Car Free Day is a worldwide event that encourages more sustainable methods of transportation.

By reducing and eliminating car use students, staff, and faculty can come together as a community to improve their physical fitness, reduce their carbon footprint, enhance mindfulness & creativity, and save money.

FAQs

Lehigh strives to create a sustainable campus that merges environmentally responsible solutions (such as going car free) with equitable community practices (such as carpooling with your colleagues) and economic prosperity (saving money). Participation in this event is one of many ways you can help Lehigh integrate the three pillars of sustainability throughout the university.  Let’s go Car Free once a year, once a month, or even every day!

  • Walking or biking to work improves your physical fitness

  • Reducing car use lessens your carbon footprint

  • Less gas = saving money

  • Carpooling helps you bond with your colleagues

Sustainable Transportation Information

  • A bike is 30 times less expensive to buy and maintain than a car

  • 1,313 Lehigh employees live within 10 miles of campus, which is optimal for biking to work

  • A recent study from the University of East Anglia and the Center for Diet and Activity Research found that those who walked or biked to work experienced more positive well-being and were able to concentrate more at work

  • This study also found that individuals who give up driving to work and instead walk/run to work are more in control of their commute because they do not have to sit in traffic. As a result, walkers/runners are less stressed overall

  • If one commuter switched to public transit, they could reduce daily carbon emissions by 20 pounds, or more than 4,800 pounds in a year.

  • Commuters who use public transportation get more than three times the amount of physical activity per day as a result of walking to stops and final destinations

  • The LANTA Bus provides public transportation for the Lehigh Valley with routes in Bethlehem, Easton, Allentown, and more.  It is free with your Lehigh ID!

  • Lehigh has a variety of bus routes that provide frequent stops around campus

  • Carpooling limits the number of cars on the road, which limits traffic, emissions and danger to drivers

  • Carpooling is beneficial because it allows you to have a useable commute time. As a passenger in a carpool, you can read, check your email, or complete other tasks that would not be possible while driving.