Students now have another option when trying to subdue parking difficulties and the monster that is the pain at the pump.

AlterNetRides ?” a website tool found at www.alternetrides.com ?” allows students, faculty and staff to connect and communicate with individuals who share a similar commute and establish a carpooling schedule.

To use the website, one must create a user account where he or she must list a number of details ?” including departure points and destinations with times and preferences such as smoking and non-smoking, and even favorite types of music.

Then, the website automatically matches that individual with others who share similar details in his or her profile.

Contact is made via a blind e-mail, meaning there will be no name, phone number, address or e-mail address listed in order to sustain confidentiality until both carpoolers feel comfortable with one another.

The main benefits for students are preferential parking spaces, less wear and tear on your car and less money spent on gas, said Nancy Fox, director of University Transportation and Parking Services Director. “The larger benefit is that you are reducing the air quality problem.

According to the State of the Air: 2006 report by the American Lung Association, the Sacramento area, including Arden Arcade and Truckee, ranked 8th on the list of metropolitan areas most polluted by short-term particle pollution. Sacramento ranked ahead of San Diego, Detroit and Cleveland.

As of Sept. 4, California’s average gas price is $3 per gallon, according to the Energy Information Administration. Local gas prices have hovered around $2.90 per gallon.

These issues, coupled with the loss of 1,100 parking spaces due to the construction of Parking Structure III, have left many students scrambling to start the fall semester. The website is meant to alleviate some of these hurdles.

I am getting here at nine o’clock in the morning and usually don’t get a parking spot until 10:30, said social work major and junior Maggie Burns.

Burns, who commutes from Citrus Heights, said being able to carpool would be useful because of the special lane designated to carpoolers on Interstate 80.

The relationship between UTAPS and AlterNetRides ?” which was launched in 2002 and based out of Pleasant Hill ?” began in September 2004.

The annual subscription fee that UTAPS pays the website to include Sacramento State is $200, which is funded by alternative transportation funding, and the university has had students, faculty and staff signed up since the initial agreement went into effect, according to employee transportation coordinator Freddy Orozco.

We thought, as we still do, that it would be a good idea to have an internal carpool match list system, Orozco said. Many carpoolers prefer to ride with people they can identify with; people with similar interests, goals, lines of work and schedules.

UTAPS has continued to try and get the word out to students and faculty since 2004, but now seems to be the most appropriate time for students to use the website, Fox said. There were 213 carpools and 465 students and faculty associated with AlterNetRides in spring 2006.

Senior Jared Morris, a double major in biology and English, signed up on Aug. 15 and was surprised at the lack of activity on the website.

I didn’t expect to be flooded with ride sharing requests, but I suppose I thought there would be more interest from others in my area (Rocklin). When I signed up, however, I saw there were only three other people from my neck of the woods, Morris said.

UTAPS has been attempting to increase the number of people who use the site this semester.

We have been sending out mass e-mails, putting flyers out at freshman orientations and conducting Power Point presentations, Fox said.

In addition to reducing pollution and saving on gas prices, carpoolers will be eligible to park in designated parking spots with a permit.

The carpool permit is $108 ?” the same price as a regular permit ?” per semester and is designated to those who choose to ride together. They must fill out an application as a couple or group and indicate which cars will use the permit.

Any time thereafter, these cars are eligible to park in the sold carpool spaces.

Faculty carpool spaces are located in Lots 1 and 4, and student carpool spaces are in Parking Structure I and Lot 2, Orozco said.

“As a student, I would have used it,” business administration graduate student Dang Hoang said. “It would be worth saving money on gas and the amount of time spent trying to find a spot.”

There are currently several other universities that are using AlerNetRides including: Cal Poly San Luis Obispo, CSU Chico, CSU Humboldt, UC San Diego and UC Irvine.

Other transportation options available to Sac State commuters include Sacramento Regional Transit bus and light rail systems ?” both of which are free with a student OneCard ?” as well as other local transit systems, including Hornet Shuttle Express.

Bus route times can be found at www.sacrt.com. Students can also plan out their routes with RT’s Online Trip Planner.

In addition, a bicycle path is being built along State University Drive West and is expected to be completed by the end of October to allow easier navigation around campus on a bike.

For more information contact UTAPS at 278-7275, or visit the website at www.csus.edu/utaps.

Blake Ellington can be reached at [email protected]