While it's great that there is an initiative to carpool ("DSG carpool plan aims to cut congestion," March 25), I find it disturbing that students who live off-campus but close to campus are driving at all. Duke is a pretty good green school (thanks a lot to the Nicholas School, I'm sure) but it makes me sick that students don't care about the environment when they drive to school rather than take a 20-minute walk. I say this because I live in the Belmont and walk to school every day, but so many of my Duke student neighbors drive to school in their giant parent-sponsored SUVs. Perhaps some of these students have a legitimate need to drive rather than walk a mile (physical illness, jobs off-campus, etc.,) but I doubt that the majority do. While carpooling helps a little bit, encouraging students to walk would help even more in reducing gasoline consumption and pollution from cars. Perhaps the school could even go so far as to not give parking permits to undergraduates who live so close to school! I know there has been a lot of crime lately, but if you're walking home after dark, SAFERides is there (and has improved its service a lot in recent months).
Melanie Sereny
Graduate student, Sociology
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