Category: Transportation

The power of the bicycle grows immensely when it is recognized as a legitimate mode of transportation. 

Carleton has a new (as of this fall) electrical vehicle charger.  The charger promotes more sustainable commuting for staff, faculty and guests, as well as furthering the college’s climate action plan toward climate neutrality by 2050.

The Sustainability Assistants recently applied for and won the UN Climate Crews Contest, aimed at helping schools get at those issues that are most weighing them down in the quest for a more sustainable campus. The grant money was awarded to proposals that would best address those points of the Sustainable Endowments Institute’s Annual Sustainability Report Card that the institution most needed to improve.

American colleges are looking for ways to encourage less students to bring cars to campus in an effort to save their colleges money, reduce school GHG emissions, and improve student health and well-being.  A variety of approaches are being tried, with a number of factors influencing the success of different programs in different places.  Eliza Berry discusses these programs and what might be reasonable at Carleton.

As of today, Carleton’s new rideshare website is up and running! This website, created by Amy Wilson ’08 for her ENTS capstone, features an interactive map that allows you to see who, in the Carleton community, lives near your home address, what your transportation options are in traveling to and from campus, and what the environmental impacts of commuting to Carleton are. This site is a fantastic resource for travel and for the study of transportation at Carleton and beyond. Faculty and staff can log in to see whether there are potential rideshare partners who live near them and students can use the site to see whether they can share rides at the beginning and end of breaks with other students. Check out the new site and make use of it in planning your vehicle travel to and from campus!

 The site: https://apps.carleton.edu/campus/rideshare/

As gasoline approaches a national average of $4.00 per gallon, very few people, even among the most ardent environmentalists, are completely welcoming and celebrating high gas prices. After all, increases in fuel costs disproportionately affect lower income individuals, many of whom spend a higher percentage of their income on energy sources like electricity and gasoline. Additionally, most earth-minded individuals are just as subject to a faltering economy as anyone else. Those things being said, though, there is a bright spot in the rise at the pumps—Americans are reducing the amount that they drive.

Wait no longer, campus drivers—the highly-anticipated arrival of two new Toyota Prius hybrids is upon us. Campus Services has announced that the vehicles are now on campus and officially a part of Carleton’s vehicle fleet and can be reserved and checked out for college use. Each gas-electric hybrid Prius replaces a conventional compact car in the vehicle fleet and will be a more fuel efficient alternative, a consideration of increasing concern in the midst of high fuel costs. The EPA puts the 2008 Prius at the top of its fuel economy ratings with an estimated 48 mpg in the city and 45 mpg on the highway.

I find this figure from the Sightline Institute to be particularly helpful because it clearly demonstrates the most effective ways to reduce emissions for transportation. Too often, I think there are people motivated to do something about global warming, but they just don’t know how. The information is rarely easily accessible, and there are even times when people with the best intentions may actually be doing more harm than good.

For instance, I used to think that riding on planes emitted far more carbon than a car. I even made the decision once to make a long car trip instead of flying partially because I thought it was better for the environment. It turns out that if I had chosen to fly there would have been marginally less carbon in the atmosphere than there is now.

There are numerous examples where these charts are astoundingly helpful. I keep this seafood selector card in my pocket and have consulted WRI’s climate bill analysis multiple times. If there are other examples you have, please share them with me. I would love to see them.

With this figure though, I think there’s a quick take-home: Shorter distances are preferable to longer distances and (generally) the more people involved the better.

(Kudos to Gary Wagenbach for sharing this)

This June, members of the Carleton class of 1983 will get onto a plane or step into a car to make their way back to the land of Cows, Colleges, and Contentment to celebrate their 25th reunion. But Jim Haughn will not be joining them. Haughn and several other members of the class of ‘83 are going the extra mile to support the sustainability initiative at Carleton. Haughn has decided to ride his bicycle from his home near Toledo, Ohio to Northfield to in order to raise awareness and contributions for Carleton’s Sustainability Revolving Fund (SRF). The fund is a new mechanism that was created to support on-campus projects that will provide financial returns while also reducing the College’s greenhouse gas emissions. With pledges and contributions from fellow class members, Haughn hopes to raise at least $30,000 for the fund, which is in its first year of existence. To learn more about Haughn’s ride, or to get involved, visit Jim’s Bright Idea.

Carleton recently announced the coming addition of two Toyota Prius hybrids to the college’s vehicle fleet. After hearing suggestions and input from the Carleton community, including members of the Environmental Advisory Committee, the Campus Services office (which oversees the fleet) made the decision to purchase the hybrids. A representative from Burnsville Toyota, the dealer from which the vehicles were purchased, brought a Prius to campus to announce the deal, which coincided with Carleton’s participation in Focus The Nation on January 31. The Priuses, which will replace two of the sedans currently in the vehicle fleet, are expected to be on campus and ready for use by campus drivers sometime in March. The gas-electric hybrid Priuses will be much more fuel efficient alternative when compared to the other vehicles in the fleet, a consideration of increasing concern in the midst of rising fuel costs.