Project to Boost City Bus Ridership Wins RISE Climate Mitigation Challenge
Image by Ed Brennen
The "RouteShout 3.0" team won the RISE Climate Mitigation Challenge for their proposal to boost ridership on Lowell city buses.
02/08/2021
By Ed Brennen
But in the end, it was a strategy to boost ridership on Lowell鈥檚 city buses that won the second annual Climate Mitigation Challenge, sponsored by the Rist Institute for Sustainability and Energy (RISE).
Open to students of all majors, the challenge prompts teams to think of ways to reduce the university community鈥檚 carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions by 10,000 pounds over a 10-week span.
This year鈥檚 winning team of senior English major听Brigid Archibald, senior computer science major Seth Kaplan and civil engineering graduate student Virginia Trudel proposed 鈥淩outeShout 3.0,鈥� a plan to improve the mobile app and social media presence of the Lowell Regional Transit Authority (LRTA).
鈥淚f the LRTA鈥檚 online presence is more accessible, approachable and effective, it would entice more ridership,鈥� says Archibald, who is minoring in climate change and sustainability.听
According to the team鈥檚 calculations, if an additional 46 people traveled by LRTA buses instead of cars for 10 weeks, that would meet the goal of reducing CO2 emissions by 10,000 pounds.
The "Wind Bridge River Hawks" team proposed installing electricity-generating wind turbines under the Howe Bridge as part of the Climate Mitigation Challenge, sponsored by the Rist Institute for Sustainability and Energy.
Four teams advanced to the finals and were invited to听听on Zoom, where Provost听Joseph Hartman听announced the winner. Projects were judged by RISE co-directors听Juliette Rooney-Varga,听Christopher Niezrecki听and听Ruairi O鈥橫ahony.
鈥淚t鈥檚 one thing to take a class and do a project, but to participate in something like this just shows how important this is to you 鈥� and to us as a university,鈥� Hartman told the finalists. 鈥淚 love when smart folks with a lot of energy take on a really important problem.鈥�
Rooney-Varga, a professor of environmental science and director of the university鈥檚听, said the challenge is 鈥渁 fantastic example of how hands-on innovation happens at UMass Lowell,鈥� which has committed to net-zero carbon emissions by 2050.
The 鈥淩aise the Roof鈥� team of Kayla Hogan, Erica Tran and Robert Ferullo earned the second-place prize of $200 for their idea to install 鈥渃ool roof鈥� materials on campus buildings that would reduce room temperatures in the summer months, thereby reducing energy needs.
鈥淟and Use Lads,鈥� a team of Kseniya Vialichka, Fiona Benzi and Seong Loh, tied for third and received $150. They proposed closing a stretch of Merrimack Street in downtown Lowell once a week for a year for a farmer鈥檚 market 鈥� a move that would promote both foot traffic and locally sourced food.
Climate Mitigation Challenge participants get a round of applause on Zoom after presenting their projects.
鈥淲hat I love about this project is you identified the need to pull in different agencies from across the city, and that really underpins a lot of the work that we do,鈥� said O鈥橫ahony, director of the Office of Sustainability.
The 鈥淲ind Bridge River Hawks鈥� team of Weston Abusamra, Nicko Perez and Matt Reppenhagen also received $150 for their third-place project, which proposed installing wind turbines beneath the Howe Bridge (which spans the Merrimack River between North and East campuses) to generate electricity for the university.听听
The winning RouteShout 3.0 team, which received a $500 first prize, noted that LRTA ridership has been on the decline since a peak of 1.53 million rides in 2015. They conducted a survey of Lowell residents about the LRTA鈥檚 existing RouteShout 2.0 mobile app and found that 90% of respondents would be more likely to use the tool if it provided better route updates.
The team recommended that the LRTA leverage its relationship with the university by having students help develop an improved app, similar to the university鈥檚听Roadster Routes app. They also proposed having students assist with the LRTA鈥檚 social media and marketing efforts through the English Department鈥檚听internship program.
All the teams were encouraged to continue pursuing their projects through programs like the Sustainability, Engagement and Enrichment Development (S.E.E.D.) Fund and the听Rist DifferenceMaker Institute.
鈥淲e look forward to implementing some of these solutions soon in person,鈥� Hartman said.