GRANITE CITY, IL, June 11, 2007 . . . As commuters’ concerns about gas prices and I-64
(Highway 40) reconstruction continue to rise, so does the ridesharing barometer at RideFinders, which reached a significant
milestone recently with its 6,000th registered rideshare participant. This distinction is shared by Tracy Powers, Theresa
Shipley and Nancy Fennewald, co-workers at Tyco Healthcare/Mallinckrodt, who formed a carpool using RideFinders’ free
ridematching service.
Powers registered with the ridematching service on-line at www.ridefinders.org -- commuters can also register at (800)
VIP-RIDE -- by creating a commuter profile with her home and work addresses, work hours and preferences. She then
generated a “matchlist” of individuals with similar commutes from the over 15,000 commuters registered with the service,
which included Shipley.
Powers next contacted Shipley and Fennewald, and the three met to discuss the possibility of carpooling to work. The
biggest obstacle was the difference in their work schedules; however, they decided to use the additional hour before or after
their normal workday for personal activities. “I work out during lunch with my friend,” explained Shipley. “*My friend+
comes and gets me. She chauffeurs me around.”
The three commuters then registered their carpool with RideFinders for free at www.ridefinders.org and began meeting at a
convenient Park & Ride Lot in St. Charles to carpool. Although they have only been ridesharing for a short time, the carpool
is already getting relief at the gas pump. “It (Carpooling) saves on gas,” Shipley stated. “I drive 82 miles a day when I am
by myself, and this cuts it all in half.”
Since their employer Tyco Healthcare/Mallinckrodt also participates in RideFinders, the carpoolers enjoy additional free
benefits such as a $10 gas card and a free Guaranteed “taxi” Ride Home. “If I get in the middle of something, I have a
tendency to have to stay later,” Powers said. “Now I have the option of going ahead and finishing whatever I’m working on
and then taking the cab home.”
“Attaining 6,000th rideshare participants not only signifies a major milestone in the regional rideshare program’s 13-year
history,” explained Joe Wright, Director of RideFinders, “it also furthers RideFinders mission of improving the quality of life
and work in the region by increasing the traffic reduction and air quality savings achieved by ridesharing.”
RideFinders was created in 1994 to improve the quality of life and work in the St. Louis by providing a free, ridematching service to help
commuters carpool or vanpool to work, and by partnering with employers to provide free ridesharing information and incentives to thousands
of commuters at work. RideFinders is operated as a free public service by Madison County (Ill.) Transit for commuters who work in the St. Louis
City and St. Louis, St. Charles, Jefferson and Franklin Counties in Missouri; and Madison, St. Clair and Monroe Counties in Illinois through federal
grant funding from the United States Department of Transportation and the Federal Highway Administration. For more information, visit
www.ridefinders.org or call (800) VIP-RIDE.
|