News

On January 30 and 31, a steering committee of UC Irvine students, Students for Sustainability and the Orange County chapter of the Society for Conservation Biology, held a symposium called Focus the Nation.

By hosting this local segment, here at UCI, it helped expand knowledge on the looming global climate conditions we are currently facing and to also move people into action to begin reducing the negative effects on our planet.

A variety of UCI departments including Parking and Transportation Services, joined in to help support these efforts. Parking and Transportation hosted a Rideshare booth at the Eco Expo portion of the event to help educate attendees and visitors on the many sustainable modes of transportation available to the UCI campus.

At our booth we held a bike raffle for 4 new bikes...and the winners are...Lauren Martin, Raschel Greenberg, Lara Montagne and MinJung Sohn. Congratulations to the four drawing winners as you enjoy riding your new Green Vehicles!

On September 16, 2007, Sustainable Transportation representatives collaborated with the Community of University Hills, UCIPD, Irvine PD and OCFA to hold a Summer Fiesta for the residents of University Hills. Sustainable Transportation registered over 100 bikes and passed out more than 200 youth bike T-shirts. Sustainable Transportation with the help of Irvine PD created a bike safety course that the youth could ride through and test their biking skills. It was estimated that at least 100 children participated in the bike rodeo.

The highlight of the event was an OCFA fire truck and helicopter being displayed for the community members to view.

Sustainable Transportation hosted Rideshare week October 1-5th in a joint effort with OCTA, Inland Empire Commuter Services, UCI Medical Center and Flexcar/Zipcar to increase the awareness of the UCIrvine community to alternative transportation modes. Parking & Transportation raffled off 5 bikes to students, staff and faculty members. OCTA provided Rideshare Hero pledge cards for interested rideshare participants who committed to commuting to UCIrvine via an alternative mode of transportation during that week. The completed forms were sent off to OCTA for a county-wide 5-day drawing. Winners were announced at the annual Rideshare Accomplishment breakfast at the House of Blues at Downtown Disney.

CELEBRATE UCI- Saturday, April 19 from 9 AM to 5 PM

One Day. One Campus. Many Options. Come to UCI's 30th annual Open House, one of the campus' oldest and most festive traditions. This spring event features games and rides for children, an Earth Day celebration, academic information, classic car show, campus tram tours, Wayzgoose Medieval Faire with food booths, demonstrations, rides, games, 3 stages of entertainment and much more. General campus offices such as Housing, Admissions, and Financial Aid are also open. Everyone Welcome! It's an excellent opportunity to bring family and friends to visit and see what's new with the UCI campus. Join the alumni, staff, faculty, and students as we Celebrate UCI! Events and Parking are FREE. For more information, call UCI at (949) 824-5182 or visit our website at www.uci.edu/celebrate.

Starting October 1, 2007, Parking & Transportation kicked off their $6 carpool rates for each staff/faculty member in a carpool program. We also introduced our Park 4 Free program which allows 4 individuals to carpool to UCIrvine for FREE. Individuals received 2 complementary parking permits per month for those days that they can not carpool together. The carpool permit allows individuals to park in RESERVED spots throughout campus.

Starting October 1, 2007, Parking & Transportation kicked off their $6 carpool rates for each staff/faculty member in a carpool program. We also introduced our Park 4 Free program which allows 4 individuals to carpool to UCIrvine for FREE. Individuals received 2 complementary parking permits per month for those days that they can not carpool together. The carpool permit allows individuals to park in RESERVED spots throughout campus.

Beginning July 2007, most UCIrvine vanpools were awarded OCTA's Vanpool Program subsidy. This subsidy is applied to the lease rate, resulting in lower rates for riders.

In October, UCIrvine Vanpool participants joined with Sustainable Transportation, VPSI, and OCTA representatives to celebrate this cooperative program.

Pizza was served, photos were taken, and prizes were awarded to vanpoolers.

In September 2007, Flexcar began a carsharing program on the UCI campus. In October, Flexcar merged with Zipcar to create one, larger company.

While this change means that members now have access to more cars in more cities, it also meant that the UCIrvine fleet needed to be updated.

During the week of January 14th, the carshare fleet was taken out of circulation to allow new systems to be installed and new logos to be applied.

Since the transition, Zipcar membership is up and ridership continues to grow.

Rates continue from $7/hour for rental, gas, insurance, and mileage. UCIrvine faculty and staff receive free membership and UCIrvine students receive $35 in driving credit. To apply, go to http://www.zipcar.com/uci.