Student Association is currently gauging interest in a potential rental car service on campus. Though more details about the service need to be known, rental cars could provide several benefits.
This program would give students the opportunity to use the cars for up to four days for a relatively low fee which would cover both insurance and maintenance costs.
Because of the layout and size of Geneseo's campus, most students, either living on or off campus, choose to walk to class, activities and dining facilities. Public transportation can take students to businesses on Route 20A and even into the city of Rochester. Despite this, students bring cars for a number of reasons, perhaps as an easier way to get back home, go grocery shopping, or visit locations in the area that the bus service does not reach.
By allowing students temporary transportation to their location of choice, assuming there are enough cars available to suit student demand, a car service is a convenient solution for students who rarely use their cars during the school year. If students utilized the rental service and consequently left their cars at home, parking lots would be significantly less clogged, and as an added bonus, the annoyance of digging your vehicle out from a foot of snow could be avoided.
In addition, making our transportation around the Geneseo area more communal and less isolated could have a small, yet positive impact on the environment. If students collectively used a set number of cars instead of bringing their individual vehicles, less gas would be used and fewer emissions would be released.
Student use of rented cars will also open up the surrounding area to greater student patronage. Going into Rochester for a day may be difficult to arrange based on LATS bus schedules, but a rental car service would allow students to come and go into the nearby city as they please.
The rental service to provide students with an alternative, more convenient form of transportation around the area is still only in its speculative stages. But with sufficient interest, this service could drive reduced traffic, greener practices, and increased exploration of the Western New York area - definite benefits to the student experience at Geneseo.