Moving Target

Mark - Flip over to the bottom of page 29 of the EBOM-09 Reference Guide for some helpful guidance on surveying transportation modes in buildings with large transient populations, which a university classroom might indeed be. Also, in many cases, a campus-wide transportation study can be applied to all buildings on the campus - many university campuses perform just these types of studies each year to track transportation performance.

Dan,
It was not clear to me on pg 29 if students are never counted in the survey, or only if they constitute 80% or more of the visits?

Thanks.

I read it as the latter—they can be excluded if their trips make up more than 80% of total trips.

I have read and re-read the two paragraphs at the bottom of page 29 multiple times and still cannot devine the intent or logic when visitors or transients are considered. First the guide states, "ONLY regular building occupants can be in included in the occupant commute survey." (my emphasis added) Are transient occupants regular building occupants? The paragraph below seems to make a distinction between the two and suggest they are not. If not, this suggests that transient occupants CANNOT be included in the survey.

The guide goes on to say, "For buildings with many visitors or transient occupants..., the project team is required to survey only the regular building occupants; visitors CAN be excluded from surveying IF they represent more than 80% of the total anticipated commuting trips..." (again, emphasis added) This statement suggests that visitors CANNOT be excluded if they comprise less than 80% of the trips, thus suggesting that visitors are REQUIRED to be counted if less than 80% of the trips.

I feel like I'm chasing my tail with this one. Are transients regular building occupants? Are transients required to be counted (if less than 80%) as the second paragraph suggests or prohibited from being counted as the first suggests? Thank you for helping me slog through this one.

Jonathan,
I think there may be an error in that paragraph, since it does appear to contradict other parts of this credit's language.

Part of the confusion may stem from "regular building occupants" not being clearly defined anywhere I could find. Most credits use "FTE" or "Transients" to distinguish between users that are counted or not (say, for showers). This credit doesn't use the term FTE, but I think it's fair to assume that's the intent.

The EBOM glossary defines "transients users are occupants who do not use a facility on a consistent, regular, daily basis. Examples include students in higher education settings, customers in retail settings, and visitors in institutional settings."

As a general (and unofficial) rule for commercial and institutional buildings, you might consider "regular building occupants" as people paid to be there, both full time and part time. The part time staff add up to Full Time Equivalent's, so in most cases, if they are included in the counts to come up with an FTE, you could probably assume they are "regular building occupants."

Since the credit is concerned with the number of drivers, we should probably think of "regular occupants" like a head count. So, two half-time employees would be two occupants, not one, even though they add up to one FTE for other credits. (Maybe I'm over thinking this now...)

So, transients and visitors don't get included in the FTE, are not regular building occupants, and generally are not included in the transit survey. If that seems to fit your project, I'd try to ignore the issue of 80% unless you do have more than 80% of your trips by transients or you *really* want to count them, in which case you might need a CIR to clarify.

You're right, that was a slog!