We are in the process of developing a campus, quite substantial in size. There is a train station with several train lines and two bus stops within a half mile, but not quite close enough in walking distance to meet the credit requirement for the attentional stops. There is a massive transportation effort being developed in coordination with the local transportation authority to get private busses into the campus and deliver people to other major hubs around the area, including long distance stops and connection to each of the major train stations. The shuttles are expected to move nearly a thousand people before and after business hours.
What is the rational for not including private busses or shuttles? There are a tremendous number of trips avoided moving people to and from the campus, and if the busses ran during regular business hours, there would be very few, if any, people on them. Simply increasing the number of "stops" only puts an empty bus on the road for more hours of the day, defying the very goal of the commute reduction effort. The issue in our case is that they are not available to the public, as there will be enough people using them to fill the busses daily to and from other major hubs. The owner is putting such a tremendous effort into reducing single occupancy vehicle commutes - I just want to be certain that this is accurate: LEED is not awarding this effort to demonstrate reduced SOV trips. Any input on this particular matter would be appreciated!
Dave Hubka
Practice Leader - SustainabilityEUA
LEEDuser Expert
528 thumbs up
February 13, 2020 - 6:00 pm
From my experience, and discussions with the technical experts of USGBC/GBCI, your approach is only available by submitting a Credit Interpretation Ruling.
I've seen this done on a large campus with owner provided shuttles.
Hope this helps.
Levi Jimenez
Founder & Senior ConsultantViable LLC
12 thumbs up
February 13, 2020 - 6:17 pm
David,
Thank you for the response, I will give anyone else that may have had the opportunity to encounter this particular situation a chance to respond as well, but figured I would have to file a CIR, as it is quite a case-specific question. There will be 3000+ people in this one building alone, and several thousand on the campus, multiple full sized busses connecting other metro and transportation hubs. To deny the project credit for reducing road congestion seems like "highway robbery"... ;)
Cheers!
Summer Minchew
Managing PartnerEcoimpact Consulting
LEEDuser Expert
170 thumbs up
February 14, 2020 - 8:50 am
I received some recent direction on this topic: The campus transit service may be eligible. GBCI reviewers consider the function of the transit service over the name of the service. If the campus transit operates in a manner equivalent to a public bus, it can be documented as a bus. In this instance, to ensure a smooth review include a narrative to confirm that the campus transit operates on a schedule along a fixed route, is accessible to all occupants (even if costs vary between students/staff and general public), and that it stops at both university and non-university destinations (e.g. campus buildings, basic services, housing). However, if the campus service is only available to university students/staff or is limited to serving university buildings only, it would not necessarily be equivalent to a public bus and therefore is ineligible to contribute.
Levi Jimenez
Founder & Senior ConsultantViable LLC
12 thumbs up
February 14, 2020 - 12:25 pm
Thank you Summer and David! Your responses are tremendously helpful.
Jonathan Weiss
Jacobs Buildings & Infrastructure215 thumbs up
October 6, 2020 - 1:40 pm
Quick question on shuttles - we are in the same boat. We will not have 72 campus shuttle stops per day - but we will be connecting to multiple transportation nodes with many connecting trains, buses and light rail stations - can we extrapolate? or do we need the 72 stops per day on our campus?
GABRIELA TREVINO
January 19, 2022 - 4:43 am
We are in the same possition here. Our proyect is located in the middle of the mountain and there is no public transportation there, but the owner wants to reduce vehicles by offering shuttles in connection to public transportation nods with different stops in the main nods. It could be public too (althoug there is nothing surrounding the project).
But is also a negative impact if the shuttle does that much of the trips required since the schedule for the employees is always the same (7am-5pm or 8am-6pm). So making that much trips with nobody on the bus would just produce carbon emissions. In this case we calculate that no more that 10 trips daily would be necessary.
On the other hand, many trips and many vehicles could be avoided is this measure is applied. Does this count for this specific credit or could it even be considered as an innovation credit if we can prove that carbon emissions from vehicles are reduced?