The urban developments of La Laguna and its University (ULL) were carried out ignoring the organization of traffic and the need to avoid bottlenecks, especially with regard to the Northern highway (TF-5) and its surroundings, linked both to the city and to the educational center. It is one of the conclusions that can be drawn from a survey that the ULL has just completed to 10.6% of its members, that is, to 2,713 of the 25,414 students, professors, researchers, and labor personnel who are part of the entire community. Laguna university this academic year 2022-2023. Of all this wide family, 20,523 are undergraduate, master’s or postgraduate students; 4,094 belong to the teaching and research staff; and 797 work for the administration and services service.
This study, which the ULL will use to make its first Sustainable Mobility Plan, reveals that the facilities that concentrate a large part of the university activity –the Guajara, Anchieta and Central campuses– are located right in two of the points with the most traffic jams on the TF-5 as it passes through La Laguna: access to the large shopping centers of Las Chumberas and the Padre Anchieta roundabout, which connects with the city of La Laguna and the municipality of El Rosario, and is currently under construction precisely to reduce bottlenecks.
There is more revealing data in this survey to see in a panoramic way the serious problem of traffic jams in this part of the northern highway that borders the University. Half of the university community (52%, a total of 13,215 people) go to the different faculties in their private vehicle, of which 36% go alone. When transferring the percentage of those surveyed to the total number of people who go to the educational center every day, other symptomatic figures appear: only 15% (3,812) use one of the public bus lines in Titsa and 11% ( 2,795) use the tram; 6,037 members of the ULL community have their residence in the North, compared to 17,028 in Santa Cruz and La Laguna; and the entrance to the university centers is concentrated between 7:30 and 9:30 a.m., a time period in which some of the highest traffic concentration peaks occur.
The main managers of the ULL will analyze this data but for now they reject the solution of Pedro Martín, president of the Cabildo de Tenerife, which has offered the University extraordinary funding of 20 million euros, at a rate of 10 million a year in the years 2023 and 2024, in exchange for staggering access to classes and extending it until 10:00 a.m. and thus helping to decongest the traffic. These are the main conclusions when analyzing the study on the mobility of the university community based on the responses of 2,713 people surveyed, 63% of whom are ULL students (1,430 are undergraduate students and 268 undergraduate students). master, postgraduate or doctorate); 37% are ULL staff (704 belong to the teaching and research staff service); and 311 (11%) are part of the administration and services personnel service.
52%
52% of students, teachers and other staff go by car to the University of La Laguna
22%
Only 22% of the university community goes by bus
What means do students, teachers and staff use to attend the University?
More than half of the community members of the University of La Laguna uses a private vehicle to go daily to the different facilities of the higher education center. Specifically, 52% (13,215 students, teachers or staff) use their car or motorcycle. Of these, the majority (36%, 4,757) are alone in the vehicle. Only 14% (1,850) are accompanied by at least one person, whether they also go to the ULL or to another place on the Island. In the other part, one in five members of the university community goes to foot (5,336, 21%), only 15% (3,812) use one of the public bus lines in Titsa and 11% (2,795) use the tram.
Teachers and staff use private vehicles much more than students, both being quite high percentages. 75% of the educational and work staff go in their car or on their motorcycle. Only 3% go by bus and 5% by tram, while 14% go on foot. In students, the percentage of use of the private vehicle decreases but remains high: 35%. Meanwhile, 25% go on foot, 22% by bus and 14% by tram. The figures for electric bicycles and scooters are 0%.
1,392 people out of the total 2,713 surveyed, who travel in their vehicle alone or accompanied, were asked why they did not use other, more sustainable means. Half was sincere: for comfort. 25% claimed that there was a long distance between the campus and their residence, 18% that public transport does not reach the place where their home is located and 4% because it is cheaper. 1,018 respondents, who admitted that they drive without a companion, were also asked if they would be willing to go with passengers: 13% said that “not at all”, 37% that they were not for the job, 32% that they would accept it and 18% were completely willing to do so.
How many have their own vehicle and license?
54% of students and staff at the University of La Laguna have their own car, 12% do not have a vehicle and 11% do not have a vehicle but can have one from another family member. 51% of the members of the ULL community belong to a family unit with at least two cars. 30% have one and 6% none.
