Reducing Car Use

In previous semesters, I did not have my car here on campus. Now, that I am a junior I decided to bring my car up to school to have. Now that my car is here, I drive more than I need to. At first I walked everywhere, whether it was to class, the gym, or to and from football practice. Now, I find myself driving everywhere when I am more than capable of walking. I also want to tell my friends when they ask me if I want a ride to class or the gym to just walk.

Looking at my carbon footprint calculator and my ecological footprint calculator, it really surprised me with the car I have and the mpg that my car gets to see how much impact I have for carbon emissions. Yes it is not much compared to the whole world, but if I left my car at home or just drove my car to places that are out of walking distance, I would be saving gas and reducing carbon emissions.

My goal is to not drive my car when the destination is within walking distance. I have chosen to change this behavior because I was fine without my car on campus, but now that I do I find myself driving everywhere instead of walking. The anticipated challenges in changing this behavior is bad weather, in a rush, and being tired after football practice down at Fisher Field and needing to get back to Fisher East, which is all the way across campus. In the winter it is tougher to walk because it is cold, but with the hopefully nice spring we are heading into I think it should be much easier to get back to walking everywhere instead of driving. My thoughts about this change will not be as hard as I think. With nice weather heading towards us, it will feel nice to walk around campus in shorts and a t-shirt instead of driving in a car. I do not have any concerns except for friends asking me for rides to class and telling them sorry I am not driving. That will not be too difficult though.

I am setting this goal to not drive around campus because it is a start for me personally to help reduce my carbon emissions and save gas. It is a small step in the big picture, but if all students across the country walked when they could, it would drastically reduce carbon emissions and save thousands of barrels of gas over a year.