by Mike Sharkey
Staff Writer
Escalating gas prices and seemingly ever-congested roadways might eventually force area commuters to rethink how they get to and from work.
The First Coast Metropolitan Planning Organization has a solution and the answer isn’t anything new or Earth-shattering. Started several years, the MPO is reintroducing its van pool and car pool programs to businesses in the five-county area that makes up Northeast Florida.
Marci Larsen said the MPO — which encompasses Duval, Baker, Nassau, Clay and St. Johns counties — is convinced that $4 a gallon gas (a figure some experts are predicting by the end of the year based on unrest in the Middle East) will convince commuters to pile into cars and vans and give up their solo commutes.
The First Coast Commuters Services — a rebranded program the MPO started several years — is designed to first court businesses with the hope that many employees living in the same general area will take advantage of the MPO’s van pool program. Larsen said she has talked with representatives from CSX, NAS Mayport, the City of Jacksonville, St. Vincent’s Hospital and several others about the program which aims to put six or more people from the same area into one vehicle as opposed to six single vehicles in an effort to cut everyone’s gas expenses and reduce congestion on area roads during peak traffic times.
“We want to make people aware of our car pool and van pool program,” said Larsen. “The average person would not know about this unless we get the word out.
“We go to the human resources department at these businesses and talk to them about the program. They then go to their employees. If they are interested, we go back and do a lunch and learn.”
The van pool program involves several simple steps. The first is to establish common denominators of five to six people. They should all live in basically the same area and have a fairly common destination. Larsen said they don’t all have to work for the same business, but it doesn’t make sense for three to work Downtown while the other three work in Arlington.
“You also need to establish the rules of the van pool,” said Larsen. “Everyone should have a common work schedule and you shouldn’t need transportation during the day.”
Once a business identifies half a dozen employees willing to ride to work together, MPO then contacts VPSI Inc. — a vanpooling company with its Florida headquarters in Orlando — about arranging transportation. VPSI then leases a Chrysler mini-van primarily to two of the drivers. Some businesses opt to lease the vans and, in turn, permit a few employees to serve as primary drivers.
“While the lease is to multiple people, the primary driver becomes the lead person,” said Larsen. “There is also the addition of extra miles that person can use on the weekends.”
Larsen said the program encourages at least six employees all with round-trip commutes of 30 or more miles. If leased privately, everyone in the van pool shares some of the lease cost as well as gas. However, what can potentially be saved over the course of the year should offset those costs. Larsen said a van pool costs $5-8 per day per person as opposed to the $10-20 a day that driving solo can cost.
The biggest issue facing potential van pool users is what to do in the event of an emergency or something that makes it impossible to ride home in the afternoon. Larsen said there’s a built-in emergency ride home mechanism that provides a voucher for a cab as long as one of several criteria are met. Those criteria include having to stay at work late or an emergency with a child. MPO even has a plan if riders opt out of the program.
“MPO can financially support missing a rider for up to three months,” said Larsen, adding the MPO is also reinstituting its car pool program and is in the process of updating its database. Once completed, area workers will be able to search for others seeking to car pool from their residential area of town to their place of business.