‘Dropbike’ and ‘Enterprise Car Share’, highlights Humber Earth Week

Mar 27, 2018 | Life

Kasie DaSilva

Earth Week is in full swing and more sustainable ways to commute was the main event today at Humber’s North campus.

The main goal of the Break the Cycle: Enterprise Car Share and Dropbike event was to reintroduce students and faculty to two existing sustainable transportation businesses on campus.

courtesy: humber.ca

Enterprise Car Share encourages carpooling and the use of public transportation by providing students with access to car rentals on campus.

Car Share gives access to students who are 18 years or older with a valid G2 or G license to use provided cars on campus. For $6 an hour, or $65 a day, students are able to drive up to 200 km without worrying about paying out of their own pockets for gas.

There also is the Dropbike program, which is a Toronto bike-sharing start-up that lets users download their mobile app that shows where a nearby bicycle is and gives users a code to unlock the bike for $1 per hour. When your hour is over you are to take a picture of the bike. The app, using its GPS, tracks the location for the next user.

Roma Malik, Humber’s sustainability manager, believes Dropbike benefits majority of Humber students.

courtesy: humber.ca

“A lot of students have a single occupant vehicle and it’s very normal to not be able to find parking, especially at the North campus,” she said. “We wanted to have an easy and affordable way for students to bike around campus, that’s one of the biggest driving factors to get the bike share program, but also because the price was so attractive.”

Malik is excited to reintroduce the programs to students since they were not in use during the winter months.

“They’ve been here for a few months but the bikes are removed for the winter and we’ve brought them back for spring,” she said.

Tomorrow, the two-day World Wildlife Fund (WWF) Shoreline Cleanup will begin at Lakeshore campus, where students and faculty are encouraged to come help clean up the shores of Lake Ontario.

Malik is excited about partnering with the WWF this year.

“This is the first time we’re collaborating with the WWF for the engagement and education of our students,” she said. “We focus every year on cleaning up our campus, but this year we’re trying to clean up our waterways.”

“We’re connected to the Humber River at North campus and we’re connected to Lake Ontario at Lakeshore campus so we wanted to focus on those areas because it can really make a difference in terms of reducing the amount of plastic pollution in our water, lakes, and streams,” Malik said.