"Vanpooling"?

[soccerdad72]

Sign on the interstate this morning on my way to work (it's expected to be near 90 today) said, "Air quality alert today - Carpool - Vanpool"

Now, I gathered what they're trying to say, but seriously, do they have to be that specific? Do folks really not understand that carpooling can be accomplished with other vehicles than cars?

 

[bcla]

Vanpooling is very specific. It's not simply carpooling in a van. There are public signup lists or even employer specific signups. Some public agencies or employers even provide vehicles and/or subsidies. I think there might even be a tax break. Some big rental car agencies also provide vehicles that are made available specifically for vanpool use.

If you can get a bunch of people in a 15-passenger van, that's going to be way better for reducing traffic congestion than 8 two-person carpools.

 

[soccerdad72]

Hmmm, learn something new everyday - guess I should have googled before I posted. Turns out, the city did just start a vanpooling service, through our rapid transit company.

 

[cabanafrau]

Sure would be nice if that kind of thing took off and could be reliable and efficient. Traffic jams are miserable, and summer construction season leaves a lot of headaches.

 

[Gumbo4x4]

Vanpooling is very specific. It's not simply carpooling in a van. There are public signup lists or even employer specific signups. Some public agencies or employers even provide vehicles and/or subsidies. I think there might even be a tax break. Some big rental car agencies also provide vehicles that are made available specifically for vanpool use.

If you can get a bunch of people in a 15-passenger van, that's going to be way better for reducing traffic congestion than 8 two-person carpools.

^^^This. I signed up to be a van driver many years ago & as the driver would have been free. Couldn't get enough others to ride though

 

[tvguy]

summer construction season leaves a lot of headaches.

Here in California most of the freeway/highway construction is done these days from 930 pm to 5 am, year round. Started that about 10 years ago. My work day has started in the 11 pm to 3 am range for the last 37 years, and the commute used to be a breeze. I have the option of 3 freeways to get to work, and checking the CHP website this morning before I left, all 3 had sections closed down to 1 lane due to construction.
I've never understood why they just don't put all those crews on the same project to get it down 3 times as fast, and create fewer overlapping lane closures of different routes.

 

[Skippy918]

My old company participated in vanpool. I did it for a few months. It was $25 per month. We met at the train/bus station. Ours was very punctual with the times. The downside was once you are at work, you are stuck there and you have to make sure you leave on time. My biggest concern when I did it was daycare or school calling for a sick child and not being able to get there or being stuck in a meeting that ran late and missing my way of getting home.

 

[Christine]

Vanpooling is a huge deal in the DC area. The vans are generally owned by companies and you can get transit subsidies for them.

But, back to your original question, not sure why they felt they had to say "carpool and vanpool." I think "carpooling" gets the idea across.

 

[Gumbo4x4]

Vanpooling is a huge deal in the DC area. The vans are generally owned by companies and you can get transit subsidies for them.

But, back to your original question, not sure why they felt they had to say "carpool and vanpool." I think "carpooling" gets the idea across.

Maybe they included "van pooling" for the sake of getting the word out about that option.

 

[bcla]

My old company participated in vanpool. I did it for a few months. It was $25 per month. We met at the train/bus station. Ours was very punctual with the times. The downside was once you are at work, you are stuck there and you have to make sure you leave on time. My biggest concern when I did it was daycare or school calling for a sick child and not being able to get there or being stuck in a meeting that ran late and missing my way of getting home.

I've heard of some employers with shuttles or vanpools that will guarantee a late or emergency ride home if necessary. I guess that's an advantage of large van pools. Even a few stay late, there's still enough to access an HOV lane. I don't recall if the late/emergency ride was a taxi, Uber, or a car service.

 

[bcla]

My old company participated in vanpool. I did it for a few months. It was $25 per month. We met at the train/bus station. Ours was very punctual with the times. The downside was once you are at work, you are stuck there and you have to make sure you leave on time. My biggest concern when I did it was daycare or school calling for a sick child and not being able to get there or being stuck in a meeting that ran late and missing my way of getting home.

I'd heard about a guaranteed ride home with those company shuttles that are common around here, but looked up public options. Here's one in the D.C. Area that guarantees a ride home up to four times a year, but they include a variety of community options including carpooling or bicycling.

http://www.commuterconnections.org/commuters/guaranteed-ride-home/
https://www.metrotransit.org/guaranteed-ride-home

 

[xlxo]

Personally.... I got myself a Prius hybrid. At 1/5th the gas savings compared to driving my old car... it feels like I'm carpooling with 5 people when being stuck in traffic.

