[img_inline align=”right” src=”http://padnws01.mcmaster.ca/images/Sandra.jpg” caption=”Sandra Etherington tries to hitch a ride”]Editor's note: The following story is the sixth in a series of commuter profiles by the Alternative Commuting & Transportation Office.

She may be waiting at a bus stop, but don't be fooled. If you work at McMaster University and you're driving by, Sandra Etherington will be more than happy to take you up on the offer of a ride.

It's not that there's anything wrong with the bus. Etherington – who began her career in Toronto and didn't see a need for a driver's license – has lived in Sarnia and knows how good the HSR stacks up against transit in smaller communities. Her 10-minute walk to the stop is a good opportunity to wake up and clear the ol' head before arriving at work, and the bus drops her off closer to her office in Gilmour Hall than she could get even if she could park in the President's space.

Perhaps it was her latent hitchhiker emerging, or simply an ingenious way of connecting with co-workers, but ridesharing became Etherington's chosen method of commuting last June. A new employee at the University, she was volunteered by her boss to co-ordinate her department's participation in the 2004 Commuter Challenge. Through witty and exaggeratedly poignant e-mails she described her transportation plight and encouraged her fellow employees (who, Etherington remarks, “all seem to drive silver cars”) to participate in the Challenge by picking her up on the street corner.

The ploy worked.

Not only did Etherington take the bus fewer times during the week of the Challenge, but her inspirational self-depreciating humour and amusing threats encouraged University Advancement employees to bike, hike, take transit and, yes, rideshare to campus in honour of the event. It was just last week, Etherington admits, that one of her co-workers mentioned, “You know, I really miss those e-mails.”

It was those e-mails, along with Etherington's commitment to taking the bus, that earned her seven separate Commuter Hero nominations, and an award from the ACT Office. Like so many other McMaster employees and students who commute by bus, bike, carpool or on foot, Etherington finds her transportation choices unremarkable. “Why should I be recognized for something that I do every day?”, she wonders aloud. Her humility is admirable, but it's clear that those who don't use a car to come to campus are admired and respected by their colleagues.

You probably know a McMaster employee or student who deserves to be recognized as a Commuter Hero, and the ACT Office (Alternative Commuting & Transportation) will be accepting nominations from April 22 to May 13. Nominees will be recognized at one of the Commuter Challenge launch events “Pancakes with the President” in the Student Centre on Friday, June 3 or the “Downtown Coffee Kick-off” at the Downtown Centre on Monday, June 6. To nominate a Hero, simply send ACT an e-mail stating the nominee's name, contact information, and a brief description of why s/he deserves to be recognized. ACT will confirm that your nominee accepts the nomination.

The Commuter Challenge will be held from June 5 to 11 this year, and ACT is hopeful that Etherington will once again co-ordinate her department's participation. We don't know if ridesharing will be her hook, but in the meantime if you're heading west along King St. you may spy her waiting at the bus stop. She'll be wearing a red coat. And if you have a silver car, she'll be on the lookout for you, too.