Faculty, staff asked to record commute trips to campus

Western Washington University President Bruce Shepard sent a letter to the campus community Monday, April 9, apprising faculty and staff of an upcoming commuting survey.

On April 16, faculty and staff will receive a link to the Commute Trip Reduction survey, where they'll enter information about how they reached work during the week of April 9 to 13. The full text of Shepard's letter is below:

On April 16th, you will be asked to complete a survey about your daily commute to work. I am writing to request your cooperation in responding to the survey promptly.

Your survey participation will take place in two steps. First, this week, April 9-13, please keep track of how you get to work and record your one-way mileage each day. Then, next week, on April 16th, you will receive an email link to the Commute Trip Reduction survey and will be able to complete the survey online. The survey should take about 10 minutes to complete. Paper surveys will be distributed to those who do not have e-mail access.

The Commute Trip Reduction Survey measures Western’s compliance with a state law that was passed in 1991. The law was designed to reduce the environmental damage, traffic congestion and fuel consumption associated with single occupancy vehicles (SOVs). That is a goal Western is glad to support and we have done our best to provide a Commute Trip Reduction program that assists employees in voluntarily reducing the number of individual trips taken and the number of miles driven alone.

2012 is a Commute Trip Reduction survey year and I am requesting full campus participation. The state requires a minimum return rate of 70% of all surveys distributed. We’d like to beat the minimum and set a goal of 100% participation for Western.

As Western plans for campus sustainability, gathering information about transportation habits and needs becomes even more important. The survey information will be used for evaluation of commute trip reduction programs at Western and for assessment of transportation-related impacts to carbon neutrality.

If you have questions about the survey or the CTR program, please contact Andrea Osborn or Carol Berry, in the Sustainable Transportation Office at transportation@wwu.edu, or x7960.