Going Green by Carpooling

My partner and I have thought of several ways to make the University of Southern Mississippi on the Gulf Coast a more energy efficient, cleaner, greener school. After much discussion we decided that best and easiest way to ‘go green’ on our campus is to make buddies with a nearby classmate neighbor and carpool. This will not only cut back on the rising pollution, but it will save each and every student money every day. As students who are not on a typical university campus, we all travel some amount of distance to and from class. Most of us even have to make that trip twice in one day. Carpoolers can help get from city to city while reducing the volume of traffic on the road. One way to really get this moving is to set up some sort of an account through the university. Student drivers will create a profile with travel preferences such as age, gender, music favorites, smoking, etc., as well as the days of the week in which they will be making the route. They will list the city in which they are coming from or going to and the campus location, along with their plans for arrival and departure times. They can sign up on the USM website and when a good match is found, they can be notified through email or text message. At the end of the trip, both the rider and driver can give positive, negative, or neutral feedback about their companions. The University of Michigan has developed a system called GreenRide for student and employee carpooling, which has worked well so far. They are trying to implement a reward system for the students who carpool by discounting their textbooks. One student stated it is a great way to save money and network with other students. According to the university, since GreenRide has began about five years ago, it is estimated that their carpoolers have saved 30 million driven miles, 1.7 million gallons of gas, and prevented roughly 13,000 tons of carbon dioxide from polluting the environment.The University of Florida also has a form of carpooling. The students pair up and they both pay for the parking decal. In case someone’s partner cannot make it to school, the other registered carpool member may purchase up to six one-day permits per semester at half price, which is half of the current cost of $2.50 for use in non-carpool decal parking areas. Another university who has successfully implemented a carpooling system is the University of Texas at Austin. They support the efforts to reduce traffic congestion and vehicle pollution in the Austin area. They also provide numerous incentives for the fellow carpoolers.Now, lets look at the facts. Car emissions kill 30,000 people each year in the United States. More than half of the people in the U.S. live in areas that failed to meet federal air quality standards at least several days a year. Most ozone pollution is caused by motor vehicles, which accounts for 72% of nitrogen oxides and 52% of reactive hydrocarbons, which are the principal components of smog. SUV’s put out 43% more global-warming pollutants and 47% more are pollution than the average car. It is also believed that many childhood cancers are caused from the pollution in the air.Another incentive to carpooling is it lowers your insurance rate. Most insurance companies offer discount rates to their customers that prove that they are in a carpooling program and that they do not use their car for work or school. Students who carpool also have better parking conditions. We all know that vehicles let off a tremendous amount of pollution. By setting up a system of carpooling, we at USM, can help prevent the destruction of our ozone, reduce the amount of traffic, save millage on our own vehicles, and save a lot of money! We can also meet new friends!Mostafavi, Beata. (January 9, 2009). University of Michigan-Flint drives student carpool effort with help from GreenRide. The Flint Journal. Retrieved February 18, 2009, from http://www.mlive.com/news/flint/index.ssf/2009/01/university_of_michiganflint_dr.html(2009). University of Florida. Retrieved February 18, 2009, from http://www.parking.ufl.edu/pages/alcar.htm.