Students can expect to ride the newly-proposed shuttle between main campus and UH-Sugar Land by next semester. | Courtesy of Richard Zagrzecki.
Getting to school is about to become easier for students. At the sustainability festival at 11:30 a.m. on Wednesday in Lynn Eusan Park, two initiatives for carpooling and shuttling will be announced.
The carpool and vanpool initiative will be helpful for students who travel to the Sugar Land campus. Digital media junior Francis Eyth, who learned that his coursework will have classes there.
“If there wasn’t a shuttle, I wouldn’t have a solution to getting to class next semester,” Eyth said. “I would probably have to try and telecommute — there would be no other way.”
Eyth talked to the Transportation Parking Advisory Committee in an effort to establish a shuttle to the Sugar Land campus by next semester. He said the University goal of becoming more resident-friendly was being inhibited by the fact that some students who live on campus do not have transportation to their classes. He said a shuttle to Sugar Land would solve a lot of students’ problems.
Eyth’s and other students’ situations are being addressed by those attending the Sustainability Festival.
Issam Kadiwala, a Student Government Association senator of the Gerald D. Hines College of Architecture, will be one of those at the table promoting teams for carpool and vanpool.
“The direct impacts UH students are likely to see from carpools and vanpools include saving money on their cars, saving gas, alleviating parking lots and cost for permits and saving time with the HOV lane,” Kadiwala said.
Among these benefits, a sustainability initiative would further UH’s goal of becoming a greener university. Engineering junior Andrew Hernandez, a commuter, said he wished he could bring home southern California’s fresh air.
“Every little bit helps. Sometimes you ride through traffic and you smell gas. I know it’s not exactly gas, but the carbon monoxide emissions burning, all that exhaust fumes. The exhaust fumes are going to rise, and they’re just trapped in our atmosphere,” Hernandez said.
