Approximately 83 percent of all vehicles entering campus hold only one person, according to a recent transportation survey conducted by the Ithaca College Environmental Society in cooperation with the Ithaca College Resource and Environmental Management Program.

Of the 1,632 student vehicles counted by ICES, approximately 80 percent of them held only one student. The number of single-occupancy vehicles was even higher among faculty and staff, at approximately 92 percent.

ICES said it hopes the study will help educate students about the benefits carpooling can have for the environment as well as for more parking on campus. ICES President Sean Vormwald said the reasoning behind the study is simple.

“We just want to look at the transportation problem holistically rather than just saying that there’s not enough parking spots,” he said.

ICES said it plans to focus primarily on students because it is easier for students to carpool than for teachers and staff.

“I think [carpooling] will appeal to two kinds of people: the environmentally aware ... and people who want parking,” freshman ICES member Katie Stimpson said.

Members counted cars entering through both the front and back entrances of the college from 7:30 a.m. to 2 p.m. Sept. 25 and 26. Each vehicle was placed into one of eight classifications: single student, multiple students, single staff, multiple staff, single other, multiple other, motorcycles or maintenance and delivery. The total cars in each classification were then averaged over the two days.

The study did not count the number of students who walked, rode bicycles or rode the bus to campus. Vormwald said ICES did not have enough people to survey all methods of transportation because students on foot or bicycle can enter campus from numerous locations. More people are needed to cover the larger area, but only two people were needed at each vehicle entrance, he said.

Surveying students who live off-campus would help ICES to better estimate the number of students who carpool, Vormwald said, adding that carpooling would also reduce the amount of fossil fuels burned by students and would also decrease the number of cars competing for parking spots each day.

He said that ICES is concerned because automobiles are the largest source of air pollution in the United States.

Although ICES would like students to carpool for environmental reasons, the members believe they can convince more people to carpool by emphasizing its economic benefits and how it would help alleviate the current parking situation.

Students could save money by splitting the cost of a parking permit and gasoline, Vormwald said.

Senior Michael Keville pays for all of his driving costs but said splitting the costs between the people in his carpool would be a good idea.

Keville said he drives a four-man carpool with his roommate and with two friends who room together. He does it for convenience, not for environmental reasons.

But conflicting class schedules deter some students from carpooling.

“I don’t know when my friends have classes,” senior Deanna McMillen said, adding she would consider carpooling if she knew people living near her who have classes when she does.

Sophomore Alison Childers said she and her housemate do not carpool because their schedules are not compatible.

“I have considered carpooling. My housemate [has] a totally different schedule than I do,” she said. “It’s not convenient at all.”

ICES presented the results of its study at the Student Government Association meeting Tuesday night and plans to also present its findings to the college’s administration.

Suggestions to increase carpooling in the report include free or reduced price bus passes, creating a carpool database which would allow students to locate other students living near them, creating a parking tag that can be shared between cars and special parking for multiple occupancy vehicles.

Vormwald said offering these incentives to students who carpool would help decrease the number of single student vehicles. The report did not contain many suggestions aimed at reducing the number of faculty and staff who drive alone.

“A way to [encourage carpooling] is to give preferential parking to people who carpool,” Vormwald said.

Childers said a parking lot reserved for vehicles with more than one passenger would definitely encourage her to carpool.

“Anything that would help me find a parking space,” she said.