The Office of Sustainability is partnering with MassRIDES this week to promote Car-Free Week, which began on Monday and will conclude on Saturday.
MassRIDES, an organization that provides free trip-planning services to Massachusetts residents, aims to promote sustainability by reducing congestion and improving air quality, MassRIDES Marketing Manager Jennifer Solomon told the Daily.
Participants in this year's Car-Free Week are encouraged to log every trip they complete without a car on the MassRIDES Car-Free week website, according to Office of Sustainability Programming Associate Jessica Madding (LA '11).
Last year, the Office of Sustainability participated in the first-ever MassRIDES Car-Free Week and signed up 54 students, saving up to 480 miles, Program Director Tina Woolston said.
MassRIDES decided to expand the event to a week this year after positive feedback from partners in Massachusetts, Solomon said.
Last year, 1600 participants tracked 2600 miles on the MassRIDES site and reduced carbon dioxide emissions by twelve tons, Solomon said. MassRIDES hopes this year to surpass 2000 participants for the whole week, according to Solomon.
Car-Free Week offers members of the Tufts community an opportunity to reevaluate their lifestyles by choosing to bike instead of drive for their daily commutes, according to Madding.
"We're not talking about going cold turkey — which is ideal — but baby steps," Madding said.
Last Thursday, Madding provided students outside the Mayer Campus Center information about alternative modes of transportation, including a list of buses operating near the Medford/Somerville campus and various rewards programs for Boston commuters.
The Office of Sustainability targeted faculty members, who commute to campus daily, but also highlighted students' potential to contribute to the program, according to Madding.
"You can definitely have an impact on the environment if you choose to forgo driving to the grocery store once a week," Madding said.
For every mile traveled through means other than private car, 242 grams of carbon dioxide are saved, Madding noted.
"When you think about it in grams, it doesn't seem like that much, but that stuff adds up," Madding said.
Other schools in the Boston area are also participating in Car-Free Week, according to Solomon, including Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Harvard University, University of Massachusetts Boston and Suffolk University. One thousand cities in 40 countries worldwide are celebrating Car-Free Day today.
"It's something people all over the world are participating in. People like to feel like they are a part of something bigger," Woolston said.
Tufts is one of six universities participating in CLIF Bar's 2-Mile Challenge, a competition that encourages participants to bike to all destinations within a two-mile vicinity instead of driving, according to Campus Representative Ryan Clapp, a senior.
Forty percent of all urban travel is within these two miles, Clapp noted.
Clapp and fellow Campus Representative Allister Chang, also a senior, will be running weekly events for the 2-Mile Challenge, including a lemonade stand near the Voute Tennis Courts that will give lemonade to students who run or bike, Clapp said.
Chang and Clapp will hold a bike market at the campus center early next month, where students can sell old bikes, buy new ones or purchase used bikes that are refurbished by mechanics on site, Clapp said.
