Living Car Free - Schools move to eject cars from campuses

Wish we had a 'car free in the news' sticky, but anyways:

http://www.usatoday.com/news/education/2008-08-06-Outofcars_N.htm



High schools and colleges are steering students away from cars to save money on gas, save the environment and promote physical fitness.

This fall, Ripon College in Ripon, Wis., is offering freshmen free mountain bikes, helmets and locks in exchange for a promise not to bring a car to campus. The $300-per-student cost is funded by private donations.

The college's president, David Joyce, says the project was meant to avoid building a parking garage, but its side effects are beneficial: less pollution, more exercise and savings on gas.

The timing was right, Joyce says: "We were either extremely brilliant or extremely lucky."

Wow. Nice. Reminds me of when universities started offering free iPods to freshmen.

I gotta admit that the positive reinforcement bit puzzles me. Then again, must be my age. When I was a freshman in college (1968) you were not allowed to have a car on campus. Period. Caught with one, instant expulsion.

Can't see why this can't be done, at least on the high school level. Basically tell the kids, "You will take the bus."

A lot of the more traditional Ivy and Semi-Ivy schools apparently still do no-car. I know Swarthmore College has a strict policy -- their parking lots are only big enough for staff anyway. Other schools make it very bureaucratic and laborious to get a parking permit. Others still just make the permit price prohibitively high.

I think the last option is the best, if you are so attached to your car, fork out a few hundred to a thousand for a per-semester license.

In high school? Cars just don't belong there, period. I have never understood why students need to drive to school when they live so close. More often then not, it seemed, it was so the tricksters could go get fast food for lunch and not get caught.

That will never happen in car addicted Southern California. Here the students in college pays a hefty parking fee for a parking space and a chance to use their car most everywhere they go.

A lot of the more traditional Ivy and Semi-Ivy schools apparently still do no-car. I know Swarthmore College has a strict policy -- their parking lots are only big enough for staff anyway. Other schools make it very bureaucratic and laborious to get a parking permit. Others still just make the permit price prohibitively high.

I think the last option is the best, if you are so attached to your car, fork out a few hundred to a thousand for a per-semester license.

In high school? Cars just don't belong there, period. I have never understood why students need to drive to school when they live so close. More often then not, it seemed, it was so the tricksters could go get fast food for lunch and not get caught.

The problem with trying to price cars off college campuses is that it doesn't work. There are people who can afford to pay (or their parents can) whatever fee you'd care to charge. And in many places that try this sort of thing, there's a supply of near campus parking that's available for less, which defeats the purpose. Much better to simply prohibit them.

In high school? Cars just don't belong there, period. I have never understood why students need to drive to school when they live so close. More often then not, it seemed, it was so the tricksters could go get fast food for lunch and not get caught.

My "local" public high school was about 5 miles away, down a 15% grade hill. No local mass transit, so if I'd done any extracurriculars, it was bike or nothing.

The high school I graduated from was 12 miles from home as the crow flies. Head down the same 15% grade hill, up a good 2-3 different 5% grades. Again, no local mass transit, and the safest bike route wasn't very safe. Lots of blind curves and no shoulders. No bike racks at school either.

I didn't have a car for high school, but I understand why people did. Picking me up after extracurriculars was a giant pain for my parents, and they didn't have any real options. The vast majority of students with cars had them so they could get to the local community college for their full class schedule, get to the arts magnet school for the *rest* of their school day, or get home from extracurriculars that could run well past 6pm. Being off school grounds without permission was an in school suspension offense, so no one would risk it. No fast food close enough to make that worth the risk til my little sister graduated... and by that time walking would have been faster :P. ("on campus" parking was limited to ~20 spaces, chosen by lottery... everyone else had to find street parking and there wasn't much)

This article made it around our campus via a couple of Deans e-mails. My two year college here where I work is slowly going Green - rather had to do with the downtown campus (where I work) as it really is in the heart of a downtown city - but hell - I ride. And the other campus is on a very busy - and getting more busy set of roads quite near expressway entrances/exits ---- however it's the students who live on campus who would most benefit from this...

And in many places that try this sort of thing, there's a supply of near campus parking that's available for less, which defeats the purpose. Much better to simply prohibit them.

