While browsing the Auckland Transport website recently looking for some information, I stumbled across the results of a survey by Gravitas Research and Strategy on how students travel to and from university campuses It consists of a report (2.6MB) and a giant 81-page presentation (3.8MB) of the results.

In total, 2,157 students from a range of campuses were randomly selected and interviewed earlier this year on a range of transport related questions and follows on from similar research in 2014 and 2016. Below are the campuses and the number of respondents who completed the survey. You’ll know there’s a wide range of campuses here, UoA and AUT in the city out to the fringe suburbs.

AUT City (214)

Massey Albany (227)

AUT South (158)

MIT Mankuau (190)

AUT Akoranga (213)

MIT Ōtara (208)

University of Auckland City (232)

MAINZ (105)

University of Auckland Newmarket (143)

Unitec Mt Albert (231)

University of Auckland Grafton (236)

Given the size of the presentation, I’m only going to scratch the surface of the data. On to the results.

Around two thirds of all students get to their campuses by not driving with unsurprisingly bus being the single biggest mode. If we could get that kind of modeshare across all of Auckland then road congestion would be pretty much non-existent.

You can then see how this has changed over the last two surveys. It’s not entirely clear why the active modes have fallen.

The various campuses have been split up into one of three categories based on where they’re located.

CBD – University of Auckland – City, AUT – City, MAINZ

– University of Auckland – City, AUT – City, MAINZ CBD fringe campuses – University of Auckland – Grafton, University of Auckland – Newmarket

– University of Auckland – Grafton, University of Auckland – Newmarket Non-CBD campuses – AUT – Akoranga, AUT – South, Massey – Albany, Unitec – Mt Albert, MIT – Manukau, MIT – Ōtara

As you’d expect, PT use the highest the city and drops as you got further out.

For those interested, there are some specific graphs on mode use by campus.

Another fascinating insight is when students are travelling and that those attending campuses further from the city tend to travel in the peak more.

I wonder if that’s related in part to PT frequencies not supporting non-city travel as well. Another question asks about the ease of taking PT and as you’d expect, that declines the further from the city you get with Massey’s Albany campus rating the worst.

When asked for suggestions for improvements to PT, more frequent services are clearly the most important – as they are in most surveys.

As mentioned, there is a lot more information in the report and the presentation but there’s some interesting insights included.

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