Purdue Transportation and Greenhouse Gas Emissions



Transportation is a primary source of GHG emissions. Transportation is unique in that it is one of the GHG emission sectors that can be significantly influenced by the personal choices of individuals. Transportation engineering has a long history of using combinations of infrastructure and system design and policy to influence people to make choices that achieve local objectives.


Purdue’s campus area has a high population density. Due to the nature of a University, individual mobility is a very high priority for service and functionality. Last year the long-term vision described in the Purdue Campus Master Plan was released to the public. This overarching Master Plan does not contain specific details about how the various objectives will be achieved. In order to reduce Purdue University’s GHG emissions, one source to be addressed is transportation. The goal is to develop plans for infrastructure and policies that would move individual mobility choices away from high GHG emission options to choices that have a lower GHG footprint. The objective of this project is to construct of model for campus transportation emissions, and develop recommendations for infrastructure and policy recommendations that would lead to reduced transportation GHG emissions and be congruent with the Campus Master Plan.