Hitting the highway alone may be your preferred method of travel, but as gas prices and tolls rise (yet the highway damnably remains a parking lot), sharing a ride or taking mass transit starts looking more attractive.
Gas prices alone are accounting for a 75 percent spike in mass-commuting interest, according to the nonprofit that helps 350,000 commuters regionally share rides in any number of conveyances.
John Lyons heads the commuting effort as CEO of MetroPool, which serves Westchester, Rockland, Orange, Putnam, Dutchess and Ulster counties in New York and Fairfield County. The nonprofit has been helping employers and commuters get from work place to fireplace without getting burned; it is funded by Connecticut”™s and New York”™s Transportation Departments. “Thankfully, we have been quite busy,” said Lyons. “When gas prices started hitting $3.65 a gallon, and predictions were they”™d be hitting the $4 mark by summer, our service has been in high demand.”
Whether it is helping individual commuters plan a mass transit commute or working with large companies to encourage employee van use or carpooling, the agency tries to find the best option ”“ and a secondary route ”“ for commuters.
“We know the schedules for all the trains and buses in Fairfield, Westchester and the Hudson Valley, and how they work and where they connect,” Lyons said. “If that isn”™t an option, we try to match riders together. A lot of people are turned off with carpooling every day. But when you tell them it can be a two- or three-day option, or even once a week, they are interested.”
Commuter interest in Fairfield County has doubled in the past year, said Lyons. “There are connections from Danbury to Brewster and vice versa; the same from Ridgefield to Katonah; and northern Fairfield to the Harlem line.” All told, MetroPool coordinates the transportation needs of more than 350,000 commuters. Nearly 1,000 employers in the combined New York-Connecticut market participate in the programs. Metropool uses the companies as sources for its customers, making pitches and urging along the commutation process via, for example, the use of shuttle vans.
Changes are coming to today”™s work place, said Lyons, including a compressed work week of four 12-hour days and more telecommuting. “Telecommuting is a number very hard to track, ” said Lyons. “ I do it and most companies offer it to their employees, but we don”™t know to what extent or how many people are involved. Technology has made it possible to allow people to work from home and be as productive, perhaps more so, than if they were in the office.
“Employers are much more open to flexibility; they are concerned about losing people,” said Lyons. “There is an exodus from the work place by people who do a lot of traveling and are tired of it. I will often hear, ”˜Yes my current job pays me $5,000 to $6,000 more a year, but I”™d rather work closer to home for less money and take the stress off my family and my car.”™ Employers don”™t want to hear they may be losing a valuable employee because commuting is becoming a nightmare. Acquiring talent is an expensive proposition for most employers, so they are being much more flexible. If people are getting their work done, employers are working to accommodate them.”
According to the company”™s statistics, 75 per cent of potential Metropool users contacting them in 2008 have done so because of gas prices. “Many people do multiple things: take the train one day, share a ride another day and drive a few days and telecommute one day,” said Lyons. “The average person who shares a ride is doing it two to three times a week, and that”™s where we”™ve seen the biggest spike in demand.”Â
Lyons said Metropool itself had to change its mindset. “We were in a ”˜five day week”™ frame of mind, but today, it does not accommodate actual schedules. When we came to the realization it didn”™t have to be an all-or-nothing-at-all deal, people jumped at the idea of having the opportunity to leave the car at home but not on a full-time basis. It”™s easier to look at it one day at a time, instead of making a long-term commitment, and people are very open to it. We shifted our approach to meet the real needs of the customer and it”™s been a great benefit to everyone.
“We developed a work program that will meet our target, but it is not hard and fast,” he said. “In the world of transportation, we are really a small organization. Our total budget is under $4 million. We do some marketing and advertising, but in the six counties we serve, money does not go very far.”
Lyons said he”™s glad that Metropool is being recognized for what it has to offer and the potential benefit to the environment. “I was in the solar business in the 1970s. A little bit ahead of myself, but there”™s the thread. How can you do it better? Make travel easier, keep the air cleaner and help people have an easier life.”
Pepsi, IBM, New York Presbyterian Hospital and other large employers encourage employees to use the service.
“Office parks are another entity that could benefit from our service,” said Lyons. “When New York Life moved to Sleepy Hollow, N.Y., they let us come to the company and talk about MetroPool. Now there are 15 van pools running out of there every day. It”™s great for the employees and the company. They want their employees to feel like someone cares about them and make getting back and forth easier, and the employees know they will get to work without having to sit in traffic for two hours.”
Lyons, who lives in Dutchess County, N.Y., is a telecommuter as well as road traveler. “We”™re not going to see $2 gas any time in the near future, if ever, and we used to think $2 was too much. I”™m hoping more people will take advantage of our free service and look for alternatives to get to work. And employers don”™t have to be shy about calling, either,” added Lyons.
For more information, visit www.metropool.com or call 800-FINDRIDE.