 

[Praying Colonel]

I live about 45 minutes from work and several of us participate in a vanpool. We meet at our pickup/dropoff point, which is a parking lot of a long-term care facility that allows us to park there. We are provided a van through a local mass transit agency and our employer provides a subsidy of up to $130/month to offset the cost. Cuts my daily roundtrip mileage on my car from 86 miles to 8.

 

[tvguy]

This is parked at the business next to my work. Apparently Enterprise Rent A Car provides the van.

 

[bcla]

Personally.... I got myself a Prius hybrid. At 1/5th the gas savings compared to driving my old car... it feels like I'm carpooling with 5 people when being stuck in traffic.

That's fine and everything, but the general idea of van pools is to get several vehicles off the road to reduce traffic congestion. A 15-passenger van has about the same impact on traffic as does a small car. And it would probably get about 15 MPG on a freeway commute, which is great if it averages about 12 passengers.

Around here we've had permits that allow "clean air" vehicles to use the carpool or HOV lanes with just a driver. Initially it was just for electric, propane, or natural gas vehicles, but there was a time when hybrid cars meeting certain fuel economy and emissions requirements were also issued these permits. The law that allowed hybrids to access these lanes has expired (although plug-in hybrids have their own permit now), and the law that allows electric, propane, or natural gas vehicles this access is about to expire. Right now there are a lot of these vehicles on the road, and it's basically impacting the effectiveness of carpool and HOV lanes.

 

[cabanafrau]

Here in California most of the freeway/highway construction is done these days from 930 pm to 5 am, year round. Started that about 10 years ago. My work day has started in the 11 pm to 3 am range for the last 37 years, and the commute used to be a breeze. I have the option of 3 freeways to get to work, and checking the CHP website this morning before I left, all 3 had sections closed down to 1 lane due to construction.
I've never understood why they just don't put all those crews on the same project to get it down 3 times as fast, and create fewer overlapping lane closures of different routes.

Some areas of the country have different climate and weather conditions than California does, necessitating a need for most road construction to concentrate largely around the summer and its shoulder seasons.

 

[Gumbo4x4]

That's fine and everything, but the general idea of van pools is to get several vehicles off the road to reduce traffic congestion. A 15-passenger van has about the same impact on traffic as does a small car. And it would probably get about 15 MPG on a freeway commute, which is great if it averages about 12 passengers.

Around here we've had permits that allow "clean air" vehicles to use the carpool or HOV lanes with just a driver. Initially it was just for electric, propane, or natural gas vehicles, but there was a time when hybrid cars meeting certain fuel economy and emissions requirements were also issued these permits. The law that allowed hybrids to access these lanes has expired (although plug-in hybrids have their own permit now), and the law that allows electric, propane, or natural gas vehicles this access is about to expire. Right now there are a lot of these vehicles on the road, and it's basically impacting the effectiveness of carpool and HOV lanes.

Not to mention, at 15 MPG, with even 10 passengers on board, the van would use only 1/3 the amount of gas 10 priuses with 1 passenger each would use combined at 50 MPG.

 

[kaytieeldr]

I've never understood why they just don't put all those crews on the same project to get it down 3 times as fast, and create fewer overlapping lane closures of different routes.

Because all three roads need immediate work? Because the projects are different and require different skills?

At least you know about the work and should be able to estimate how much additional time to allot. Or which back roads to use. How much traffic is there between 10 PM and 3 AM Especially compared to during the day? Isn't one lane at night still faster than any rush hour?

Or you could just leave for work before the road work starts.

 

[bcla]

Here in California most of the freeway/highway construction is done these days from 930 pm to 5 am, year round. Started that about 10 years ago. My work day has started in the 11 pm to 3 am range for the last 37 years, and the commute used to be a breeze. I have the option of 3 freeways to get to work, and checking the CHP website this morning before I left, all 3 had sections closed down to 1 lane due to construction.
I've never understood why they just don't put all those crews on the same project to get it down 3 times as fast, and create fewer overlapping lane closures of different routes.

Because it's generally unacceptable to completely close down lanes during the day unless there are no other alternatives. Caltrans spends a good portion of their money on temporary work that's going to be removed and redone, but is needed because they want the roads to be usable for most of the day. You want to save money? If there are two lanes that need to be repaired, they could just shut it down and work 24/7 for a few days. However, drivers are going to want to use them, so they end up doing the work at night under the lights.

i've still come home late at night and the backup around the repair work is insane.

 

[Deb & Bill]

I was a vanpool driver in Houston. I didn't have to pay the monthly fee and got to use the van when we weren't van pooling Mon through Fri. I was responsible for collecting all the money from all the riders and sending it in. It was parked during the day in a spot in my building's parking lot. All the riders lived in about the same neighborhood and were picked up in the morning and dropped off at their offices in the morning. Then picked up at their offices in the afternoon and dropped off at the same spots where they were picked up in the morning.