So... are they actually prohibiting students from owning or using cars, not just from driving them on campus? They must be drawing students from an awfully specific social class and geographical location, if they can do that.

My university is tucked away in a mostly-industrial part of the city. Students who don't live on campus commute in, but the bus service is severely overcrowded. A lot of people have to drive to get there. The city has been talking about extending the subway line up there for years, which will help if they ever get around to it.

A lot of the more traditional Ivy and Semi-Ivy schools apparently still do no-car. I know Swarthmore College has a strict policy -- their parking lots are only big enough for staff anyway. Other schools make it very bureaucratic and laborious to get a parking permit. Others still just make the permit price prohibitively high.

At Lawrence University the policy is that no student who is on financial aid was allowed a car on campus; at least 80% of the student body is on some sort of FA (at least was in my lifetime.) If a student's circumstances are such that s/he NEEDS a car, s/he can petition for a variance, but it was rarely granted.

My "local" public high school was about 5 miles away, down a 15% grade hill. No local mass transit, so if I'd done any extracurriculars, it was bike or nothing.

The high school I graduated from was 12 miles from home as the crow flies. Head down the same 15% grade hill, up a good 2-3 different 5% grades. Again, no local mass transit, and the safest bike route wasn't very safe. Lots of blind curves and no shoulders. No bike racks at school either.

I didn't have a car for high school, but I understand why people did. Picking me up after extracurriculars was a giant pain for my parents, and they didn't have any real options. The vast majority of students with cars had them so they could get to the local community college for their full class schedule, get to the arts magnet school for the *rest* of their school day, or get home from extracurriculars that could run well past 6pm. Being off school grounds without permission was an in school suspension offense, so no one would risk it. No fast food close enough to make that worth the risk til my little sister graduated... and by that time walking would have been faster :P. ("on campus" parking was limited to ~20 spaces, chosen by lottery... everyone else had to find street parking and there wasn't much)

Either the high school you went to was VERY different from most other high schools, or the same excuses are being used to justify the real reason for taking a car.

Only "dorks" ride the bus.

By the way, that's nothing new. It existed back when I was a senior (1968), just not as strongly, and the student parking lot at my old alma mater was 1/3rd the size it is today. Talking to a couple of teachers near the retirement age, the number of students doing extracurriculars or going to jobs after school is no higher (in the jobs category it's probably lower) than it was 25 years ago, but the parking lot is still bigger. And filled.

When I was teaching in the Charlotte, NC public schools, I discovered that students were forbidden to cycle to school. They could walk if they were close enough, but otherwise they either had to take the bus, be driven by their parents or (if they were old enough) drive themselves.

I thought that was a silly rule then, and I still do.

I can see the ban/reduction at the schools that have the surrounding infrastructure to support alternate means of transportation. Personally I think it should be against the law to fund a school that doesn't provide for alternate forms of transportation. FWIW they just build a 3 school nest about a mile from our farm. I covers K-12. NONE of them are walkable, even though they are surrounded by neighborhoods.:wtf::twitchy: There are kids that live literally across the street from the school that cannot walk to school due to no sidewalks and a narrow two lane road with no shoulders.

Aaron:)

Check it out--great way to get people used to living car-free with a bike as their primary mode of transport:

http://pressherald.mainetoday.com/story.php?id=206078&ac=PHnws

No cars, free bikes for UNE freshmen
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The university is offering the deal to discourage the use of vehicles on campus by incoming students.
By JOHN RICHARDSON, Staff Writer

August 22, 2008

The University of New England is offering free bicycles to resident freshmen who agree not to bring cars to campus this fall.

The giveaway -- one of the first like it in the country -- is part of an effort to ease the competition for parking spots, especially on the main campus in Biddeford, and encourage more sustainable transportation, said Barbara Hazard, vice president for student affairs and dean of students.

"We just have far too many cars on campus and we were going to have to look at putting in another parking lot," Hazard said. "Our goal here really is to shift a culture."...

http://www.ripon.edu/velorution/index.html

Ripon College in Wisconsin.

Only "dorks" ride the bus.



I didn't know why the cool kids snubbed me. Now it makes sense. You're right, none of the snobs rode the bus. I should have figured it out myself.