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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE For more information, contact: Joe Wright Director of RideFinders (800) 847-7433 / (618) 593-4634 Julie Hauser The Hauser Group (314) 436-9090 / (314) 629-3887
RIDEFINDERS WELCOMES ITS 7,000th RIDESHARER and 1,200th EMPLOYER
The Hallmark of Creve Coeur and Marcone Employee Share Distinctions
GRANITE CITY, IL, December 5, 2007 . . . RideFinders registered its 1,200th participating employer and 7,000th rideshare participant in November: The Hallmark of Creve Coeur, a senior living community, and Evette Mason, an employee at Marcone in St. Louis. These milestones demonstrate the accelerating interest in the St. Louis regional rideshare program as a workday commuting solution for rising fuel costs and the impending closure of I-64 in January 2008. Employer participation in RideFinders has risen by 350 employers in 2007, an increase of more than 40 percent. Most of this growth is occurring along the I-64 corridor where employers like The Hallmark of Creve Coeur will be directly impacted by the interstate closure. By joining RideFinders, employers receive free information and incentives, such as free taxi rides home and $10 in free gas, to encourage and reward employees for carpooling or vanpooling to work. As The Hallmark of Creve Coeur can attest, joining RideFinders is easy for employers. An employer representative, usually in human resources, contacts RideFinders at (800) VIP-RIDE to schedule a brief meeting at the worksite to learn about the program. During this meeting, the employer verbally joins the program – at no cost – and assigns an on-site RideFinders contact. RideFinders then goes to work to promote the program to employees. Mason, like most of the 1,500 commuters who signed up with RideFinders in 2007, can thank her employer, Marcone, for helping her discover ridesharing through their free participation in RideFinders. To announce its participation, Marcone distributed a RideFinders-provided E-mail to all employees, including Mason, a resident of Fairview Heights who would soon be subject to the ripple effect of the I-64 closure that could impact the length of her commute. Mason clicked the link in the E-mail to RideFinders free ridematching service at www.ridefinders.org and submitted her home and work addresses, work hours and commute preferences. She then instantly viewed a “matchlist” of commuters with similar commutes to hers from RideFinders database of 17,000 commuters. Her matchlist contained 10 commuters, including Kathie Enser, who works in the same building. Mason sent Enser an E-mail and they met in the coffee shop in their building to discuss possibly carpooling. Mason said that at first, she had concerns about riding with a stranger. “She’s in her 50’s, and I’m in my early 30’s. I’m Asian, and she’s Caucasian. But we click well.” In addition to a new friend, Mason has discovered other benefits. “I save money, and gas is so expensive. I save mileage and wear and tear on my car, and if I’m stressed, I can sleep. I can relax.” Commuters interested in carpooling in their personal vehicles or vanpooling in RideFinders vans for a monthly fare can access RideFinders free ridematching service at www.ridefinders.org or (800) VIP-RIDE. Commuters do not need vehicles or be able or want to drive to carpool, as their matchlists will contain both individuals with vehicles who can or want to drive and existing RideFinders vanpools that have openings for riders. By sharing the ride, especially during the I-64 closure, commuters will improve the quality of life and work for the entire region. Ridesharing helps commuters lower their commuting stress and save thousands of dollars on gas, maintenance, wear-and-tear and other commuting costs. In addition, ridesharing commuters reduce traffic congestion and air pollution throughout the region – helping everyone drive and breathe easier. 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.