• Holiday Greetings from RideShare
• Transportation Demand Management: Moving People, Not Cars
• RideShare Appreciates Its Customers and Partner Employers
• UVa Parking and Transportation Awarded for "Outstanding TDM Program"
• Eighty-One Commuters Show off Their Rides
• RideShare Launches New Commercial
• Share the Ride on the Road to Recovery
• Are You Registered For Guaranteed Ride Home?
• Gas is Cheap! Why Carpool?

Happy Holidays and welcome to the first edition of the RideShare Review. It has been an interesting year at RideShare with the ups and downs in gas prices and changes in the economy. In this issue, we feature some of our recent activities including our photo contest, a new television commercial, and ways area employers are providing more affordable ways to get to work. We hope you find our new format more convenient and look forward to your comments and suggestions for future issues. Best wishes from RideShare for a joyous holiday season and a Happy New Year!

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If you are not familiar with the term Transportation Demand Management, or TDM, you may start hearing it more often. First introduced in the United States in the 1970’s, TDM is a general term for all kinds of strategies that reduce automobile travel and make the most efficient use of our transportation infrastructure. At RideShare, we are in the TDM business. Our carpool matching service is one element of TDM, but there are other ways we encourage alternatives to driving alone – providing transit information, telework policies, commuter benefits at worksites, scheduling alternatives – all fall under the same umbrella of managing transportation demand and increasing mobility. For more information on TDM, visit www.RideShareInfo.org.

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During the week of October 13th, 2008, RideShare celebrated its annual Appreciation & Awareness Week with a customer photo promotion and luncheon. (Check out the article below, “Eighty-One Commuters Show off Their Rides,” for a summary of the photo promotion.) The luncheon, held on October 17th, brought together RideShare customers and employers from across the region at CitySpace. Commuters and employers networked, shared stories and heard about RideShare’s booming year.

At the luncheon, RideShare gave the University of Virginia’s Department of Parking & Transportation its annual Commuter Champion award at its Appreciation Luncheon. Over the past year, the University has been a community leader in providing commuter benefits to its employees and students and playing a strong role in reducing its impact on the local transportation system.

RideShare cited three core programs at the University that have contributed to its leadership role. In 2005, before the recent gas crunch, the University Transit Service began experimenting with biodiesel. UTS is now using this sustainable fuel across most of its fleet. Beginning in October 2007, UVA and the Charlottesville Transit Service started a fare-free program for all UVA students, faculty and staff, causing a tremendous increase in CTS ridership. UVA debuted CavPool in July 2008, an innovative system that awards employees for carpooling with reduced price parking permits and premium parking spots. All CavPool participants are automatically enrolled in RideShare’s Guaranteed Ride Home program. For more information on UVA’s program, go to http://www.virginia.edu/parking/TDM/index.html.

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In addition to the local award from RideShare, UVa Parking & Transportation was recently recognized by the Chesapeake Chapter of the Association for Commuter Transportation (ACT) for Outstanding Transportation Demand Management (TDM) Program. Their program tied with the Washington Nationals "Way to Go" initiatives for the award. TDM Programs Manager Mike Goddard and IT Specialist Jonathan Monceaux accepted the award on U.Va's behalf at the 22nd Annual ACT Awards Ceremony in Washington DC on December 4, 2008. ACT is a national organization supporting individual mobility management professionals and organizational members in their efforts to reduce traffic congestion, conserve energy, and improve air quality. The Chesapeake Chapter of ACT represents Virginia, West Virginia, Maryland and the District of Columbia. For more information, visit www.actweb.org.

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This past October, as part of RideShare Awareness & Appreciation Week, RideShare asked its commuters to share their commute in a photograph. In exchange for a photograph of their carpool, transit ride, vanpool, walk or bike, entrants received a $10.00 Starbucks Card. RideShare received thirty-four photographs containing eighty-one different commuters.

Commuters from all over submitted photographs, from Richmond to Harrisonburg and Nelson to Louisa. All forms of commuting were represented, including JAUNT, the Richmond to Charlottesville vanpool, walking, biking and carpooling. The photographs will be used on RideShare’s promotional materials and will provide a real face to commuters.

RideShare has posted the photographs online and included superlatives! Check out the superlatives here or view all the photographs!

RideShare Member Superlatives	RideShare Member Photos

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RideShare debuted a brand new commercial, recently filmed at the October Appreciation Luncheon. The new commercial features testimonials from residents from across the region and on why they carpool, take transit, bike or walk to work. Watch the commercial now on YouTube or look for it to air on CBS19, FOX27 or ABC16!

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Want to help someone on the road to recovery? Access to transportation can be a major obstacle to receiving cancer treatment. Even the greatest medical advancement is useless if that patient cannot get to treatment. Many patients need daily or weekly treatments over a period of months and simply have no way to get there. Although family and friends may be able to help, there are many times when they are unavailable.

Road to Recovery is a free service offered by the American Cancer Society in which volunteer drivers provide cancer patients transportation to and from their scheduled medical appointments. Drivers donate their time and the use of their personal vehicles to help ensure that cancer patients get the lifesaving treatments they need.

Michael Moyles has been a Road to Recovery volunteer in Charlottesville for 12 years. The patients’ optimism and toughness inspires him to continue. He says, “the commitment verses the benefit is very minimal. I drive once or twice a month. It is a very modest commitment for a world of good.”

For more information on how you can make a difference as a Road to Recovery volunteer driver, please call your local Charlottesville American Cancer Society office at 434-978-7423 or email kelly.buckshire@cancer.org.

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The flu and cold season is here, and RideShare recommends that you register for Guaranteed Ride Home as your own insurance policy! If you or your carpool partner goes home sick, RideShare can help you get home in a pinch with a free taxi cab or rental car ride home! Registration is FREE and can be completed online at www.RideShareInfo.org or by calling 434-295-6165. If you carpool, vanpool, take transit, walk or bike to work at least twice per week, you’re eligible! Register today!

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Gasoline is now averaging well under $2.00 per gallon in the Charlottesville region, helping everyone’s wallets this holiday season. Despite the inexpensive gas, carpooling, biking, walking and transit are still the best way to get to work; here’s why:

1. The price of wear and tear on your vehicle hasn’t gone down! Save money on oil changes, new tires and depreciation by sharing a ride.
2. Help someone less fortunate! Not everyone can drive or afford a car.
3. Relieve stress! Riding with someone allows you to relax on your way to work.
4. Reduce traffic congestion! By taking one car off the road, that’s another car that isn’t waiting at a stoplight.
5. Make a new friend! You may meet a neighbor that becomes a lifelong friend.
6. Better parking! Many employers, like the University of Virginia and Albemarle County, offer preferred parking spaces to carpoolers.
7. Clean the air! Every vehicle pollutes the air, and ridesharing is an effective way of reducing tailpipe emissions.
8. Stop working late! Carpooling helps you stick to your schedule and encourages you to make the best use of your time at work.
9. Reduce dependence on fossil fuels! The price of gas is down, but the real cost is not. Fossil fuels are in limited supply, and driving less helps transition our energy consumption away from oil.
10. Still save money on gas! Even if you’re paying $1.60/gallon for gas, carpooling with another person is like paying 80 cents per gallon. And if you carpool with four people, that’s like paying 40 cents per gallon!

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RideShare - Thomas Jefferson Planning District Commission
PO Box 1505 - 401 East Water Street
Charlottesville, VA 22902
www.rideshareinfo.org.
(434) 295-6165