Commuter Services (2011 Strategic Plan)

Incentives to pursue sustainable modes of transportation will be required in order to meet emission goals. This will be accomplished by enhancing pedestrian and bike lanes onto campus and into buildings, providing enhanced facilities for showering, and enhancing resources to coordinate a rideshare program.

Comments
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 * I am a staff person and for the most part a bike-and-bus commuter from Northampton to Hampshire. Some of what's problematic with that is that there are no Northampton-Hampshire buses mid-May to Labor Day, winter break, or spring break.  Second, schedules are designed with students in mind--as it should be--they are the primary users of the bus system.  But, other riders could be considered.  I would like to see a better scheduled, more on-time and better used bus system.  I suspect we won't see that until gasoline prices double or tirple what they are now. Moral persuasion is much of what we have now and it's not as effective an instrument as we'd like it to be.  Six or seven years ago my daughter was living in Greenpoint Brooklyn and working in Manhattan.  When the transit workers went on strike the Mayor declared a civic emergency and prohibited cars with fewer than four passengers to enter Manhattan.  And NYC's finest stopped cars at the bridges and tunnels and loaded riders into empty seats in  private automoblies. Imagine, forced car pooling in free enterprise America!  New Yorkers took this measure in stride and there was much cooperation and good humor. Of course the strike was soon settled and things went back to "normal."  Mayor Bloomberg was right in declaring an emergency--he just had the wrong "emergency."  He wasn't looking a the sea levels rising, the polar icecaps melting, and all the other things the sustainability folks pay attention to.  Joel Dansky, Disabilities Services.
 * I like this idea. It might also be helpful to provide more information about sustainable commuting, such as maps with suggested bike routes to Northampton and other common destinations.  Rebecca Thomas, F'07