How can we design a more sustainable transportation system at NCSU?

DS 200 Fall '22

Dr. Leslie-Ann Noel

Assignment 3- Onward and Upward: Sustainability After COVID

Background

How has transportation been affected by the pandemic?

During the COVID-19 pandemic, most situations that included mass gatherings of people were suspended almost immediately as widespread outbreaks started becoming more rampant

Total suspension of non-essential air travel
Total suspension of public transportation via trains, metros, and subways
Smaller scale public transportation, such as Uber and Lyft suspended at the beginning of the pandemic as well
Since non-essential shopping and excursions were postponed as well, people were often not driving anywhere

After the pandemic, regulations were still in place well into 2021 and even 2022. Airports still did fever screening; for most public transportation, masks were still mandatory; and negative COVID tests were needed for domestic and international travel

Initial Observations

What sort of new initiatives for transportation have been implemented because of the pandemic?

Since the height of COVID-19, safety measures have been enacted in order to prevent the transmission of COVID-19 such as pre-departure screenings, intense sanitation measures, and distanced seating. The National Institute of Health reports that due to the decline in public transportation usage, and the increase of activities such as cycling, walking, and running, major cities could see more urban planning in the future be centered around walkable design. The National Library of Medicine explains in the article Impacts of COVID-19 on transportation: Summary and Synthesis of interdisciplinary research, the “new normal” for transportation to focus on two main components: increased sanitization and increased interest in walking, biking, scootering, etc. At NCSU specifically during the pandemic there was a mask mandate on buses, social distancing precautions such as designated seating and marked standing areas, and reduced capacity on buses.

Data Collected from https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7813510/

Student Transportation Data

“Transport mode preferences of university students in post-COVID-19 pandemic”

From Pandemic to Present

(Data was found from a University in Istanbul, Turkey)

Bagdatli MEC, Ipek F. Transport mode preferences of university students in post-COVID-19 pandemic. Transp Policy (Oxf). 2022 Mar;118:20-32. doi: 10.1016/j.tranpol.2022.01.017. Epub 2022 Jan 29. PMID: 35125682; PMCID: PMC8799352.

After our initial background research it is clear that the transportation sector was severely impacted by the pandemic. With this in mind, people’s preferences of transportation changed throughout the pandemic depending on a variety of reasons such as safety precautions, less accessibility, and more. This study specifically looked into how university students preferences have changed at a University in Istanbul, Turkey. The data found in this study is important to consider when looking at our own transportation system at NCSU and how the pandemic might have affected the transportation from a pre and post pandemic lense.

Who are the stakeholders? How are they affected?

With all the precautions mentioned in the Initial Observations section, groups of stakeholders were affected such as students, employees, and residents of the 27607 area during the pandemic.

Students: Important for accessibility to classes on both of NCSU’s campuses and to on and off student housing. This is especially important for students who do not have their own modes of transportation such as cars.

Transportation Employees: The NCSU Transportation department provides employment for a variety of different roles within the transportation system. Jobs within the department are important for the employees livelihood.

Residents of 27607 Area: NCSU Transportation also provides free transportation for those in the 27607 area that are trying to access places that the transportation system reaches such as campus, housing near Avent Ferry, and Hillsborough Street.

What Sustainability initiatives NCSU Transportation is Achieving Today

Because of the pandemic the NCSU transportation system was running more frequently due to social distancing on buses which meant less capacity. Although this was beneficial during the pandemic in order to fulfill health precautions, it ultimately meant more emissions were being let into the ecosystem and lead to a less sustainable bus system. Today these are the current sustainable transportation efforts NCSU is pursuing during this post-pandemic period.

“On a thriving university campus, people are on the move. From work to class and everywhere in between, students, faculty and staff travel to, from and around campus. Every year, campus sustainable transportation options grow, reducing energy use and greenhouse gas emissions while creating a more pedestrian-friendly and less congested campus.”

Walkable campus with time maps
Promotion of cycling with being able to register your bicycle, having places to lock up bicycle (theft prevention) and campus bicycle maps.
Both Wolfline and regional/local bus line stops available all over campus for the promoting of public transportation
- TransLoc App for easy navigation of the bus lines
NEW installations of electrical charging stations for electric cars
Reduced cost parking pass for carpoolers

https://sustainability.ncsu.edu/campus/transportation/

Possible Solution

Our solution to making the NCSU Transportation system more sustainable is to design a walkable map of shortcuts on campus. An example of one of these shortcuts would be the cut-through inside the 1911 bundling that connects the brickyard to the Court of Carolina without walking all the way around Hillsborough Street.

This would be an innovative way to promote more effective, timely, and sustainable way for students to navigate campus.

How does this connect to the reading?

In the novel In the Bubble: Designing a Complex World author John Thackara quotes Ivan Illich, an Austrian philosopher and priest, who studied how to have a sustainable and cohesive city. Illich says, "I believe that a desirable future depends on our deliberately choosing a life of action, over a life of consumption. Rather than maintaining a lifestyle which only allows to produce and consume- a style of life which is merely a way station on the road to the depletion and pollution of the environment..." (p75) The idea of intentionally making decisions that Illich is proclaiming in this quote relates to the solution that we have come up with to promote sustainability in regards to transportation on NCSU campus. With the shortcut map, students will be able to deliberately choose to walk rather than take buses or cars which are constantly polluting the campus around us. The map design will promote students even further with eye catching graphics and will promote further the claims that of Illich that Thackara quotes in his novel.