who telecommuted to the university during that week. It does not include people who telecommuted for part of a day.

Employees 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. Flextime, Other, and Not at Tufts constituted the remaining 10.9% 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


In the survey, employees were asked how they commuted from home to Tufts during the period of Monday, April 7 to Friday, April 11, 2014. Those 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 employees 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 employees commuting by bike). The total number of respondents (1,878) was used as the denominator to calculate the above percentages.

Note in particular that the percentage for telecommuting provided above was calculated in the same manner and reflects the average number of people who telecommuted to the university during that week. It does not include people who telecommuted for part of a day.

Employees 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. Flextime, Other, and Not at Tufts constituted the remaining 10.9% 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

The information presented here is self-reported. While AASHE staff review portions of all STARS reports and institutions are welcome to seek additional forms of review, the data in STARS reports are not verified by AASHE. If you believe any of this information is erroneous or inconsistent with credit criteria, please review the process for inquiring about the information reported by an institution or simply email your inquiry to stars@aashe.org.