Car Pooling at Ramapo College

How can commuters involve themselves in many of the sustainability initiatives in college. A great program, designed by the Center for Student Involvement (CSI), to get involved is the Ramapo carpooling initiative. It addresses many of the questions commuters are concerned about: Are there any commuters at Ramapo who travel from the same location as me? If there are, where can we network and discuss the prospect of carpooling to campus?

In an effort to reduce Ramapo’s ecological footprint the CSI is trying to promote a commuter carpool initiative. A carpool plan will not help Ramapo students reduce their footprint, but will also enable networking with other members of our community. This unfortunately is no easy task, the biggest challenge being to create a community of commuter traffic. Ramapo has a large commuter population, who travel from varied locations from the tristate area, and given the size of the college it is difficult to connect with others from similar places. So how do we get commuters involved in a carpool initiative?

CSI has created a few ways for commuters to network here at the college, though still at an early stage. Some examples are the commuter affairs board and J Lee’s. Commuter Affairs, located outside the bookstore, provides information pertaining to commuter affairs and events. J. Lee’s, down the hall from the bookstore is the unofficial commuter lounge. J. Lee’s is a great place for commuters to spend their downtime between classes to unwind, eat, catch up on homework, play billiards or video games, and most importantly meet other commuters!  The commuter affairs board in J. Lee’s allows commuters to post information and events. This venue allows, willing participants to volunteer their name, location, email address, and schedule in hopes of finding others who travel from the same proximity on the same day. This indeed helps facilitate willing participants to come together and devise a car pool plan.

The commuter carpool initiative can only succeed if the commuters of Ramapo get together and make this happen. Whether or not you care to reduce your personal carbon footprint this is still a great way to save money and possibly make a new friend from your town. If you’re a commuter there is no good reason not to get involved. So stop by J. Lee’s or go talk to the extremely helpful people over at the center for student involvement. Let’s work together for a more sustainable Ramapo!

Written by Michael Finocchio

Categories: commuting, transportation