Sustainability has long been a buzzword to which a raft of industries and entities are aspiring to achieve, Kunsill Studenti Universitarji (KSU) told The Malta Independent.
KSU announced a raft of new measures that aim to truly bring the student body towards sustainability in transport.
The main such measure will be the introduction of an all new 'Green Fund'. KSU Vice-President Luke Abela explained that the fund will be made by students, for students, and will gain its funding through a €3 'green contribution' that students must make if they are to be granted a parking permit.
KSU President Carla Galea also spoke about the new fund, saying that this was to start dealing with the problem of parking at university and to provide the infrastructure and support needed to encourage more students to take up alternative means of transport. Galea also said that the fund was open to students themselves to propose projects that related to the environment and could be adopted for use on campus.
A second measure that KSU announced is a collaboration with Malta Public Transport to kick-start a new Park & Ride system, with a direct bus route running between the Pembroke park and ride and the Msida skatepark throughout the day. The route, which has been designated as TD17, will operate on weekdays at 15 minute intervals between 07:00 and 18:00 – with frequency changing to 30 minutes between 10:30 and 12:30.
The bus fare for each trip is of €1.50 for all those passengers making use of their personalized Tallinja Card, while it will be €3.00 for those who buy their tickets on the bus. This route will work for three months as a trial, but there is a very real possibility that it will be expanded if it is deemed to be successful.
Another system that KSU will be expanding upon will be that of car-pooling. The car-pooling system had already been implemented with a degree of success in two previous scholastic years, with students who used one car to pool together and get to university being reserved a parking space on campus.
The system had been operated manually through KSU's website, however this year the council has teamed up with Greenroads Malta, a start-up specialising in car-pooling. Josef Micallef from Greenroads Malta, which is a start up company, told this newsroom of his the reason why he is supporting KSU. He said that the car pooling system would now be centred around a mobile app, hence making it more accessible to students and more convenient for them to book their car-pooling space.
University of Malta Rector Alfred J. Vella, who on Monday morning used his opening speech to address the issue of sustainability, lauded KSU for these initiatives, saying he was proud to be supporting them. Vella said that with such systems in place he hoped that students could now "walk the talk" and be the true catalysts of change for a more sustainable future.
He singled out the Park & Ride system for special praise, calling it a brilliant initiative before saying that he hoped that not just students take advantage of it, but also staff members, especially those living in the northern area of the island.
The KSU Freshers' Week – running under the theme of 'Lead the Scene' will continue until Friday 5 October.
from The Malta Independent https://ift.tt/2Rjwwx8
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