Incentives for Car Pooling

We are pleased to announce a new program for car pooling that is designed to provide economic and environmental benefits for the Yale community. Participants will save money in fuel and parking rates, contribute to the improvement of local air quality, reduce traffic congestion in New Haven, decrease demand for parking on campus, and enjoy better commuting options.

Incentives for car pooling are the first of many ideas that we're exploring to reduce our reliance on single occupancy vehicles. A Transportation Policy Committee - a team of faculty, staff and students - has been working to review best practices in the field and emerging trends in alternative transportation options as part of Yale's effort to become a sustainable campus. Car pooling and ride sharing were among the short-term recommendations made by the committee. We look forward to engaging with you regarding innovative transportation solutions as they emerge from this committee, including ways to increase the use of mass transportation, encourage walking and biking to campus, and the use of satellite parking lots.

The car pool program is available to all faculty and staff and has three primary incentives:

1. Lower Parking Fees
   
   For two people sharing a car, each will receive a 60% discount. Each participant will pay 40% of his or her regular parking rate. For example, Jane currently pays $100 to park and Bill currently pays $50. When they register as a Yale car pool, Jane pays only $40 per month (40% of $100) and Bill pays only $20 (40% of $50).
   For three or more people sharing a car, each will receive a 75% discount. Each participant will pay only 25% of his or her regular parking rate.
   
   
2. A "Guaranteed Ride Home" program for all carpool registrants. A free taxi ride will be provided for emergency situations such as illness of a family member, unexpected request of a supervisor to work past regular hours, or if the driver of your carpool had to leave because of an emergency, leaving you without a ride home.
   
   
3. Three free parking passes per month for each participant. Each participant will get three free entries to his or her assigned parking lot each month for days when car pooling is not convenient.

Full details of the program are available at http://www.yale.edu/parkingandtransit/alternatives. Parking & Transit staff members are eager to answer any questions you may have about how the program works. We have also created a "bulletin board" on the website to help members of the Yale community find colleagues seeking to car pool.

For those not able to join a carpool but who may still want to share rides occasionally or van pool to work, the website also contains information about a number of mass transportation and ride sharing options, including:

Rideworks, a regional, non-profit organization will help you find options that best fit your needs, including a state program called Easy Street for vanpools.

NuRide, a web-based company, allows you to enter your requirements and find others to share a ride with you on any given day.

Given the newness of the car pooling program and its uncertain impact on our parking system, we will initially open the program to the first 300 to sign up and ask them to help us evaluate and refine it at the end of the current academic year. The new incentives will also be offered to those already registered as a car pool with Yale's parking office.

We hope you will try car pooling-if for any reason you are not pleased, you are guaranteed to get your assigned parking space back.

Please email any questions or comments you have on the program to parking@yale.edu or call the Parking & Transit Office at 432-9790. To learn more about Yale's efforts to become a sustainable campus, http://www.yale.edu/sustainability.

Andrew Hamilton, Provost
John E. Pepper, Jr., Vice President for Finance and Administration