Despite the fact that Oxford has been historically considered a pedestrian-friendly campus, a new study of Miami University's transportation shows dependence on personal vehicles by students, faculty and staff has transformed Oxford into a "car campus."
According to Miami's new Campus Transportation Study, 70 percent of travel-trips taken to, from and around campus, by university students, faculty and staff-is in a vehicle.
The undergraduate student population drives less frequently than Miami's staff, faculty or graduate students, but chooses driving to campus almost as often as walking, with 40 percent of trips made through walking and 38 percent driving.
Even for students, faculty and staff that live within a mile of King Library, almost half of all trips to campus are taken by car.
"It's hard to believe that people who live that close would choose to drive," said David Prytherch, assistant professor of geography and author of the campus transportation study. "With traffic congestion on campus and limited parking, it's usually faster to walk."
Prytherch said the idea for the study was a result of the university's Presidential Task Force on Environmental Sustainability, which was started in November 2007. Geography master's student Grant Garstka helped Prytherch conduct the study.
According to the final report put out by the task force, one of the university sustainability committee's goals is to develop a comprehensive master plan for managing campus transportation, with an emphasis on increasing use of alternative modes.
Prytherch said something had to be done before work could begin on this master plan.
"In order to make changes, we need to know what the existing conditions are first," he said.
Prytherch explained that prior to this study, no extensive analysis of transportation at Miami had ever been conducted, but is now necessary in order to make improvements and track changes.
"Transportation is so essential to a campus," Prytherch said. "If not managed properly, it can negatively affect the campus, surrounding communities and the environment."
The new study, which is based off information gathered during the spring 2008 semester, estimates that on an average day, Miami employees drive more than a total of 100,000 miles on their way to and from work. That's more than four times around the world-everyday.
According to calculations done by the study's researchers, if assuming average fuel economy, these commutes result in the emission of 102,000 pounds of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere each day.
Prytherch said these results show that Miami is leaving an undesirable "carbon footprint" on the environment and if the university wants to work toward a sustainable campus, these numbers need to go down.
Perry Gordon, director of the office of parking and transportation services, said one of the first steps in working toward a sustainable campus involves getting the Miami community to make smarter transportation choices.
"We need to convince people to carpool, use the bus, bike or walk," Gordon said.
According to Gordon, ridership on Miami Metro buses is up by 4 percent so far this year, and he hopes more people will choose to travel by bus and cut back on unnecessary trips made by personal vehicles.
By finding out where Miami's students, faculty and staff are commuting from, how they get to Oxford, and how they travel while on campus, Prytherch and his team were able to see where strengths and weakness lie in transportation around Miami.
Prytherch said this study was not meant to be a policy document, and that the university has not yet developed its master plan for making transportation more effective.
"Right now, it helps us understand how sustainable or not our existing
transportation system is," Prytherch said. "Miami has all the right ingredients for a sustainable transportation system. We just need to make improvements so they can be used more effectively."
