Ride share program coming to Morrow County

By Randa Wagner -

The cost of dri­ving to work each day could drop for some Mor­row County commuters.

Janet Berardi, Senior Out­reach Coor­di­na­tor for the Mid-Ohio Regional Plan­ning Com­mis­sion, was on hand at the Jan­u­ary 16 com­mis­sion­ers’ meet­ing to explain a ser­vice that would enable Mor­row County res­i­dents to car/van pool to work, sav­ing them money on trans­porta­tion expenses.

Berardi was there to ask the com­mis­sion­ers to pass a res­o­lu­tion to make Mor­row County part of the ser­vice area. Their inter­est in Mor­row County came about after 44 res­i­dents con­tacted their agency, RideS­o­lu­tions, to inquire about ser­vices avail­able locally. Most of those peo­ple work in Colum­bus, she said, and saw signs about the pro­gram out­side of Mor­row County.

“Right now, we’re infor­mally offer­ing our ser­vices to all of the peo­ple that con­tact us,” Berardi said, “but what we really want to do is work more closely with all of you to really increase our pres­ence in the county and help more peo­ple learn about the service.”

Any inter­ested per­son can call the toll free num­ber or go online to sign up, reg­is­ter, and receive a ‘match list’ of ride pos­si­b­li­ties, depend­ing on where they work, what hours and where they live.

“We also have a van pool pro­gram,” Berardi said. “We facil­i­tate the coor­di­na­tion of van pools and we work through a third-party provider to pro­vide to actu­ally pro­vide a van. We can get up to 14 pas­sen­gers in a van.”

That, she says, would get 14 vehi­cles off the road and pro­vide reli­able trans­po­ra­tion. RideS­o­lu­tions research reveals almost 13,000 Mor­row County res­i­dents com­mute to work by rid­ing alone, and about 1,300 res­i­dents carpool.

Addi­tion­ally, Guar­an­teed Ride Home Pro­gram (GRH) is a free voucher pro­gram for res­i­dents that have reg­is­tered with the RideS­o­lu­tions pro­gram. When a worker has to work over­time or can­not leave work at the time they usu­ally catch their ride, they can use a voucher from GRH for a taxi home — regard­less of the dis­tance — and get reim­bursed for 90% of the taxi fee (up to four times a year).

With the pas­sage of the res­o­lu­tion, Berardi said the signs adver­tis­ing the pro­gram could be installed in the county at the next update. With the addi­tion of the Tanger Out­let Mall and Cabelas in Delaware County in the next cou­ple of years, the pos­si­bil­ity of more res­i­dents using the ser­vice is likely.

There’s no cost to the county, res­i­dents or employer. So who spon­sors the pro­gram? MORPC, through their trans­porta­tion depart­ment, has fed­eral fund­ing from CMAQ monies (Con­ges­tion, Mit­i­ga­tion and Air Qual­ity) for the RideS­o­lu­tions pro­gram. The Fed­eral Depart­ment of Transporation’s idea is to reduce traf­fic con­ges­tion, lower com­muter costs, improve energy con­ser­va­tion and improve air quality.

“The car and van pool­ing are con­ve­nient, reli­able and afford­able ways to get to work,” said Berardi, “espe­cially for long dis­tances.” She pointed out it could make the dif­fer­ence whether res­i­dents stay in Mor­row County or move to be closer to work.

Com­muters that need, and want, afford­able, reli­able trans­porta­tion to their work­place are encour­aged to call 1.888.742.RIDE (7433) or go online to www.rideshareohio.com.

Posted by Randa Wagner on Jan 23 2013. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS Feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.