With the goals of providing new transit options and reducing commuter costs, CC Rider, Columbia County’s transit system, is launching a new way to get around.
The vanpooling program, in partnership with Commute with Enterprise , is available to people who live in Columbia County and wish to access jobs in the area or surrounding centers of employment. The goal is to offer commuters an “innovative and sustainable shared mobility option” in the county.
CC Rider says the program matches riders who are interested in riding together with others who have similar work shifts in similar areas.
The transit agency will partially subsidize the vanpool program using Statewide Transportation Improvement Funds. Employers or participants will split the remaining costs, with each vanpool rider paying a set monthly fee.
As an example, a monthly cost for a vanpool could be $1,200 between the rental and the fuel cost. CC Rider would pick up the first $500, with the help of subsidies, then the remaining $700 would be split evenly amongst the participants in the vanpool.
“We will be able to know, reasonably closely going into it, what those participants should expect their monthly cost is going to be,” said CC Rider Transit Director John Dreeszen.
Car rental company Enterprise will provide coordination services, technology, vehicles, liability insurance, scheduled vehicle maintenance and 24-hour roadside assistance, according to the Columbia County transit system.
Dreeszen said, “We really originally started thinking about vanpools as a potential alternative or option to offer, as we were in the process, or in the aftermath, of having reduced our commuter service in and out of Portland.”
While the vanpools, under this new program, are currently not in operation, Dreeszen said you can register now. Vanpools will be made available for Columbia County residents who either commute or make daily trips.
“This could be a trip inside the county entirely, or it could be a trip from inside the county to outside the county,” Dreeszen said. “We have plenty of folks working in either Downtown Portland or somewhere in Portland, maybe they make a connection with a TriMet bus once they get there.”
Dreeszen added, “It also could be from outside the county, as long as it’s to a location inside the county … . Local employers might benefit from this.”
Once residents register with the program, Enterprise will evaluate those interested and connect with these groups.
The idea behind the vanpool program is to lower the cost of commuting.
“In the absence or, certainly, the reduction of our certain commuter service, we know that a lot of people are driving their own vehicle, which probably means they may be paying for parking, so they’re incurring the wear and tear, and the mileage and the fuel cost of their own vehicle," Dreeszen said.
With vanpooling, “They may, for a relatively low and fixed cost, be able to still have a really comfortable ride, in a nearly new vehicle, with folks who they already, sort of, have something in common with … they are going to have lower out of pocket commuting costs,” he continued.
To join the program, visit columbiacounty.info/commute or contact Dreeszen at john.dreeszen@columbiacountyor.gov. You may also reach Commute with Enterprise at David.C.Meigs@em.com.
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