Earlier this fall, individuals who were on the TravelSmart interest group mailing list, as well as registered TravelSmart participants, received a feedback survey. The information provided was very helpful and not only tells TravelSmart organizers what’s going on, but will help to make improvements in the future.
First things first: the winner of the $50 gift certificate to eCreamery is Diane Landon.
The survey provided some pretty interesting information:
- Almost 700 people took the survey.
- 77 percent of participants use TravelSmart to get to work or school from three to five days a week.
- 40 percent of participants have never used active transportation to travel to campus prior to TravelSmart.
- Most people participate to save themselves money (and they are saving a lot.) They also care about reducing pollution, improving their health/reducing stress, avoiding the hassle of parking and traffic.
- Approximately 18.6 percent of employees and students on this campus use active transportation to come to campus or are people who work from home. This is an increase of 5.7 percent over the 12.7 percent baseline, and pushes us closer to our 20 percent goal in the Sustainability Master Plan.
- On any given workday, 293 parking stalls are available to others on campus because of people using active transportation.
Pretty great, huh? But wait, there’s more.
By using active transportation, TravelSmart participants are saving approximately 8,182 single occupant vehicle miles (miles that would have otherwise been taken by an individual driving a car) per week. Do you know how far that is? You could drive from Bar Harbor, Maine, to Buffalo, Chicago, Minneapolis, Seattle, Los Angeles, Phoenix, San Antonio, Houston, New Orleans, Jacksonville, Washington D.C., Philadelphia, New York, and back to Portland, Maine, with miles to spare. If you are counting, that’s 33 states. And that’s just one week.
If you extrapolate that out to one year, it’s the equivalent of greenhouse gas emission from 57.2 tons of waste in a landfill, or carbon dioxide emissions from producing electricity for 21 homes, or the carbon sequestered by 3,952 tree seedlings grown for 10 years. That reduction in pollution helps to prevent asthma attacks, cancer, and premature death, while helping those with COPD and other respiratory diseases.
Way to go, TravelSmart participants!
Don’t forget, if you have questions, concerns, or feedback about the TravelSmart program, whether you are registered or not, please don’t hesitate to contact TravelSmart.