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Vanpool riders pick up savings, drop off worries
Pace program sees record number of commuters
By Mary Ann Fergus and Richard Wronski | Chicago Tribune reporters
11:52 PM CDT, July 17, 2008
Bruce Archer pulls his Pace-owned van from his Plainfield driveway at 5:45 a.m., beginning an over two-hour round-trip commute with four riders who also have quit driving to work solo.
After picking up his passengers at an Aurora parking lot, Archer is soon bantering politics and sports with two of them. A third stays out of the line of fire by sleeping, a perk in the expanding world of ride sharing, where some conversations—not to mention too much perfume—can be road hazards.
Archer, a customer service manager, figures that since March—when he began making these sunrise runs up Illinois Highway 59 to an office complex in Hoffman Estates—he has saved hundreds of dollars and helped other drivers.
"There's four less cars for them to navigate around to get to their jobs," he said.
RTA warns of service cuts or fare increases As the price of a gallon stays well above $4, like-minded commuters increasingly are turning to vans and carpools, experts say.
Participation in the Pace program, which began in 1991, is at an all-time high with 706 vans plying Chicago-area roads, up about 40 from a year ago. And more than 3,000 people have signed on to a new Pace Web site started in March that helps commuters find others who want to van or carpool.
Steven Schoeffler said traffic on his free national carpooling site eRideShare.com has more than tripled in the last four months, rising from 700 unique visits a day to more than 2,500.
"I don't think this is going away," said Schoeffler of Edwardsville, Ill. "I think the idea of being green has grown, but clearly the price of gasoline has been the tipping point in getting people to change their habits."
Those in Archer's van concede the run-up in gas prices motivated them to start vanpooling in March. They all work for companies in the Prairie Stone office complex. Archer's round trip, which starts at his home, covers 90 miles and lasts roughly 2½ hours. For the others, picked up in Aurora, it's a nearly two-hour journey of about 60 miles.
"I was pretty much at wit's end," said Schevone Bell, 29, an assistant dean of students at the online American InterContinental University. "It was getting to the point where I couldn't afford to keep working there. I was working to pay for gas basically."
The group hit the road as strangers. But after traveling daily for several months, they formed a relationship not unlike co-workers who can enjoy one another's differences and quirks but may not become best friends.
Archer is a Republican and roots for the Sox. Passenger Brian Giffin is a Cubs fan who tends to be a political moderate.
Bell won't often weigh in on politics. Nor will Diane Ma, who is usually asleep.
And when traffic hits an unexpected standstill, they all know they can ask Laly Rajendran, a native of India, to call on Ganesha, the Hindu god responsible for removing obstacles.
After the deadly earthquake recently struck China, they entered the van full of questions for Ma about her homeland and her family, who survived.
"I felt we were closer to each other, not just strangers in the van," said Ma, a manager at Sears, Roebuck & Co. "It was definitely comforting."
But, mostly, they bond over the money and fuel they're saving.
As driver, Archer pays nothing for his commute from home to his job with Liberty Mutual. Even with his Honda Civic hybrid, Archer, 42, figured he spent $300 a month on gas. He is allowed to keep the Pace-owned van at home and drive it for some personal use.
His passengers pay Pace a monthly fee of $121 each, cutting the cost of their commutes from homes in Naperville and Aurora by more than half. The passenger fee varies, based on distance and number of riders, and covers the cost of the van's gas and maintenance, which the driver must oversee.
Despite the recent rise in ride sharing, experts say they don't expect major gains.
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