Carleton Fleet Vehicles

 
Carleton's two new Prius Hybrids, which arrived November 20, 2008.

Although there is no official policy about future college vehicle purchases, Carleton Fleet Services has demonstrated a commitment to increasing fleet fuel efficiency and decreasing the fleet size.  In March of 2008 Carleton purchased two Prius Hybrids to replace two other old vehicles in the fleet.  Two additional Prius's were added in November of 2008, as replacements for a Ford Focus and Ford Taurus.

Fleet Services has steadily decreased the size of the college fleet, which is part of the decision to only introduce Priuses as existing cars need to be replaced.  In 2007 Carleton owned 18 college vehicles, down from 23 several years ago.  By fall of 2008 Carleton had reduced the fleet size to 15 vehicles: 10 mini-vans, 1 cargo van, and 4 Prius Hybrids.

Additionally, Fleet Services volunteered to give up one of their parking spaces (the space originally reserved for the cargo van) so that the Carleton participants in Van-Go, who carpool from the Twin Cities, would be guaranteed a spot close to campus.  The cargo van has been relegated to the lot next to Stadium across Highway 19, where it enjoys a nice view of the Cannon River.

For more information about Carleton Fleet Services contact Marilyn Hollinger (mholling@carleton.edu) or Julia Burmesch (jburmesch@carleton.edu).

Rideshare/Carpooling (Carleton's Rideshare Website)

Ridesharing is a growing practice at Carleton, thanks in large part to the Environmental Studies Capstone by Amy Wilson (class of 2008).  She created a website that allows Carleton students, faculty, and staff to identify members of Carleton interested in carpooling to campus.  It can be used by faculty and staff who want to commute daily, and students can collaborate on rides to and from campus between breaks.  Check out Carleton's Rideshare Website and see who you can carpool with.  The site contains plenty of other transportation information.

Van-Go is a federally sponsored program which is currently used by a group of faculty and staff to commute from the Twin Cities.  The number of participants is about 6, "7 on a good day," in the words of Van-Go participant Noel Ponder.  They are looking to expand the number of participants at Carleton; contact Noel (nponder@carleton.edu) with any interest.

Green Bikes

Began in Spring 2008, there are currently 5 Green Bikes (1 during winter term) available for day use by any student.  They can be checked out from Campus Activities. SOPE (Students Organized for the Protection of the Environment) supplies funding for all Green Bikes, but many of the parts for the Green Bikes were supplied by the Yellow Bike Club in addition to SOPE.  All Green Bikes have a milk crate attached to the back for carrying objects such as groceries, backpacks, or pieces of wood. (R. McGaughey and E. Webb)

Contact Ray McGaughey (mcgaughr@carleton.edu) or Alex Long (longa@carleton.edu) it you are interested in helping maintain the Green Bikes.

Parking

The negative effects of parking lots go well beyond aesthetics, creating polluted runoff that is not able to percolate into groundwater (all street and parking lot runoff in Northfield feeds directly to the Cannon River, located a few hundred feet from campus).  So when the new Arboretum Office was constructed several years ago, instead of pavement Carleton installed a pervious parking surface composed of metal cylinders and gravel.  The gravel allows water to absorb into the ground and the metal cylinders prevent erosion of the gravel.

Carleton Facilities completed a study of campus parking in 2008.  Parking has become an increasingly talked about issue, as attempts are made to increase green space on campus and encourage people to walk or bike to an from campus.  In spring 2008, Carleton began construction on two new Residence Halls which sit partially on the former Nourse parking lot.  The college compensated with some additional parking, but decided to accept a net loss in spaces.

(Awaiting more details)