Campus mobility

According to the zero measurement report, commuting accounts for 34% of the total footprint (12% for staff commutes and 22% for student commutes). This is the second largest share of UAntwerp’s total climate footprint, which means it deserves considerable focus.

The university should strive for an ambitious policy that initiates a process of behavioural change, facilitates the modal shift, reduces travel distances (by promoting telework and online meetings), and promotes shared mobility and ‘clean’ driving.

Walking and/or cycling should be the obvious choice for short trips. Thanks to electric bicycles and speed pedelecs, cycling has also become more and more feasible for longer distances. For long distances public transport should be the first choice. Combined transport modes can help when public transport connections are inadequate. For the share of transport that needs to remain individual and motorised, carbon neutrality means switching to electric or hydrogen cars powered by renewable energy. The university’s fleet of cars can lead the way in this direction.

Milestones reached

A major goal of the Climate Action Plan was to promote telecommuting to reduce travel distances. The corona crisis forced the university to take a very big leap forward in this regard. IT support drastically improved (e.g. Teams, Blackboard) and more and more portables are being introduced.

In 2021 and 2022, several other actions were realised to facilitate the modal shift. This includes, amongst others, the introduction of a bicycle sharing system on campuses CMI, CGB and CDE, and the realisation of new and secure bicycle parking areas (e.g. under Paardenmarkt (CST, Stadscampus) and Vaccinopolis (CDE)).

Goals

• UAntwerp stimulates a modal shift so that at least 85% of trips made by staff are done on foot, by bicycle, electric bicycle, scooter or public transport. The reduction potential needs to be calculated in the near future.
• UAntwerp stimulates a modal shift so that students increasingly make trips on foot, by bicycle, electric bicycle, scooter or public transport. An exact percentage needs to be defined in the near future. Currently we lack data with regard to the modal split of students. The reduction potential will need to be calculated in the near future.
• New infrastructure works are in line with the envisioned modal shift.
• UAntwerp continues to promote telecommuting and online courses to reduce travel distances.
  

Actions

Measures related to cycling

• Increase the visibility of existing commuting facilities;
• Infrastructure improvements (fix roads and cycling paths, build new cycling paths (e.g. a clear pathway to reach UZA from CDE), improve showers, lockers, enlarge bicycle parking areas for staff, expand the number of changing rooms, increase the amount of charging points, add warning signs (that light up) at various intersections on campus streets);
• Develop a bicycle infrastructure map and display it clearly (e.g. near bicycle parking areas and on detailed campus maps);
• Provide signage for bicyclists between campuses;
• Introduce bicycle leasing as part of remuneration;
• Organise a group purchase of bicycles or e-bicycles;
• UAntwerp’s Fietskaravaan (Bicycle Caravan) is in need of replacement. The purchase of new bicycles was planned for 2021–2022.
• Discussions with local municipalities on how to improve bicycle infrastructure/develop a strategy to become more actively involved in discussions regarding the City of Antwerp’s mobility planning:
  • Cycling routes towards CDE must improve
  • Near and around CST, cycling routes are unreadable and uncomfortable (especially the route from Antwerp Central Station towards CST);
  • Create pedestrian streets and cycling streets around CST (e.g. Sint-Jacobsmarkt/Kipdorp).  
    
    

Measures related to public transport

• Discussion with De Lijn and the municipalities involved to lobby for improved public transport in general.
  
• Improving the connection between UAntwerp’s campuses (e.g. between CDE and Berchem Station) and regular, reliable bus times.
  

Measures related to parking spaces and rates

• Discourage the use of parking spaces by staff and students whose commute is shorter than 15km. Calculate how many parking spaces could be reduced by implementing this measure and use this opportunity to make UAntwerp’s car parks green.
• Facilitate the shift to electric or hydrogen cars (shared or individual), powered by renewable energy (e.g. refashion parking lots into clean energy farms);
• Develop a plan to roll out and further increase the number of charging stations (improve charging infrastructure).
• Analyse the occupancy rates of parking spaces to see if there is room for community parking areas (for bicycles and/or cars).
  

Other measures

• Keep organising mobility actions to promote sustainable transport modes;
• Cluster classes and activities on the same location as much as possible;
• Develop a communication plan to promote both new and existing measures/actions.

Indicators

UAntwerp has a long tradition in implementing creative policy actions that focus on sustainable transport modes for daily commutes, which resulted in a remarkably sustainable division of transport used for daily staff commutes, compared to other Flemish universities. Table 1 indicates that we continue to have an increasing number of cyclists, well above the average for Flanders.

Table 1: Modal split for UAntwerp staff - for each campus and for Flanders

Table 2: Bicycle and parking facilities per campus

According to the zero measurement report, commuting still accounts for 34% of UAntwerp’s total carbon footprint (12% for staff commutes and 22% for student commutes):

• Travel by students in tonnes of CO₂-eq
• Travel by staff in tonnes of CO₂-eq
• Modal split for students/campus and its evolution
• Modal split for staff/campus and its evolution
• Number of staff that structurally telework
• Percentage of staff whose commute is 15 kilometres or shorter for whom a car is the main transportation mode
• Percentage of students whose commute is 15 kilometres or shorter for whom a car is the main transportation mode
• Occupancy rate of parking spaces/location in %
• Number of electric vehicle charging stations
  

Challenges

However, quite a few obstacles and challenges remain in the trajectory towards climate-neutral commutes.

For cycling: the safety and comfort of the routes to different campuses remain a point of constant attention. We identified several issues along these routes: high-speed traffic, dangerous intersections, poor road surface, general lack of space for cycling and for stationary bicycles, outdated bicycle parking sheds. These are issues that need to be addressed to increase cycling as a transport mode. Also, limited information is available about existing options (e.g. showers and renting bicycles), which could drastically be improved.

For public transport: the absence of a direct bus connection between Berchem Station and Campus Drie Eiken/UZA is a major obstacle. Also, bus times and connections between CDE and CST are often unreliable and too time-consuming.

Actions often involve third parties (e.g. De Lijn, local municipalities).