Running Head: TRANSPORTATION: HOW PEOPLE GET TO YOLO HALL

Transportation: How people get to Yolo Hall

Jacob DeVor
Todd Ristow
Amy Kingsbury
Zachary Merrifield
Cameron Giambastiani
California State University Chico

TRANSPORTATION: HOW PEOPLE GET TO YOLO HALL

Proposed research topic

Performing a Survey digitally or in person to determine the most common mode of transportation
that people use to get to and from Yolo Hall.
Purpose
We are conducting this research to help us have a better understanding on how to make Yolo Hall
a more sustainable building. We will conduct a survey to measure how many students, staff,
professors, etc. are getting to the building. We will be surveying people at different times of the
day and different entrances to the building to have less bias and more accurate results. Through
conducting this survey we will figure out roughly how many people visit the building and what
type of transportation they are using. Finding out the means of transportation to Yolo Hall can
help us further our research on the carbon footprint on the building. Then, we can have better
knowledge on how to make our building more sustainable which will overall make our Chico
State campus a more sustainable environment.
Background
To provide some background on the effects that transportation has to our use of carbon. Carbon
has a lifetime of at least 100 years, It dominates greenhouse gas emissions from transportation
and other end-use sectors. Carbon is contained in fossil fuels which are hydrocarbons which is
converted into Co2 when bored on road transportations, it runs almost exclusively on gasoline
and diesel fuels. Americans depend on their cars in fact 91% of all passenger traveled miles are
in a car (excluding air travel). In 2008 on road transportation ( Including cars, light, medium, and
heavy trucks, mini vans, motorcycles and busses) contributed to 1600 teragram of Co2. Over the
next decade or two this figure of 1 billion motor vehicles is expected to double to 2 billion. But
by supporting a new, low carbon, low-efficient, productive, and high-growth economy for the

TRANSPORTATION: HOW PEOPLE GET TO YOLO HALL

twenty-first century will be key to maintaining U.S. leadership in an increasingly competitive
global marketplace.
Scope
We will be measuring the different types of transportation used to get to Yolo Hall on campus.
There are many options including walking, biking, driving or taking the bus so our goal is to
measure all the different ways used to travel to campus and what is the most popular option.
Ideally, we would like everyone to walk or ride their bike. Once we know the amount of people
that are driving to campus or taking the bus, we can start to find ways that can change that.
Research
When looking at CO2 emissions, transportation plays a big role on the use of the overall global
energy. In the article Evolving Narratives of Low-Carbon Futures in Transportation, Felix
Creutzig states that the transportation sector causes 22 % of global energy CO2 emissions.
Transportation is heavy relied on by a majority of people causing CO2 emissions to increase
faster than CO2 emissions from other sectors. Mobile end-use requires costly high-density
energy carriers, such as electric batteries or hydrogen, or biofuels with sometimes ambiguous
environmental impact (Creutzig, 2015). Creutzig explains that options for reducing CO2
emissions in transportation could be to to reduce the carbon intensity of fuels, enhance energy
efficiency of vehicles, shifting modes, and reducing demand. Mode shift and demand reduction
can be looked at as behavioral changes. While these two options can be ways that we can focus
on reducing transportation CO2 emissions there are a few different methods that Creutzig
mentioned that are based more on data and statistical ways to figuring out how to reduce
emissions.

TRANSPORTATION: HOW PEOPLE GET TO YOLO HALL

Urban planning is reducing the distance between residential location, jobs, etc. that would reduce
transport CO2 emissions with the main strategy being compactification. An econometric study
on the USA suggested that compactification between 2005 and 2054 would reduce urban
transport-induced GHG emissions by up to 63% (Creutzig, 2015). Another method mentioned
was focusing on improving public health and shifting from vehicle transportation toward active
travel such as walking and biking that would reduce CO2 emissions immensely. Many of
Creutzigs methods are great ideas but focus on trying to change peoples perspectives which will
eventually change their daily actions in transportation. While this may be difficult it is still
manageable.
Many people choose their various ways of transportation based on convenience. In the article
Issues in Sustainable transportation, Todd Litman explains how we need to change the decision
making process of how people think. If more people think about the carbon they are using and
think of different ways to be more efficient, it can make an actual change. Sustainable transport
planning requires a paradigm shift: a fundamental change in the way people think about solve
problems (Litman, 1999a).
Methods for measuring transportation for Yolo hall
Counting the number of bike racks and bikes in them will allow us to measure how many
people on average ride their bikes to and from class.
Counting the number of available parking spots for cars will allow us to measure roughly how
much fuel is burned to get to and from the building.
Ask students what types of transportation they used to get to Yolo hall.
Find out how the groundskeepers get around the fields and outlying buildings.

TRANSPORTATION: HOW PEOPLE GET TO YOLO HALL

Timeline
-Week 1 Build Survey
-Week 2 Perform survey
-Determine approximate amount of carbon used
-When data Gathered Build Graph
-Upload to website

TRANSPORTATION: HOW PEOPLE GET TO YOLO HALL

References
Creutzig, F. (2016). Evolving Narratives of Low-Carbon Futures in Transportation. Transport
Reviews, 36(3), 341-360. doi:10.1080/01441647.2015.1079277
Litman, T. (2006). Issues in Sustainable Transportation.