65% of the students state that they have a driver’s license and of these, 74% have a car to get around, which may mean, according to the study’s conclusions, “a predisposition to use a private vehicle compared to more sustainable modes of transport such as public transport or bicycle.
13,215
ULL members who go to the center in their own vehicle
It is the number of students, professors, researchers and other personnel of the University of La Laguna (ULL) who go to the center in their own car.
6,037
Members of the ULL community living in the North
Of the 25,414 members of the ULL community, 6,037 have their residences in the northern municipalities and therefore use the TF-5 highway.
1,850
They are in the car accompanied by at least one person
Only 1,850 of the 25,414 members of the ULL community of this course go to the center in cars with one or more companions.
Where do the members of the university community live?
80% of the University of La Laguna community lives in the family home, while only 2% do so in a student residence. Of those who reside in the family home, the percentage is 70% in the case of students and 98% in the case of staff, including teachers. The student residences are the San Fernando Residence Hall, the Santa María Residence Hall, the San Agustín Residence Hall, the Parque de las Islas Residence Hall (36%), the Nazareth Residence Hall and the Pedro García Cabrera Residence Hall.
Regarding the municipality of residence during the academic period, 44% live in La Laguna, 22% in Santa Cruz and 33% in other municipalities on the Island. Of those who live in other locations (6,386), 72% of the members of the ULL (6,037) are concentrated in the North, while 28% in the South (2,349). La Orotava is the municipality beyond the capital and La Laguna that contributes the most students, faculty and staff to the University.
The most active campuses of the ULL
The Guajara (41% of students and staff attend this university center), Anchieta (31%) and Central (16%) campuses concentrate the activity at the University of La Laguna. They are located precisely on three highly saturated axes of the Northern highway: access to the large commercial area of Las Chumberas (Guajara), where large shopping centers such as Al Campo, Ikea, Decatlon and Leroy Merlin are concentrated, and the roundabout of Padre Anchieta (Central and Anchieta), one of the main accesses to the center of La Laguna and the municipality of El Rosario and where the Bus Interchange is located. The other campuses, with less activity, are Ofra (8%), Santa Cruz (2%), Rectorate (1%) and Viana Street Building (1%).
Within these campuses, the faculties with the largest number of students and staff are in regards to Guajara, that of Economy, Business and Tourism, with 23% of students and staff; Law, with 18%; and that of Humanities, with 16%. Regarding Anchieta, they are the Faculty of Physics and Mathematics, with 21%; the Higher Polytechnic School of Engineering and Technology, with 19%; and that of Chemistry, with 16%. And on the Central Campus, the most frequented by far is the Faculty of Education, with 51%, and the Central Building, with 26%.
8:30
Arrival time of an important part of the community
68% of the community arrives at the centers in two hours during which there are traffic jams on the TF-5: between 7:30 and 9:30.
2,795
Members of the ULL community using the streetcar
11% of the members of the entire ULL community go to the different faculties on the tram, one of the public transports.
2,713
ULL members surveyed for the Mobility Plan
They are the students, professors, researchers and other personnel surveyed by the ULL to develop its first Sustainable Mobility Plan.
What time do you arrive at the university?
According to the survey carried out by the University of La Laguna to develop the First Sustainable Mobility Plan, 68% of the students, faculty and staff of the ULL arrive at the different centers in two hours, during which the biggest traffic jams occur in the Autopista del Norte, between 7:30 and 9:30 a.m. As of this hour, the percentages are very low, none exceeding 5%. The departure time is not as problematic as the arrival time and it is more spread out. It is concentrated (53%) in three and a half hours, the section that goes between 1:00 p.m. (rush hour with a lot of congestion) and 3:30 p.m. (with less congestion).
How long does it take and how many kilometers do they travel to the University?
The average displacement of the members of the university community of Tenerife is between 15 and 45 minutes (59%), relatively short journeys that are explained by the fact that the majority live in La Laguna or Santa Cruz. Of course, one in four students, teachers or staff at the University of La Laguna make long trips to go to the faculties, which last between 45 minutes and two hours.
In relation to the kilometers they travel to go to the ULL facilities, a vast majority travel between 2.5 and 30 kilometers and the rest, 16%, travel more than 60 kilometers. 76% make the trip in a single journey, while the rest make at least two stages to get to the campus.