Students in need of transportation will have a new online tool to help them find rides. The President’s Climate Commitment Committee, or PC3, introduced a new website to facilitate carpooling of all distances among the College’s students and faculty.
The website, tcnj.icarpool.com, was researched and brought to the College by political science professor Bryan Potter, the head of the transportation team for PC3, in order to take cars off the road, cut down on carbon emissions, and increase student convenience.
PC3 is the result of a commitment that President Gitenstein signed in the spring of 2007 that calls for a comprehensive plan to achieve climate neutrality by 2032.
Heather Camp, a staff member of the Bonner center, joined PC3 this academic year and is helping to promote the iCarpool website.
Camp said, “I can see it being a really useful tool for students who have a hard time accessing transportation and it could also be really useful for faculty members trying to carpool to work.”
She also envisions the website encompassing all types of trips, from short rides to Wal-Mart to helping students get home for break.
iCarpool has an intuitive format that matches people who have similar trips or commutes to make. To make compensation easy between users the website estimates how much money each trip costs by calculating gas usage and wear and tear on the vehicle used. There is also a trip tracker tool that allows the user to record their commutes and what means of transportation they used.
For those concerned about safety, the website breaks everything down into specific networks. The College’s network requires a valid email address from the College, so students of the College are only showing their information to fellow students.
Junior finance major Jakub Libucha said, “This idea sounds like a great way to not only take cars off the road and save people money, but it also could be an interesting way to build cohesion amongst the College community and raise awareness for cutting carbon emissions.”
Despite the potential of iCarpool, the College’s online network currently consisted of only ten students as of Monday. “It is essential for people to populate the website for it to work,” Camp said.
