no drive day
Posted by Brent Finnegan on April 2nd, 2008
Yesterday, local truckers participated in a nation-wide protest over the soaring cost of diesel fuel, by staying off the road.
Today, JMU is having their first annual “no drive day,” not necessarily because of the rising cost of gasoline, but out of a desire to reduce greenhouse gases.
The University’s Clean Energy Coalition, along with the Harrisonburg Department of Public Transportation, is participating the the worldwide event by offering free t-shirts, food, and a raffle.
The closest parking spaces in the C-10 lot (beside ISAT) and C-4 lot (next to Hillside) will be reserved for High Occupancy Vehicle’s (2+ passengers) during the morning commute(7:30-10:30). These changes will take place only on April 2nd and will be enforced by Parking Services. You must have a parking pass to park in these spots. Apart from the HOV sections of the C-4 and C-10 lots, parking on campus will be enforced as usual. Drive a friend to campus and score an awesome spot!
We will be using traffic counters to determine the impact of your effort in reducing traffic, so celebrate spring by leaving your car at home!
This was in the DNR today: http://www.dnronline.com/news_details.php?AID=15982&CHID=2
Here’s some pretty good coverage by WHSV on “No Drive Day” http://ww2.whsv.com/global/video/popup/pop_playerLaunch.asp?clipId1=2348433&at1=News&vt1=v&h1=JMU+No+Drive+Day+4%2F2&d1=119066&redirUrl=http://www.whsv.com&activePane=info&LaunchPageAdTag=homepage&clipFormat= . I agree with the one student who says that he takes the bus because the parking situation at JMU is so bad. I spoke with one friend of mine who is a professor at JMU who said that he decided to start walking to campus from his home (a little more than a mile away) when he realized he spent 11 minutes one day in the parking lot looking for a parking space (that doesn’t include the drive time through City streets and traffic lights). Kudos to the Clean Energy Coalition and its volunteers!