Transportation Section of the Climate Action Plan

Goals

The goal of this project was to create a feasible and robust set of ideas that UCSB could potentially implement to reduce greenhouse gas emissions related to commuting and air travel. Transportation serves as one of the university’s biggest emission sources. It is also an area that UCSB is still seeking new solutions to address. Through this project the team hoped to demonstrate the many options available to the campus. They then sought to get feedback on which ideas the campus wanted to prioritize for deeper feasibility analysis. In 2026-2027, several ideas developed in this project will be taken to the next stage of planning and some will be put into action. 

This project involved the creation of a series of sustainable transportation recommendations intended for inclusion in the transportation section of the Climate Action Plan (CAP).The project team offered ideas best suited for significantly reducing the university’s greenhouse gas (GHG) emission output in the areas of commuting and air travel. UC Bonnie Reiss Leading on Climate Action Fellows, Lainey Djajakusuma and Ada Chibueze, with contributions from Rachel Huang, developed a comprehensive “toolkit” of proposed solutions to various transportation challenges that were based on incentive structures, outreach, and behavior change programs. These recommendations were presented to the UCSB Sustainable Transportation Committee and Chancellor’s Sustainability Committee during the 2024-25 school year, and subsequently included in the 2025 draft of the Climate Action Plan. 

The effort to evolve and expand the Scope 3 portion of the CAP has been ongoing for several years. Previous interns Anthony Singh and Calvin Weinstock completed an in-depth analysis of Annual Transportation and Commuter Surveys over a ten-year period, using this data to identify areas of transportation that needed improvement. Building on this work, Lainey, Ada, and Rachel began looking into specific recommendations that could fix the issues highlighted in Calvin and Anthony’s research. Initial stages of their project, which began in Summer 2024, involved collecting and analyzing data from the most recent Annual Transportation Survey to lay the foundations of what potential recommendations could look like across different modes of transportation. Lainey focused on active transportation measures such as biking and walking, while Ada focused on air travel. 

Upon presenting their recommendations to the Sustainable Transportation Committee and Chancellor's Sustainability Committee, the interns received feedback that allowed them to revise the toolkit to be more practical for the university. An early version of the recommendation toolkit was also presented for Clean Air Day at the Isla Vista Community Services District (IVCSD), which offered members a brief look into what these recommendations could look like beyond UCSB and in the Isla Vista community. 

The Short Term Alternative Transit Challenge, also known as the Commute Reset Challenge, emerged from this comprehensive toolkit. The Commute Reset Challenge is a short-term program that rewards participants willing to make the switch away from single-occupancy vehicles and utilize alternative modes of transportation, such as biking, walking, or taking the bus. The challenge, which recently completed its pilot quarter in Fall 2025 and will run a second time in Winter 2026, implemented incentives such as a $60 gift card and other prizes to reward those who successfully complete the challenge and use alternative transportation at least 16 times throughout the quarter.