Sharing Rides With a Stranger for Fun and Games

Carpool Agency Expands Its Work Beyond Commuting

By Brigid Schulte

Thursday, July 2, 2009

After 25 years of helping commuters find others going their way and creating carpools to ease the area’s clogged roads Monday through Friday, a ride-sharing agency is helping do the same for those heading to ballgames, fireworks, parades and concerts on weekends and evenings.

Commuter Connections, the ride-sharing agency of the Metropolitan Washington Council of Governments, is offering an online ride-matching service to events. The system enables a commuter to enter a home address and find an interactive map with others nearby who are willing to carpool to the event.

“This is a really new area for us. We’ve been really focused on the commute and people getting to and from work,” said Nick Ramfos, director of Commuter Connections. “But the whole reasoning behind this new effort is to lessen traffic before and after special events, so people can get in and out in a less stressful manner.”

The idea came from other cities, including San Francisco, he said. “If you’re waiting to get in to an event, wondering if you’re going to be on time to see the kickoff or the beginning of the concert, that’s stressful. You want to go and have a good time, not wait to exit the facility and then get stuck in traffic.”

The agency’s Web site, www.mwcog.org/commuter2, features such events as the Fourth of July fireworks on the Mall, the National Independence Day Parade, a concert in Baltimore, an Elton John-Billy Joel concert at Nationals Park and every Nationals home game. Ramfos said he plans to add venues and events to the list.

“Some of these venues are going to have good transit services, and that would probably be the best way to go,” Ramfos said. “But if that’s not an option, this is a good way of meeting up with neighbors and, inx stead of having four vehicles on the road, having just one.”

Getting cars off the road has been the primary aim of Commuter Connections since its inception in 1974 when it began promoting carpools, vanpools, teleworking, public transit, biking and walking. The idea is not only to reduce congestion but also to improve air quality.

The ride-matching service has evolved from a cumbersome process of paper forms and anonymous workers matching commuters and delivering potential carpools in the mail to an instant online interactive map experience. Nearly 30,000 commuters use the program, Ramfos said.

The Washington area has one of the largest “commutersheds” of any urban area, with workers coming into the urban core from as far away as Pennsylvania and West Virginia, Ramfos said. Every day, about 3.6 million people commute into the area, and about 71 percent drive in alone, Ramfos said. That contributes to making the area among the most congested in the nation (third by some accounts), with commuters sitting in traffic an average of 69 hours a year.

Ramfos said the problem would be worse without Commuter Connections’ efforts. About 18 percent of commuters use public transit, he said, the second-highest transit use in the country, behind New York. And 8 percent carpool and vanpool, which is the third-highest carpooling rate in the nation, after Los Angeles and Chicago. About 3 percent bike and walk. Additionally, nearly 20 percent of the workforce teleworks at least one day a week, Ramfos said.

“You’re talking a pretty sizable number of people doing something differently,” he said. “Because of these programs, we’re able to reduce about 113,000 vehicles trips per day, which translates into 2.3 million vehicle miles of travel each day. That’s a big impact.”

Commuter Connections also offers commuters a guaranteed ride home if they miss their carpool in an emergency. And beginning this fall, it will pay commuters on the most congested roads $2 a day to carpool. The Web site also serves as a clearinghouse for the latest information on traffic cameras and road work. Last week, after the worst accident in Metro’s history, Commuter Connections sent out messages for commuters to consider carpooling while the investigation was underway.

Commuter Connections also recognizes businesses that work to reduce the number of cars on the road, and three Northern Virginia businesses and their programs were honored last week for “going above and beyond,” Ramfos said.

The Consumer Electronics Association in Crystal City not only promotes telework and encourages carpooling, but one year ago, it began offering its 135 employees $25,000 loans to buy homes in Arlington County, closer to the office. The loans are forgiven after three years, said spokeswoman Meghan Henning. So far, nine employees have taken the company up on the offer. Henning said she is looking for a home in Arlington to do so.

The association promotes teleworking one day a week, with the company reimbursing 50 percent of Internet costs, and 50 employees take advantage of that. The company gives carpoolers free parking. And it offers $120 a month to employees who take transit. The company also provides a gym and showers for those who bike to work. All together, the efforts save about 500,000 vehicle miles a year and 25,000 gallons of gas, Ramfos said.

“The association has really come up with innovative ways to deal with commuting, the environment and work-life balance,” Henning said. Many of the ideas came from confidential employee surveys, she said.

When Tysons Corner Center implemented ride matching, trip tracking, a commuter calculator and trip planning services for its 5,500 employees, it had a 10 percent increase in employees who use public transit and carpools, saving 610,000 vehicle miles each year. And at Noblis, a company in Falls Church, 22 percent of the 658 employees telework part time and 26 employees telework full time.

Ramfos said he lives in Loudoun County. To get to work in the District, he drives his hybrid car to Herndon, catches the Fairfax Connector bus to Metro’s West Falls Church Station and takes the Orange Line to Union Station. From there, he walks two blocks to his office. On a typical day, he commutes about an hour 15 minutes each way. On days he has to drive, he said, he always stops to pick up a “slug,” a single commuter, to carpool with. “I wouldn’t feel like I would be doing my civic duty if I didn’t have someone sitting next to me in the HOV lane,” he said.

Tagged: commuting, D.C. Metro Area, public transit, State news, traffic, transportation

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