For Immediate Release
Share This News Release
9/26/2016
Suffolk Takes Pledge on Car Free Day
Suffolk County
Community College President Dr. Shaun L. McKay, center, signs a Car Free Day
Pledge Card. From left, Rosemary Mascali, chair of Car Free Day LI; Dr. Suzanne Johnson, Dr. Shaun L. McKay, Student Trustee Christopher North, Suffolk County Department of Public Works representative, and Nicholas Palumbo, Suffolk County Community College's executive director of sustainability programs. Using transportation alternatives such as transit, carpooling, bicycles, walking and telecommuting helps reduce traffic, conserve energy, reduce harmful emissions, reduce parking problems and save money!
Dr. McKay told those gathered at a Car Free Day kick-off event that: One of our areas of environmental impact is transportation. On any given day, our parking lots are filled to capacity with cars. To reduce this impact, we promote the benefits of increasing student accessibility and reducing traffic and parking congestion through various activities: Naturally, we participate in Car Free Day annually. Last year, enough of our students pledged to be car-free that Suffolk ranked fifth among the 13 colleges on Long Island in the number of pledged participants. Suffolk is part of 511 NYRideshare, a not for profit subsidized by the New York State Department of Transportation to encourage carpooling and use of mass transit. Their signature tools is an online rideshare matching service to connect individuals interested in carpooling in a safe and efficient way. Suffolk has signed a partnership agreement with the U.S. Department of Energy’s Workplace Charging Challenge to promote the installation of electric vehicle charging stations on each of our three campuses. We are contributing to discussions surrounding the County’s proposed Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) link servicing Nicolls Road, which is the corridor between Suffolk County Community College’s Ammerman Campus and SUNY Stony Brook—both flagship institutions that are part of SUNY.
|