For a while there, Jerry Roman almost thought she’d have to walk home from Schaumburg every day. Her employer’s van service, which provided transportation from her job in the suburbs to her home on the near west side, was being discontinued because of liability-insurance problems. She and the six other van riders would have to find some other alternative. Driving herself was out of the question because Roman has night blindness and can’t drive after dark.
Since 1980 the CATS ride-sharing program has matched up some 25,000 commuters, of whom about 6,000 drivers and riders are currently sharing; even if those commuters are only doubling up, that means 3,000 fewer cars on the highways.
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Taking even that many cars off the road over the entire Chicago area doesn’t affect traffic congestion very much–CATS’s studies indicate that the average occupancy of cars for trips to work in the Chicago area is still less than 1.2 persons–but it’s been invaluable for the participants in the car pools. “There are people out there who maybe don’t have a driver’s license or for one reason or another can’t drive, and what do they do?” says Jim Moynihan, chief of ride-sharing services for CATS. “If we can find a driver willing to carpool, that’s gotten them one option that they maybe didn’t have before.”
Valerie Gray is one of two drivers for the van that picks up Jerry Roman. She lives in South Chicago and drives during alternate weeks, switching off with Paulette Wallace, who lives in Roseland. The drive can take two hours or more, since the van riders’ homes are scattered throughout Chicago. Still, Gray wouldn’t switch. “If it weren’t for the van pool,” she says, “I’d have to drive my own car, put wear and tear on it, and so on. This seems to work out real well.”
Moynihan emphasizes that CATS’s referral service is open to all commuters; only the van-pool subsidy is reserved for those working in the suburbs. He says once again that CATS does not want to compete with public-transportation services. “People who would call us are likely to be driving already, driving alone,” he says, “and they’re looking for a way to cut some of their costs, or maybe not have to drive so much or at all. Obviously they’re not very excited about considering public transportation, so they call us. We didn’t take those people off a bus. What we’re trying to do is get them out of a single-occupant auto some way. If they go onto a bus, we’re just as happy as if they carpool.”
Visiting companies is one way Moynihan promotes CATS’s programs; many of his clients have learned about the car and van pools through their employers. Others have phoned CATS’s ride-sharing hotline (793-RIDE). Moynihan’s goal now is to form enough van pools to encourage the RTA to continue funding the program. “We would like to see more and more vans,” he says. “Since we don’t have any control over the purse strings, the more success in the program, the greater the probability of the RTA continuing to fund it. There is a need, and the only way we can meet it is if they continue to fund it.”
