Motorized Mobility on a Latin American University Campus: A Preliminary Study Focused on Sustainability.

GRASSI, YAMILA SOLEDAD; DIAZ, MONICA FATIMA; PESCE, GABRIELA; PEDRONI, FLORENCIA; RIVERO, MARIA ANDREA; CHIACCHIARINI, HECTOR

Lecture Notes in Networks and Systems. Trends in Sustainable Smart Cities and Territories . SSCT 2023.

Springer, Cham

Lugar: Cham; Año: 2023; p. 3 - 14

Universities are often viewed as microcosms of the cities they inhabit, making them ideal locations to study sustainable mobility solutions that could be implemented on a larger scale. The present work was performed at Universidad Nacional del Sur´s Altos de Palihue campus, in Bahía Blanca (Argentina). The research was based on an analysis performed on the community's mobility preferences through video recordings at the campus access points and on a survey of the vehicle characteristics located at the parking lots. Based on this, a characterization of the university community's way of commuting was obtained, as well as an estimate of the vehicle fleet's age and the type of fuel used. According to the results, private combustion vehicles are dominant in both campus accesses, representing 45% using the access through the wooded neighborhood and 87% through the nearby avenue entrance. Interestingly, 64% of the motorized vehicles that access the San Andres entrance do so with only one occupant, while at the Cabrera entrance, this situation represents 67%. Moreover, based on the parking lots survey, 36% of the vehicles are less than 6 years old. Additionally, about 78% of the vehicles use petrol, while 18% are diesel and the remaining ones run on compressed natural gas. Last but not least, this study establishes the basis for a future emissions inventory generated by the current university community's mobility decisions. In this sense, it will be possible to design and implement measures aimed at sustainable development, aligned with the Sustainable Development Goals.