A study of travel patterns to NUI Galway: Lessons for Smarter travel in Universities.

Cycling is undergoing a renaissance in Ireland. In 2011, the modal share of cycling increased for the first time since the 1980s. Smarter Travel policy has set a target to increase cycling to 10% of all trips by 2020. Third Level Institutions - due to their size, centralised organisation, ease of communication with a wide range of demographic profiles, age profile, educating role and proximity to cities and suburbs - are ideally placed to promote Smarter Travel, particularly cycling. However, in NUI Galway, for example, around 30% of students and 70% of staff still drive to campus. More than 2000 people cycle to NUI Galway daily and it is envisaged this figure will rise to over 3000 cyclists by 2014. To ensure that this target is achieved and facilitated, adequate infrastructure and services are required. Campus travel patterns are influenced by both on-campus and off-campus infrastructure provision. In Galway City, a range of cycle friendly infrastructure has been built or improved in the past year. This includes the provision of raised cycle lanes on some of the major roads leading from the east and west to NUI Galway. Furthermore, a cycle and pedestrian bridge combined with a greenway running through campus will ensure that NUI Galway is served by cycling infrastructure from four directions. Using an in-depth online survey of over 2,000 responses, the distance travelled, travel mode used, and time taken for staff, undergraduate students and postgraduate students to get to campus are analysed. This survey has been combined with up-to-date traffic counts as well as previous surveys to assess the travel patterns to NUI Galway over the past seven years. The motivations of each modal choice have been investigated as well as the effect of various issues (such as weather) on modal choice. The research also investigates potential motivators to shift transport mode. The paper establishes an accurate baseline of travel to NUI Galway from which future developments at NUI Galway and other TLIs can be measured. The paper further proposes the use of TLIs as testing grounds for future smarter travel developments.