IU unveils new car pooling program

With gas prices lurking around $3 a gallon and parking on campus a frequent concern, IU officials are creating a car pooling program that could begin this fall.\nCurrently the plan focuses on employees, with a goal to alleviate the congestion in A and C spaces.\nAspects of the new policy include a reserved space for each group of car poolers, a matching service for interested individuals, a taxi service for emergency use and a one-day parking sticker system for days when an employee must arrive earlier or leave later than usual.\n"If we can encourage a few people to share the ride by car pooling or van pooling they save money, it reduces pollution and it makes it easier for others to drive on campus or find a convenient parking place," said IU Transportation Services Assistant Director Kent McDaniel. "Everybody wins (in the new plan)."\nIn 1993, IU proposed a similar plan with the same goal. Some of the proposals from the old plan included raising parking fines, building more parking garages, implementing a transportation fee, expanding the bus system, improving walking and cycling paths and creating a shuttle service for distant parking, according to a March 25, 1993 article in the Herald-Times.\nIU has since completed some of these proposals over the years. Parking fines vary, yet can be as high as $200, according to the Parking Operations Web site. Students pay a mandatory transportation fee with their tuition dues for the four -- and soon to be five -- parking garages that exist for campus use. In addition, bike lanes are on main roads around campus to help foster alternative methods of transportation.\nThe Bloomington Staff Council did not support the car pool and shuttle service plan in 1993. The council asserted clerical and technical staff, which make up the lowest-paid employees on campus, would bear the majority of the responsibility. Under the plan, parking near campus buildings would have risen in cost and those using the shuttle service would have had a lengthier commute.\nThe plan failed when a sufficient number of employees did not participate. However, McDaniel feels the situation is different now, as gas prices are forcing people to think about alternative transportation.\n"Gas prices are three dollars a gallon," he said. "It will be much more attractive (now)."\nThis year's plan, like the former one, also proposes to encourage employees to park at the Memorial Stadium and take an employee shuttle to their offices.\nJackie Holiday, custodian at Eigenmann Hall, lives in Bedford and likes the idea of car pooling. She was an employee when IU last attempted the car pooling program. Holiday said she is willing to make the compromise now that gas prices are so high.\n"With the gas prices today, it's ridiculous," she said. "I think it's a good idea."\nHoliday said parking at Eigenmann is first come, first serve, so she hopes the program will help alleviate that.\nThe construction of a new garage at Atwater and Fess avenues has prompted Parking Operations to restrict the Poplars Garage to A permit use. This will limit C spaces until the garage construction finishes. \nUniversity officials and Transportation Services are optimistic about the new car pooling program.\n"We think we'll get more interest this time," said McDaniel.