Sustainability

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Background

Riverside County is faced with unique air quality concerns due to the regional topography. Air pollution that would be normally be dispelled by prevailing winds is instead locked in by bordering mountain ranges. Riverside County often exceeds federal and state standards for ozone and particulates, with the City of Riverside experiencing the greatest particulate concentration in the entire basin. Given the importance of preserving and improving regional air quality, UCR has established a variety of alternative transportation programs for the campus community. These are discussed in the Current Best Practices section.

UCR is managed by the South Coast Air Quality Management District (SCAQMD), whose jurisdiction extends to nearly 11,000 square miles and over 16 million people. This agency is charged with regulating air pollution and reducing emission levels to bring the region into compliance with state and national clean air standards. SCAQMD requires large employers to assess its employees’ commuting patterns and reduce mobile source emissions generated from employee commutes. UCR performs an annual Average Vehicle Ridership (AVR) survey to demonstrate compliance with this mandate. This has provided the campus with a comprehensive understanding of employee commute habits over the past decade.

Best Practices

Alternative Transportation Programs: Vanpool ridership is very strong at UCR. In just two years the campus nearly doubled the number of vans, which currently carry about 200 passengers daily.

Short Term Goals

1. Develop a map for bicycle commuters
2. Increase the number of vanpools to 30
3. Adopt a vehicle procurement policy
4. Develop a data collection methodology for student commuting patterns
5. Enhance systems and protocol for populating fleet performance metrics
6. Develop a mechanism for tracking department-owned vehicles fuel use
7. Develop an estimate for carbon emissions from university-sponsored air travel
8. Develop a system for tracking university-sponsored air travel
9. Research and apply for alternative transportation funding

Intermediate Goals

1. Collect commuting data for students
2. Report employee and student commuting emissions to the Climate Action Registry
3. Report air travel emissions to the Climate Action Registry
4. Review the methodology for the projected parking inventory in the 2005 Long Range Development Plan (LRDP)
5. Facilitate bicycle use by creating a bicycle paths master plan
6. Increase the number of secure bicycle corrals
7. Retrofit the existing compressed natural gas refueling stations
8. Research opportunities to implement a bike share program
9. Exceed the SCAQMD’s mandated AVR by 5 percent

Long Term Goals

1. Reduce business air travel by developing programs and technologies for remote conferencing
2. Exceed the SCAQMD’s mandated AVR by 10 percent
3. Petition the City of Riverside to develop live/work communities downtown