Overall Rating Gold
Overall Score 79.54
Liaison Kelli O'Day
Submission Date June 20, 2023

STARS v2.2

University of California, Davis
OP-17: Support for Sustainable Transportation

Status Score Responsible Party
Complete 0.80 / 1.00 Kelli O'Day
Assessment Program Manager
Office of Sustainability
"---" indicates that no data was submitted for this field

Does the institution have a bicycle-sharing program or participate in a local bicycle-sharing program?:
No

A brief description of the bicycle sharing program:

UC Davis used to participate in the regional SACOG bikeshare system using JUMP until the pandemic struck and JUMP was sold to Lime. This fiscal year, UC Davis and the City of Davis partnered to bring bikeshare back to Davis. The RFP process is nearing the end.


Does the institution participate in a car sharing program?:
Yes

A brief description of the car sharing program:

There are currently two forms of car share available on campus. There are currently 10-17 Zipcar car share vehicles (fluctuating seasonally) in addition to the campus-run car share program called UC Drive. UC Drive vehicles are available in three locations on campus 24/7 for business use and reservations can be made online and billed directly to a campus department. Additional Zipcar vehicles are located adjacent to campus in the City of Davis as well, creating a robust network of car share vehicles for both personal and business use.


Does the institution offer preferential parking or other incentives for fuel efficient vehicles?:
No

A brief description of the incentives for fuel efficient vehicles:

UC Davis offers electric vehicle charging within its parking infrastructure, premium/reserved parking for vanpools, and 30,000 on-campus bicycle parking spots, but does not incentivize a particular fuel efficiency level.


Does the institution have one or more Level 2 or Level 3 electric vehicle recharging stations that are accessible to student and employee commuters?:
Yes

A brief description of the electric vehicle recharging stations:

There are 69 Level 2 EV charging ports (J1772 ports) for affiliate and public use on the UC Davis campus. There are additional ports available exclusively for the charging of campus fleet vehicles.


Does the institution have incentives or programs to encourage employees to live close to campus?:
Yes

A brief description of the incentives or programs to encourage employees to live close to campus:

Aggie Village offers UC Davis faculty and staff the opportunity to purchase affordable, quality homes adjacent to campus and created specifically to suit the needs of the growing university community. Aggie Village's location integrates the campus with downtown Davis, and in part, functions as a gateway to the city and the UC campus. The five-block site includes retail, residential and university uses, and usable open spaces. Bicycle trails and pedestrian paths offer connections to destinations in Davis and the university. Aggie Village is bordered on the south by the UC Davis Arboretum, which has its own bicycle and pedestrian paths.

West Village is a net-zero energy community located on the UC Davis campus that currently provides rental opportunities to UC Davis employees. It is designed to enable faculty, staff and students to live near campus, take advantage of environmentally friendly transportation options, and participate fully in campus life. Future development is planned for single-family homes in the West Village Community to further attract employees and their families.


Does the institution have other programs or initiatives to encourage more sustainable modes of transportation and/or reduce the impact of student and employee commuting?:
Yes

A brief description of other programs or initiatives to encourage more sustainable modes of transportation and/or reduce the impact of student and employee commuting:

In 2021, UC Davis transitioned away from "all you can eat" parking permits and adopted a "daily parking" system. Doing so eliminated the "sunk cost" hesitation of quarterly or annual parking passes (allowing quicker transition to sustainable commutes), forces the driver to reflect on what they're spending on parking every day, and provides an intrinsic incentive to do anything but drive because "if you don't park, you don't pay".

UC Davis made permanent the option to work remotely one or more days per week for positions whose duties do not always require their presence on campus. The telework effort combined with the daily parking system has massively reduced vehicles trips to campus completely removing all parking supply issues that existed pre-pandemic.

Campus Transportation Policy states that people living on campus do not have access to affiliate parking rates and must pay the visitor rate (approx. 4x affiliate rate) if they wish to drive to the campus core. Thus, campus residents almost never drive to class.

UC Davis is a member Yolo Commute, the county TMA (http://www.yolocommute.net/) and works closely with other organizations and large employers in the area to ensure that commuters have a wide array of transportation options.

UC Davis maintains a full-time bicycle coordinator, provides online bicycle education via Cycling Savvy Online, and holds rolling online bike auctions selling bicycles that have been impounded on campus and gone unclaimed by their owners.

Thriving without a car is taught via a 1st-year seminar called "Car(e)-Free Aggies". The class is lead by the Exec. Director of Transportation Services and the Transportation Demand Manager.

The Associated Students of UC Davis have run the campus/city transit system since the 1960s and keep expenses far below average by employing undergraduate students as the drivers of full-sized (and even double-decker) transit buses. Undergraduates board for free (they pay into the system with their student fees), but everyone else (including the general public) pays as little as $0.75 per boarding-- far below what any modern transit system charges.


Website URL where information about the institution’s support for sustainable transportation is available:
https://sustainability.ucdavis.edu/goals/transport

Additional documentation to support the submission:
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Data source(s) and notes about the submission:

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.