Assessment of the UTM car-free days using distance measurement methods in GIS

Abstract

The UTM Car-Free Day is an initiative that is intended to reduce car-induced emissions, promote healthy lifestyle modes of transportation and improve environmental sustainability awareness among campus community. Currently, Car-Free Days assessment methods are not comprehensively studied, especially using GIS. Thus, it is needed to be used an appropriate technique for the assessment of the Car-Free Day initiative, in this respect, the study used distance measurement methods in GIS by measuring travel distances both during Car-Free Days and normal days and modelling travel patterns. In this study, online and paper-based questionnaires were designed and distributed to UTM campus community in order to obtain residential addresses, parking lots, modes of transportations and level of awareness towards the UTM Car-Free Day initiative. 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 shortest path analysis between the two centoids of residential addresses (origins) and parking lots (destinations). Moreover, nearly 22% of the respondents drew their actual travel routes and it is used on-screen manual digitizing to model and measure the actual travel routes of the respondents. The measured travel distances during Car-Free Days and normal days using shortest path and actual travel route measurements were compared using dependent t-test for paired samples and the tests for both methods were not significant. Furthermore, Pearson’s Correlation test was conducted and the test revealed that there are significant strong positive correlations between actual travel route measurement and shortest path network. Therefore, the study proves that there are no different in travel distances during Car-Free Days and normal days, thus, the current UTM Car-Free Day initiative did not reduce travel distances on the campus. Results of this study could be mainly beneficial to the university’s Car-Free Day initiative program. Finally, the study recommends suggestions that may improve the successfulness of the UTM Car-Free Day initiative and aspects that enhance the methodology of assessing the impact of the Car-Free Days on travel distances.