Students utilize alternative modes of transportation

Katie Herman / Staff Writer / The USD Vista

What do you get when you combine a skateboarding banana, Costco muffins, raffle prizes, spandex and fifty bike riders? The answer is the first Alternative Transportation Awareness Day. The event, sponsored by the TREE club along with Associated Students, was organized in an effort to raise awareness of utilizing alternative forms of transportation. Its purpose was to reduce the number of people driving to campus on Oct. 22 in order to alleviate the much-loathed search for parking and also to decrease the student impact on the environment.

“I’ve read studies that say you can ride a bike for several hours on the amount of energy it takes to start your car,” Dr. Warren Smith, an avid bike rider and professor of marine geology in the environmental studies department, said. Using alternative forms of transportation is a relatively easy way to “go green” and reduce one’s carbon footprint.

Alternative Transportation Awareness Day began at 6:45 a.m. at the cul-de-sac near the Mission Giant Dipper Coaster. More than forty students, along with professors and administrators, received green event shirts before embarking together on a bike ride to campus. “It was an amazing experience to see this collective gathering of people,” Simona Capisani said, president of T.R.E.E. Club and one of the event’s major organizers.

All the participants of the ride arrived in front of the UC by 9 a.m. where they joined other members of TREE club who were handing out free breakfast and information about alternative transportation. The event was proof that raising awareness for an issue can be simultaneously informative and fun.

“The excitement was pervasive despite the early morning hour. As the ride continued, our enthusiasm only grew, so that by the time we arrived on campus we were more than ready to share our statement with the rest of the USD community,” Capisani said. “From the sun shining off the San Diego River, to the perfect weather, to the group of neon-clad cyclists hooting and whistling, the entire experience brought to light the feasibility and enjoyment in the changes we can make in our day to day lives.”

Greg Zacowski, the Executive Director of the University Center, helped organize the event. “I hope we can keep this going and do it weekly or monthly and hopefully the university will take this more seriously. We’ve been thinking about putting bike racks on the trams to encourage more bikers to not be intimidated by the hill at the west entrance,” Zacowski said.

This plan of action would demonstrate to students that the school supports and encourages alternative forms of transportation. The TREE club is aiming to make Alternative Transportation Day an annual event. Smith also hopes to demonstrate that it’s never too late and one is never too old to start biking to school. “Hey, I’m 65 and I still do it,” Smith said.