Assessment of the car-free day implementation on UTM campus using a shortest path method

Abstract

Car-Free Days (CFDs) were introduced on the Universiti Teknologi Malaysia (UTM) campus and intended to reduce vehicle emissions, promote healthy lifestyle modes of transportation and improve environmental sustainability awareness among campus community. The main objective of this study is to model and assess travel distances covered by vehicles during CFDs and Normal Days (NDs) on the UTM campus, Johor, Malaysia using Shortest Path (SP). In this study, online and paper-based questionnaires were designed and distributed to UTM campus community to obtain residential addresses (origins) and parking lots (destinations). In total, 119 valid questionnaires were collected for the purpose of the study. Network datasets were built within a GIS database using ArcGIS Network Analyst Extension to perform SP analyses between the two centroids of origins and destinations. The measured travel distance costs of SP analyses during CFDs and NDs were compared using dependent t-test for paired samples and the test was not significant (t(118) = 0.45, P-value > 0.05). From the results, the study reveals that there are almost no difference in travel distances during CFDs and NDs, thus, the UTM CFDs initiative has no a particular effect on travel distances.