This first Green Challenge is based
off of a commitment I made recently: I am no longer driving to school, even when
I stay after for clubs and extra help. As much of a luxury as commuting in my
own car is, it’s wasteful. There’s a bus for me in the morning, a bus when
school is over, and an after school bus if I need it. Whether or not I drive,
the buses continue on the same routes every day, using the same amount of gas.
By driving in a separate vehicle, I’m just adding to gas usage and emissions.
Buses are noisier, the seats aren’t
as comfortable, and the turns and stops jostle me around. However, there are
upsides to riding the bus regularly again. My bus driver is friendly and sweet,
and I always enjoy seeing her. Being an IB student, I never seem to have the
time to read for leisure anymore, and I love to read. I’ve literally been
working on the same book for almost a year, and within the first week of my
bus-riding commitment, I finally finished it. Now I will actually have time set
aside in my day for reading! I know I’m a nerd for getting excited about that,
but I don’t care. Those who read live a thousand lives, and just one lifetime
isn’t enough for me to do everything I want to.
So, it’s a
small sacrifice, and to be honest I’m really not suffering at all. I’m three weeks
into my commitment, and I’ve only driven to school once because I had to leave
in the middle of the day to make a chiropractor appointment. Everything has
gone smoothly and I don’t see any problems with continuing to the end of the
school year. Already, just in these first weeks, I’ve noticed a significant
difference in how much gas I’ve used and how much gas money I’m spending. Like
most young adults, I don’t own an expensive Prius. My first car is the typical
beater, and is only two years younger than I am.
Here’s my
challenge for all high school seniors, and the occasional licensed junior: for
one week, just one week, don’t drive
to school in your car. Take the bus. Your younger siblings will whine and
complain, but the truth is both of you got along fine taking the bus before you
got your driver’s license. You’ll be fine again for one week.
Now,
athletic students; I know your practices usually run beyond the after school
bus pick-up time. It’s inevitable that you need to have your own
transportation, whether you drive yourself or your parents pick you up. However,
I’m not letting you off the hook. Talk with your teammates, and find out which
ones live closest to you. Chances are you already know where they live based on
friendship and team bonding events. Offer to take the younger teammates home
instead of having their parents pick them up. Cut a deal with your older
teammates: I’ll drive us on these days if you drive us on those days. During my
junior year, I had a senior teammate that lived in the same complex as me, so
it just made sense that we commuted together.
As for city dwellers, a quick
Google search of Rochester’s public transportation rates brought me to this
site: http://www.rochesterbus.com/citylines/citylines_fares.htm
It appears to me that transportation rates are pretty cheap, especially if
you’re only doing this for a week. Obviously, every city’s rates will be
different, so make sure you do some research first! You’ll need to check for
cost along with the locations of bus stops and bus schedules.
As for
adults who are commuting in rural areas where there aren’t bus services, such
as teachers at my small-town school, or my dad, a local mechanic, I have
something that you can do as well. This also works for urban commuters who
can’t make the bus schedule work with their schedule. Talk to your co-workers-
do any of them live near you? Could you possibly start riding together to and
from work, with only a small ten or fifteen extra minutes tacked onto your
commute? What about your local friends? Have a discussion with them about where
you live and work. Say you’re friends with one of your neighbors, and his or
her job is on the way to your workplace. It wouldn’t be so out-of-the-way for
you to drop them off on your commute, would it? Take that step and arrange a
carpool, even if it’s only with one other person.
Next time you’re driving somewhere
all by yourself, watch the other cars going by. Count how many have only one
passenger as compared to many passengers. For me, whenever I do this exercise,
I usually notice that there are more one-passenger cars than
multiple-passenger. Then I think about how many of those one-passenger cars are
headed in the same direction, how many are turning into the same housing
complex, how many are pulling into the same grocery store. I want you to think
about what you, your friends, your family, and even your community could do
differently to trim down on your gas dependence.
It’s so easy for us to reduce the
amount of one-passenger cars that are on the road; to start, all we need to do is
have a conversation. This Green Challenge will actually save you and your
friends’ money. Not all of the Green Challenges I create will profit you in
that way, so I suggest taking advantage of this one! It’s simple and cheap.
Seriously, there is almost zero discomfort in taking the school bus. Try saying
out loud to yourself: “I’d rather be more wasteful and contribute to global
pollution so that I don’t have to sit in hard seats and listen to a couple of
kids talk loudly for a tiny portion of my day.” Sounds pretty selfish, huh?
If you have questions, need help or
advice, or have any general comments, leave a comment below or contact me at viridorari@yahoo.com. Good luck! Maybe,
like me, you’ll find this challenge is simple enough to continue beyond a
single week.
My next scheduled post will be on Monday; it
will include the Harsh Fact(s) of the Week, Ecofriendly Economics, and it will
reveal Viridorari’s first Animal of the Month!This is my car, a 1997 Nissan Altima:
According to this website, my car gets a combined 24MPG: http://www.fueleconomy.gov/feg/findacar.shtml
Go to that website to find your car's MPG!
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