About 31,000 commuters arrive on campus daily on foot, by bike, vanpool, carpool, bus, or something other than a single-occupant vehicle.
Spotlight: Alternative transportation
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has declared UCSD a “Best Workplace for Commuters” because of the many transportation alternatives and incentive programs available to faculty, staff, and students.
An annual survey showed that 59 percent of commuters entering the La Jolla campus and 57 percent entering the Hillcrest Medical Center used alternative transportation, including campus shuttles, public transit, carpooling, vanpooling, walking, and bicycling.
More about alternative transportation
- Our Greenline shuttles run on 99% soy biodiesel fuel, using a specialized engine donated by Caterpillar Inc. Students and researchers are evaluating this program for possible application to city buses.
- UCSD provides free public transit service for commuters living in the UCSD Bus Zone and discounts for those outside the zone.
- Our alternative transportation programs save nearly 20,000 metric tons of CO2 emissions annually.
- After they’re on campus, commuters have even more alternative transportation options, including:
- Zipcars: a fleet of 12 hybrid cars that commuters can reserve for business or personal travel on campus and at the Hillcrest Medical Center
- TritonBikes: free, refurbished bikes for UCSD departments
- UCSD Pedal Club: free showers and other perks for bicyclists
Our vehicle fleet — one of America’s greenest
In the seventh annual Government Green Fleet Awards, a competition of environmentally friendly vehicle-fleet operations that is open to all federal, state, and local governments in North America, UC San Diego’s Fleet Services ranked 22nd. The ranking was based on 7 categories of green performance.
UC San Diego Fleet Services manages about 900 vehicles, including:
- 191 passenger vans and sedans, including 44 Toyota Prius hybrids, 18 Ford Escape hybrid compact sport utility vehicles and 2 Honda Civics that are fueled with compressed natural gas and whose engines are among the cleanest internal combustion engines made.
- 147 rechargeable neighborhood electric vehicles and 131 rechargeable electric utility carts
- 30 shuttle buses, all of which burn B20 fuel, a blend of 20% biodiesel and 80% ultralow-sulfur diesel. The Greenline bus is fueled with B99, or 99% biodiesel.) Since 2005, the campus has used more than 700,000 gallons of biodiesel, reducing its net emissions of carbon dioxide by more than 2.2 million pounds. Campus diesel-burning vehicles also are equipped with high-efficiency particulate traps that reduce the emission of this class of toxic air contaminants by 86%.
- 14 service vehicles that run on compressed natural gas, including 2 delivery trucks, 2 street sweepers, 4 sedans, 3 pickup trucks, and 3 buses