
Referring back to Figure 17, there was a precipitous drop in commuter log submissions in the third month of the project. That was a bit disheartening, and it is hard to say why that might have happened. With the onset of winter at a New England campus, there is clearly a drop in people commuting either by bicycle or by foot, which may account for some portion of the decline. December also marks the end of the fall semester when everyone is very busy finishing schoolwork, processing grades, and so forth. Filling out the commuter log might just have slipped off the radar screen for many folks. In addition, December brings the onset of the busy holiday season and the resulting month-long break for students and faculty, during which time many do not even need to come to campus at all. Classes then resume for the spring semester in late January, perhaps also a clue to the low number of logs for that month. But none of that really explains the low number of submissions for February. One might also conjecture that any project of this type is going to have an initial burst of energy and excitement at the outset, which might then naturally decline. In an effort to combat this trend, we created the Carpool Challenge Week, a special blitz campaign in March to try and reinvigorate the initiative, which did result in an increase in log submissions for that month. Thus, one of the challenges we experienced was how to maintain project momentum in the face of both a natural decrease in engagement, but also specifically the problem of holiday and semester breaks experienced in higher education. 
Another challenge for this project (or any alternative commuting project) is the simple fact that people enjoy the freedom, independence, and flexibility of driving their cars. This is deeply embedded in our culture. Therefore, it is essential to provide incentives for engaging in alternative modes of commuting. We gave out a lot prizes in the form of gift certificates to local restaurants, coffee shops, massage therapists, the local independent bookstore, and even some larger national chain stores. It would have been interesting to see, however, how some even larger prizes might have affected participation – such as giving away a nice bicycle, hybrid car, or electric car. This could have also helped to combat that dip in engagement the project experienced. The nature of the prizes didn’t really change during the course of the project. If the prizes, however, were to increase in value over the course of the project, that might have helped. The gift cards seemed to be more than adequate at the outset of the project, but if we had announced in December the addition of a couple of bicycles, and then in January the addition of a hybrid or electric car, one can only think that participating and engagement would have increased instead of decreasing. 