How well do local universities encourage sustainable transportation?

Each year, the College Sustainability Report Card grades the largest universities in North America on their sustainability efforts in ten different categories, including transportation.

In the Chicago region, I’m happy to say the Report Card shows an overall improvement in the transportation category between 2010 and 2011.

While Loyola and DePaul universities each boosted their efforts to promote sustainable transportation between 2010 and 2011, the Illinois Institute of Technology and Northwestern University had grades that stayed the same. University of Chicago's sustainable transportation efforts dropped a whole letter grade in the same period.

Here's a Modeshift article from last year that describes some of the criteria the Report Card uses for grading schools for encouraging better transportation options.

The Washington Post recently offered some good tips on how colleges and universities can reduce traffic and get students more active during their commute.

The article, 10 ways colleges can encourage students to ditch their cars, suggests car- and bike-sharing programs, ensuring that campus buses are fast and efficient, and—the first suggestion on the list—making parking spots scarce.