Average Transportation Energy Expenditure

The goal of this project is to determine the average school day transportation energy expenditure by the BYU campus community. This estimate will be used as a baseline to assess potential sustainability policies and programs that BYU may undertake in the near future. There are many methods to arrive at this estimate, and the project team should be prepared to compare multiple methods on the methods’ feasibility, detail, and accuracy. The project should attempt to provide a baseline estimate of campus commute energy expenditure by several methods: big data resources collected by campus officials; observational studies of campus parking lots and pedestrian access points; third-party location-based services (mobile device data); regional travel demand modeling tools; public information from the U.S. Census Bureau and other associated agencies, and a survey of campus users. The project team should prepare a report describing the methods used, comparing the methods for feasibility and accuracy, and making a recommendation as to which method should be used for future evaluation of BYU sustainable transportation policies and programs. The team will also make a presentation to the BYU sustainability working group.