Job Access and Reverse Commute (jarc) Program fy 2009 Service Profiles Region X alaska, Idaho, Oregon, and Washington October 2010 fta-08-0162 Job Access and Reverse Commute (jarc) fy 2009 Service Profiles: Region X

Rural Resources Community Action Program (657)

Job related carpool management services for persons with special needs (1123)

Location: Ferry, Pend Oreille, and Stevens counties (WA)
Type: Information-Based Services/Mobility manager
Goal: Improved access/connections
Service description: Rural Resources received funding through a Job Access Reverse Commute grant to develop a Carpool Coordination project for people accessing work, training or higher education using travel routes that either originate or terminate in Stevens, Ferry, or Pend Oreille counties. Although the target population is low-income people needing transportation to employment (or employment related activities), the service is available to anyone. Traditional carpools are formed by people that either know each other from their neighborhood (origination) or from their employment (destination). For residents of very rural communities, this informal system is not adequate. Our project helps potential carpool participants link with each other, even when if they do not live in the same town, or work in the same town. For example, in Stevens County, the towns from north to south (in order) along highway 395 are Northport, Evans, Marcus, Kettle Falls, Colville, and Chewelah. If the driver lives in Northport, they may pick up passengers in Evans and Marcus, and drop them at their work site in Kettle Falls and Colville, then continue to their job in Chewelah. It would be unlikely that this match would be created without assistance.
In order to entice rural residents to share their vehicle in a carpooling situation, the project offers an incentive of $50 per quarter for the first year a driver participates in the project and provides a minimum of 24 trips per month to a passenger. The incentive can result in a total of $200 to the driver, during the first year of participation.
Evaluation: This project was evaluated by the number of matches successfully created. During the course of the project, there were always more people registered that wanted to be riders, rather than drivers. Some riders never found matches. The most difficult matches were for part time, midday workers. The easiest were 8-5 workers that commuted nearly every day to work.