Proximity to public transportation and sustainable commuting to college. A case study of an Italian suburban campus

As sustainability has become a key and urgent challenge both in urban and suburban contexts, in the last years commuting patterns of university populations have received a growing attention from scholars and policymakers. Urgent solutions are required to improve the people quality of life, by encouraging, especially in systematic mobility, the use of alternative and greener transport modes than private vehicles. In this paper we examine, as a case study, the students and staff commuting habits of a public medium-size university campus that is located in a peripheral area of the city of Varese (north-west of Italy) far from the rail and extra-urban bus stations and with many green spaces. Using data from a survey on a sample of more than 1800 respondents, the goal of this paper is to investigate, by a multinomial logit model, the main determinants of the commuting mode (car, bus, train and carpooling) and the car dominance motivations, particularly focusing on the spatial/trip factors. The main results highlight the crucial role of public transport (bus and train stops and stations) proximity both in medium-short and long-distance trips. Other factors affecting the mode choice concern the commuter age and partially the gender, the frequency and length of the trips. Differently from the results of the empirical literature about urban colleges, we found a positive correlation between the distance and the use of train. The findings of this study could help the policymakers to identify the most effective sustainable transport policies, for example introducing parking fees and increasing the public transit accessibility.