This survey explores transportation use at Lewis & Clark College. It will inform student projects in Liz Safran’s Environmental Problems Core course.
The bar chart at right shows the methods of transportation amongst all commuting Lewis & Clark College members on weekdays in 2025, arranged in descending order and sorted by the number of responses for every day of a week.
70% of respondents drive alone.
Office of Transportation & Parking, 2025 (see Appendix C)
Helen Traczyk, 2023 (see Appendix B)
The graph to the left displays the favored modes of transportation per day of the week amongst students who commute to and from campus.
Students heavily favor driving alone, creating a single occupancy vehicle rate of approximately 70% for Lewis & Clark College in 2023 (Traczyk, 2023). The rate has remained the same, as seen in the graph above.
The pie chart on the right displays all off-campus respondents (students, faculty, and staff from all campuses) by where they live.
The majority of respondents live either in the Palatine Hill area (including neighborhoods such as Burlingame), Sellwood, or downtown Portland.
Helen Traczyk, 2023 (see Appendix B)
Helen Traczyk, 2023 (See Appendix B)
The pie chart to the left categorises off-campus undergraduate students by where they live.
Off-campus undergraduate students are slightly more consolidated, but display the same trends as the overall community, with the majority living around Palatine Hill, Sellwood, or Downtown Northwest.
Over 78% of the college's vehicles are gas-only, as seen in the breakdown of school-owned vehicles by type to the right.
STARS Report, 2025 (See Appendix D)
Percentages of different transportation methods of staff and students. STARS Report, 2025 (See Appendix D)
To th left, the favoured transportation methods amongst different Lewis & Clark communities in 2024.
The student chart is heavily skewed by the "walking" responses from on-campus students, who make up slightly more than half of the responding population.
Of the populations who commute from off-campus housing, single-occupancy vehicles are heavily favoured over any other transportation method.
The pie chart to the right shows the methods of transportation that off campus students use on weekdays.
The majority (56.8%) drive alone, with another 10.6% carpooling and 5.9% using public buses.
The portion labeled "Aren't On Campus" represents when off-campus students responded that they do not travel to campus on the indicated week day.
Core 121 Survey, 2025 (see Appendix A)
Core 121 Survey, 2025 (see Appendix A)
The pie chart to the left shows the methods of transportation that faculty and staff use on weekdays. The majority (62%) of faculty and staff show that they drive alone, with a minority of faculty/staff using public buses (3.8%) or carpool (4%) as their mode of transportation.
Core 121 Survey, 2026 (see Appendix A)
The pie chart to the left provides an overview of the Lewis & Clark College Shuttle usage among our community.
The majority of the respondents used the shuttle infrequently, averaging 0-2 times per week.
The pie chart to the right provides an overview of the preferred mode of transportation among the L&C community when leaving/arriving to campus. The majority of respondents used a personal vehicle followed by the LC shuttle. It is important to note that we have a combined category of users who utilise both the LC shuttle and the TriMet interchangeably.
Core 121 Survey, 2026 (see Appendix A)
Core 121 Survey, 2026 (see Appendix A)
The pie chart to the left pertains to the potential effect that first year orientation could have on the L&C Shuttle and the TriMet. Although most do not attend first year orientation, of those who did, their usage would almost equally either not be impacted or they would use it more often.
The pie chart to the right exhibits the potential effect that a mobile app could have on student, faculty, and staff usage of the Otterbus and the TriMet.
As the data shows, the development of an improved app would increase Otterbus use.
Core 121 Survey, 2026 (see Appendix A)