How to commute to university without an environmental impact

Whether you’re at a campus uni or a city uni, you need some way to get to your lectures and it would be nice to do so without feeling the trail of car fumes behind you cut through the breathable atmosphere. Here’s a few ways to modify your travel without harming the environment.

Carshare or bus!

Five students each driving themselves to university creates five times as many emissions as one student driving four friends so bust out that playlist and try car sharing! This requires a little more organisation and obviously for someone to have a car, but in city universities especially where the commute is longer, it might be a worthwhile idea to save both petrol money and the environment.

Better yet, online apps or QR codes on buses allow you to get real time information, meaning you can safely put off getting out of bed for as long as safely possible and know you’ll make your bus. If you opt to take a coach, you can also access a Young Persons Coach Card which are for people aged 16-26 in full time education and gives you 1/3 off, £15 deals on returns on certain days and 15% off on certain events too, for not much more than £1 a month!

Walking!

Ok yes not everyone loves being caught in the rain, but what better way to walk off the sleepiness before a 9am lecture than strolling to it with your friends? Fresh air and seeing the sights is a great way to keep calm, happy and exercised between busy university life.

Cycling

Another way to keep fit and help the environment is cycling to university. Not only is this greener, but it will definitely get you there quicker than walking, meaning that a valuable ten minute lie-in doesn’t have to be sacrificed.

In London universities especially where the roads are permanently busy and cycle lanes numerous, cycling is a good way to beat the traffic and always a nicer way to see the city. Besides, there are probably more places to chain your bike than there are car parking spaces in the competitive student car parks anyway.

If you would like to see how well cycling could work out for you, check out this guide to 10 bike friendly cities for students.

Train

If you’re further away from uni and cycling requires waking up at dawn or before, public transport is still a better bet than cars. Of course this is more expensive, which is not fun if you have a tighter student budget, but you can get discounts with a railcard too.

For longer journeys (eg moving from home to uni)

Moving from home to university, or just going back after the holidays, may require a longer journey. Again, public transport is greener as it allows more people to travel per journey, but these can also be expensive.

Coaches , whilst taking longer, can actually be quite a lot cheaper though, saving your bank account too.

So there you have several greener ways to commute to university, and if you feel like shaking it up, rollerblading is always quicker than walking (But I would recommend a helmet), so when term starts again, and you start going out more to lectures, you don’t have to harm the environment doing so.

REFERENCES

https://www.student.com/articles/ultimate-student-guide-to-uk-transport