Carpooling Program Offers Options For Commuters
Students and employees at Miami Dade College’s Wolfson Campus can take advantage of a new carpooling program called Get2MDC.
To be eligible for the program, one must be an MDC student or employee, have a car and a valid driver’s license and show proof of registration and insurance. The program is currently only being utilized at the Wolfson Campus.
“Carpooling just seems smarter, carbon pollution will go down, air pollution will go down,” Miami Dade College Earth Ethics Institute Director Colleen Ahern-Hettich said.
To join the program, one must register on the website and wait for a carpool permit to be sent by mail, which is then hung on a car mirror. Permits are valid for one semester.
Participants must have a valid MDC decal and school ID. Two or more students must be in the car to participate and they must drive to campus at least three days a week.
“This would definitely make a major impact to the environment, just think of all the cars that won’t be used,” Karel Perez, a 21-year-old environmental studies major at Miami Dade College said. “Almost every car you see drive into the parking lot has only one person in it. This would improve the traffic we get when it’s time to go home. Carpooling would be a smart and enjoyable way of commuting to school.”
There are other advantages to carpooling. Groups with three or more individuals and South Florida Vanpools are eligible to use 95 Express without paying a toll if you register your vehicle with South Florida Commuter Services.
But what happens if you sign up for the program and the person assigned to pick you up does not show up?
The Emergency Ride Home program is available to people who carpool, vanpool, ride transit, bicycle or walk to work at least three days a week. In case of an unexpected emergency, the emergency ride home program works 24 hours a day, seven days a week and each registered ERH program participant is allowed up to six free emergency rides per year.
But MDC Wolfson Campus Student Government Association President, Jennifer Sotolongo, sees other benefits, like saving the environment.
“The ultimate reason is we all want to preserve our planet, therefore, this is not just a way to begin thinking greener, but acting upon it,” Sotolongo said.
For more information about Get2MDC, visit www.get2mdc.com