Chris Fleisher, coordinator of the electron microprobe laboratory in the geology department, has been riding his bike to campus ever since he was a graduate student in 1982.
Cycling “has been my primary mode of transportation as long as I can remember,” said Fleisher, who started riding his bike to school when he was 12, growing up in Kansas. “I’ve done it so long, it’s a part of me, like breathing.”
He rides from his home off of Barnett Shoals Road nearly every workday, and has yet to ever use all of his Alternative Transportation Plan free parking passes any given year. He rides mostly for the pleasure of it and for exercise, but appreciates the money he and his wife save in gas by sharing one car.
It also helps clear his head: “It provides a transition to work in the morning and a transition away from work in the evening -a way to relax,” he said.
Carpooling is another cost-saving method of transportation for UGA staff and faculty.
“We began carpooling when the price of gas started going up,” said Marsha Richmond, an administrative associate in the Terry College of Business, who carpools from Danielsville with Barbara Galvond, an academic adviser in the College of Education. “It is so much more economical and better for the environment.”