More sustainable commuting
The total number of vehicles that the university currently owns is twenty-one (21), and seven (7) of them are special purpose vehicles such as fire trucks, sewage disposal trucks, etc. Due to low usage, the special purpose vehicles were not considered in the number of vehicles in daily basis calculations. University has three (3) gates (Main, Gülbahçe Village, and Çeşme), and the commuters (student/staff) should register their vehicles to gain daily access to campus grounds, while the non-registered vehicles are recorded manually by the security personnel. The average number of vehicles entering the university on a daily basis is shown in Table 1.
Table 1: Number of vehicles on daily basis.
For the trips within the campus, a free shuttle service is provided by the University. The shuttle has 50 passenger capacity (with 27 seats) and everyone on campus (staff, students, or visitors) can take the shuttle free of charge. The current public bus stops are used for boarding and dropping off passengers. The route and schedule of the shuttle are shown in Figure 1. The shuttle route is extended to the nearest settlement most of the students reside, Gulbahce, four times (one in the morning, two at midday, and one in the evening) in a day. The public transit buses serving the campus transit through the campus.
Figure 1: Shuttle service provided by IZTECH for students and staff.
Figure 2: Secure parking facilities for bicycles (left); E-bikes vehicles owned by IZTECH (middle); Maintained Bicycles of UniBike Bike Sharing System (right)
In IZTECH, students and staff are encouraged to use bicycles in the campus area. Bicycles and vehicles are sharing the same platform and the speed limit on campus is 30 km/h. The elevated crosswalks are serving as speed ramps for motor vehicles to provide safe traffic on campus streets. Additionally, on campus, secure bicycle parking facilities are located nearby the buildings. For the estimation of daily bike trips on the campus an occupancy rate study of the bicycle parking lots is carried out and the bike trips which are done with privately owned vehicles are estimated as 80-100 trips per/day (Fig 2).
University owns 59 bicycles which were donated by the Ministry of Health. These bicycles managed by IZTECH Cycling Community can be used free of charge. University has two e-bikes and they are used by the landscaping staff (Fig 2). There is also a bike-sharing system called Unibike within the campus and 50 bikes serve the users with minimal charge (Fig 2 – https://www.unibike.com.tr/mainpage). A private company also provides 40 e-scooters which can be rented using a mobile phone application (Fig 3 – Kumru Scooter)
Two electric vehicles (minivans) are donated to IZTECH by a cargo company, and they are actively being used for routine freight transportation in the campus (Fig 3). By mutual agreement of the IZTECH Rectorate and İzmir Metropolitan Municipality, two electric buses have started to serve the campus location, regularly (Fig 3).
Every year a protocol is signed between a transportation company and the university for transporting campus members (students & staff) to the university from different locations in the city. 24 buses transport university members (staff/students) to the campus from 12 different locations of city İzmir (Fig 4). Due to transportation with these buses, more than 30% reduction in private car usage was estimated (Fig 4).
There is also a night bus service (20:00 Bus Service) for the staff and students working after hours. The bus is operated by the university Rectorate and one can take the bus by online daily registration free of charge. Registration is done through the university webpage (https://form.iyte.edu.tr/embed.php?id=110855).
