UNTI
to Participate in Earth Day
The USF Life Sciences Club will be celebrating Earth Day 2002 on
April 22nd, from 10am-3pm at USF's MLK Plaza.
UNTI will be attending the event to provide information on
alternatives to driving a single occupant vehicle (SOV), including
bicycling, walking, carpooling, and using transit.
Join in the Celebration!
Everyone
is welcome to join in the celebration at USF's MLK Plaza.
The USF campus can be accessed by transit via either HARTline
or the Bull Runner shuttle system, which connects with HARTline
routes at the University Area Transit Center.
If you leave nearby, try walking or biking to the event.
If
you are unable to attend the event, celebrate Earth Day by
leaving your car at home and using an alternative form of
transportation for the day. Find
a carpool partner at work, ride your bike, or take the bus.
Whichever you choose, just don't drive alone!
How Did
Earth Day Begin?
Earth Day was originally
conceived in 1969 by newspaper journalist John McConnell.
McConnell envisioned a holiday "to celebrate Earth's
life and beauty and to alert earthlings to the need for preserving
and renewing the threatened ecological balances upon which all life
depends." Later in
1969, an Earth Day Proclamation recognized by the United Nations
made Earth Day an international holiday. In 1970, Gerald Ford
proclaimed Earth Day as a national holiday.
Hung Up
on Your Way to Work? Try
Telecommuting
By telecommuting, commuters can
avoid rush hour traffic and enjoy other benefits already realized by
other telecommuters. Employers,
too, have incentives to implement telecommuting programs for their
employees, including enhanced worker productivity, decreased office
space costs, reduced turnover, and improved recruitment ability.
For employees interested in
telecommuting, the American Telecommuting Association has developed
a five-step plan.
Five
-Step Plan:
Being a self-starter and an independent, disciplined worker are
qualities often seen in productive teleworkers. It is also important
to consider whether, as an employee, you will feel disconnected
without the social interaction of the office environment.
To overcome this potential barrier, many teleworkers only
work from home one to two days per week.
Another factor to consider is the type of work that can be
done at home. Teleworkers
report that checking email, working on electronic documents,
reading, research and analysis, and making phone calls are the
predominant types of work done at home.
If you decide that your personality
and job type would fit well with telecommuting, develop a written
plan to present to your employer that addresses how you will remain
accessible, how productivity at home will be measured, and what
benefits the company can expect to gain.
If the five-step plan is successful,
you may very well be on the road to telecommuting.
Calculate Commuter Benefits and Costs
A number of resources are available to
commuters and employers to calculate the various costs and benefits
associated with commuting and commuter benefits.
Y
Commuter Costs
Calculate the costs
you spend by commuting alone and see how much you could save using
transit instead at www.commuterpage.com.
Under the Topics section, go to "Calculate the Cost of
Commuting."
a
Commuter Tax Benefits
Estimate the benefit of using pre-tax income to pay for commuter
fringe benefits by going to www.nctr.usf.edu/clearinghouse/pretax.htm.
b
Employer Benefits
The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) recently launched a new Commuter Choice
Website. Employers can
use the Benefits Calculator (listed under "For Employers")
to estimate the financial, environmental, traffic related and other
benefits of offering commuter choices as part of the Commuter
Choice Leadership Initiative.
Visit www.commuterchoice.gov.
G
Environmental Benefits
As
fewer vehicle miles are traveled and congestion is reduced, air
quality improves because fewer greenhouse gas emissions and
particulates are emitted. More information on vehicle emissions can
be found at www.epa.gov/otaq/.
HARTline, Others to
Provide Transportation to Job Fair
Even if you live in the University North area, it may now be
feasible to work in Oldsmar, in Pinellas County.
HARTline now has routes that connect the University Area
Transit Center (UATC) with jobs in Oldsmar.
The Oldsmar Job Fair will be held on Tuesday, April 23 at the
Holiday Inn Express Hotel and Suites on Saint Petersburg Drive at
Tampa Road. The City of
Oldsmar, manufacturing businesses, hospitals, health care services,
and staffing agencies will be looking for new employees.
HARTline is teaming up with Bay Area Commuter Services, and other
area transit agencies to provide personal trip planning to people
who may find new jobs in Oldsmar.
At the job fair, they will help you choose the best route or
find a carpool to join. People
will even be available to assist those with children in finding
child care convenient to their new work location.
For more information, contact
Jerry Custin at (813)855-4233 or jcustin@oldsmarchamber.com.
Construction
Updates
SR 56 Opens, Connects to I-75
SR 56 opened to traffic March 28th, cutting driving
time to thousands of central Pasco and New Tampa residents who will
now be able to directly access I-75 via SR 56 rather than taking
either SR 54 or Bruce B. Downs.
Visit www.tbinterstates.com
for updates and information on other interstate projects in the bay
area.
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