What is carpooling?
What are the benefits of a carpool program?
How ATP helps
How can I encourage employee participation?
Online resources
What is carpooling?
Carpooling is an arrangement by a group of commuters to drive together in the same car to their place (or places) of business. Carpools usually consist of individuals who live near each other and are employees of the same company (or are employees of different companies located only a short distance apart) and have the same work hours.Carpooling reduces the number of cars on the road and in your company parking lot, and allows your employees to use the faster HOV lanes on I-66, I-95, and I-395 in Virginia and I-270 in Maryland.
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What are the benefits of a carpool program?
Sharing the ride can save your employees up to $1,500 a year by lowering their gasoline bills, insurance costs, and car maintenance. Carpoolers can take advantage of special High Occupancy Vehicle (HOV) lanes to reach their destinations faster, and they can choose to read, sleep or chat, when they're not behind the wheel. The environment benefits too. Last year, area carpools and vanpools prevented over 62 tons of harmful emissions from entering the Earth's atmosphere and saved over one million gallons of gasoline.
The average cost for a 30 mile, drive-alone commute is $229 per month. Your employees can save $153 per month by joining or forming a carpool!
Advantages of carpooling:
- Facilitates use of HOV lanes for faster travel
- Employees have less stress traveling to work
- Financial savings for employees sharing commuting costs
- Reduces need for parking and therefore can reduce parking costs
- Employees who carpool show improved productivity, less tardiness, and lower absenteeism
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NuRide - Rewards for carpooling
- Sign up for free
- Plan a trip
- Share the ride
- Earn REWARDS
The NuRide network not only helps you find someone with which to carpool - you also earn reward points every time you use it. There's no ongoing committment - you can use the NuRide network every day or once in a while. If you already belong to a carpool, you can still sign up with NuRide to earn rewards for what you're already doing. Rewards are based on a point system called "NuRide Miles" - like frequent flyer miles. You can redeem your NuRide Miles for gift certificates from restaurants and national retailers. To learn more, go to www.NuRide.com.
- Free computer carpool matching
- Recommend ridesharing programs and incentives
- Provide information on park-and-ride locations where employees can meet their carpool
How can I encourage employee participation?
There are numerous ways you can get the word out and encourage employee participation in a carpooling program, including:
- Offer free or reduced-fee parking for carpools and vanpools (for employers who currently have fee-based employee parking).
- Charge a parking fee to discourage single-occupant vehicles (for employers who previously offered free parking).
- Provide preferential parking (closer to the building) for carpoolers
- Host a lunch time carpool formation party to let employees form or join carpools
- Provide information to employees on the Commuter Connections' Ridematching service and Guaranteed Ride Home program. Arlington Transportation Partners has brochures and posters available.
- Provide a commuting incentive program for those who carpool, bike, or walk to work
Commuter Connections has been helping commuters find carpools for over 20 years, making this one of the easier programs for your company to offer. The Commuter Assistance Program (CAP), through the Commuter Connections Ridematching Service, can match individual employees interested in carpooling at no cost or help set up a ridematch program at your place of business.
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Online resources:
CommuterPage.com's Carpool, Vanpool & HOV section
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