CEC Helps Kick Off Carpool Challenge
We’ve all been stuck in dreadful traffic near a school. In fact, during morning rush hour on certain routes, up to 30% of all traffic can be attributed to parents driving their kids to school. The problem is getting worse as fewer kids are taking the bus, carpooling, walking or biking to school. Instead, their parent chauffeurs are getting busier and busier.
CEC and Traffic Solutions are working with the Dos Pueblos High School Traffic Committee to reverse this trend through our Walk and Roll Initiative. Our most recent project is the Dos Pueblos Carpool Challenge, a one week event that is taking place right now. CEC helped the Traffic Committee and the student leadership class plan the event and secured prizes and incentives, with a grand prize of two concert tickets donated by the Santa Barbara County Bowl!
The students are buzzing with excitement about the Carpool Challenge, and as of yesterday, over 123 have signed up to DP’s new carpool matching list, with more coming in every day. There are banners around school promoting the Carpool Challenge, school bulletins, and a preferential carpool parking area with music and a table where carpoolers pick up raffle tickets and donuts. The Traffic Committee and the student leadership class did a great job making it fun to carpool to school!
Carpooling is the easiest way for anyone to “double their gas mileage in any car.”
In CEC’s Transportation Energy Plan, ridesharing is the top strategy to quickly reduce fossil fuel use, congestion, and pollution on our roads. Ridesharing doesn’t require expensive new vehicles or infrastructure - it uses our existing cars and roads to increase efficiency. If everyone carpooled one out of every five trips they would normally have driven alone, we’d experience a 20% drop in fossil fuel use and traffic would be much less of a hassle!
Work toward that goal – visit Traffic Solution’s online carpool matching webpage to find a carpool.