It's bad out there people. No matter how long your commute, anyone who drives anywhere is feeling the pinch. Reports of what your corner gas station is charging and how much you paid to fill your tank compete with Wings and Pistons playoff talk at the office water cooler. Throw in a huge project on I-75 and the general rat's maze of summer construction around Metro Detroit, and suddenly that hour-long commute all by yourself in your giant gas guzzler doesn't sound so good anymore. Nevermind global warming concerns.
With mass transit limited to buses that don't serve the entire metro area, alternative
methods of getting around might seem impossible. But several lesser-known modes of transportation exist, and they can get you back and forth to work, and even around town, quickly, safely and cheaply.
The Michigan Department of Transportation sponsors two programs, Rideshare and MichiVan "vanpools."
Interest in these alternatives have skyrocketed right along with gas prices in recent weeks, says Janet Foran, an MDOT spokeswoman.
"Apparently we have reached the breaking point of tolerance for high gas prices -- $4 gas or close to that is more than a lot of people's budgets can stand."
A man, a plan, a van
As of last year, MDOT counted 200 vanpools formed throughout the state. Now, it's up to 253 just since the beginning of the year.
A vanpool is a group of 6 to 15 commuters who share their commute on a regular basis. MichiVan, run for MDOT by a private company called VPSI, provides a van for the group and picks up maintenance costs. In return, each of the vanpool group members pays a fee, usually around $75 a month, and chips for the cost of gas.
One person becomes the primary driver whose fee is waived in exchange for their taking responsibility for maintenance as well as doing the driving. Most vanpools also name one or two approved alternate drivers, in case the primary driver is unable to drive on a particular day. Vanpool members generally meet at a designated departure spot, to which all vanpool members commute in their own cars.
MDOT estimates that vanpooling takes 1,500 vehicles off the road each year and saves approximately 169 gallons of fuel every month. Somewhere in the neighborhood of 1800 passengers per day use a vanpool to get back and forth to work.
Two of those people are Teresa Chapman and Kathy Coon. Both live in Genesee County and work in the Detroit metro area, Chapman at the UAW-GM Center in Human Resources in downtown Detroit and Coon at architectural engineering firm SSOE in Troy.
Both women faced long commutes when their jobs transferred from the Flint area to the Detroit area. In Chapman's case, she said it allowed her to keep her well-paying job as an administrative secretary, which she'd had for 20 years at the time of the transfer. "If I had to do it on my own, it wouldn't pay," she says. "I would be spending so much money just to get to work."
Chapman said there are other benefits besides the nearly $300 per month cost savings over taking her own car to work. He and her van-mates have become friends, and blow off steam about the day or just chat, leaving them relaxed when they arrive home. Since her vanpool is nearly all women, she also feels much safer since no one is alone on the road, she says.
As for Coon, it's a chance to catch up on sleep during the hour-long ride between her Troy office and their meeting spot in Flint, and saves her the headaches of driving. "You're not in the rat race," she says. "It's really nice psychologically."
As far as the issues that can crop up when a group of people spends that amount of time in such a confined space, both women say it's never been a problem. People are generally very considerate about departure times. Coon says her van leaves at 6:10 whether everyone's there or not, and people who are a few minutes tardy usually have to treat the group to doughnuts. As far as Chapman's group, "We are a democratic unit," she says with a laugh, collectively deciding on issues such as radio stations.
Old strategy, new resources
Vanpools are most often used every day, for people who have commutes of 15 miles one way or more, most often by people who are all going to the same building. Carpools work a little differently. Groups use their own personal vehicles can share rides every day or as little as once a week, and take all manner of forms – coworkers, people going to the same offices, and sometimes even people headed to the same general area.
The Southeast Michigan Council of Governments (SEMCOG) administers a carpooling database as part of MDOT's RideShare program. Since the program's inception in 1980, it has helped more than 100,000 people find carpool matches.
Interested commuters visit the RideShare website, fill out a form, and receive matches. They then contact their matches to make arrangements to begin a new carpool or join an existing one.
Iris Steinberg, senior communications specialist for SEMCOG, said they currently have 3800 people in their Rideshare database, an increase of 325 people from last year. She said it's definitely triggered by high gas prices. "We have a calculator on our website where people can see how much they are paying by driving alone and see how much that changes by adding people to their commute and what a difference that can make," she says.
An average driver commuting alone 25 miles one way to work spends about $6000 per year on commuting costs, Steinberg says.
One concern of many potential ride-sharers is being stranded at work if an unexpected situation crops up – a sick child that needs to be retrieved from school for example, or last-minute overtime. MDOT offers a "Guaranteed Ride Home" program, which reimburses car and vanpoolers for a rental car or taxi fare back to their starting point, up to six times per year.
An auto co-op
And then there are the people who need a car, for occasional grocery shopping or trips to big box stores. Car sharing can be a solution to that problem, because it allows people to open an account with a car sharing service and pick up a car, parked at a central location, for whatever length of time they need it. When they are done, they simply return the car to its location.
Zipcar, a car sharing service that serves Ann Arbor, has cars at three central points around the Ann Arbor campus. Users register their driving record and credit card. Once approved, they get a "Zip Card" which unlocks the car of their choice. They retrieve the keys and head off.
What makes this different than a typical rental car company is that cars can be rented by the hour, and reservations don't need to be made weeks in advance. The $8 per hour rental fee includes gas and insurance, as well.
The City of Ann Arbor recently agreed to let Zipcar use parking spaces in the downtown area, which will make the program more accessible to city residents beyond students. "It's a good synergy to all three, the city, the school and Zipcar," says Jenny Larios Berlin, manager of university programs for Zipcar.
No matter the mode, finding alternate ways of transportation is beginning to look more attractive as gas prices, and fears about global warming, soar. Vanpooling alone saves 9.3 tons of carbon monoxide emission each year – a good reason to consider sharing the ride.
Detroit freelancer Amy Kuras has written about local schools – among a host of other topics –for more than a decade. She returns to Metromode after giving birth to her newest child. Her last article for metromode was appropriately enough, The Metro Toddler.