Increasing carpooling in Vermont : opportunities and obstacles.

Details

• Creators:
  Watts, Richard
• Corporate Creators:
  University of Vermont. Transportation Research Center
• Subject/TRT Terms:
  • Carpools
  • Ridesharing
• Publication/ Report Number:
  Report # 10-010
• Resource Type:
  Tech Report
• Geographical Coverage:
  United States
• Corporate Publisher:
  University of Vermont. Transportation Research Center
• Abstract:
  Growth in car ownership, dispersed land settlement patterns, highway investments, travel behavior and ; socio‐economic changes have all contributed to a dramatic increase in automobile use in the U.S. over ; the last 80 years.1 The resulting health, environmental and energy impacts related to automobile ; dependence are of concern to policy‐makers in the US and Vermont. 2 Proposed solutions range from ; increasing the use of public transportation, walking and biking, shifting vehicle fuels from petroleum to ; other sources or even encouraging changes in the built environment to reduce car trips.3 ;    ; One proposed solution is to increase the number of people in each vehicle which does not require ; extensive investment of public capital, relying instead on the existing infrastructure and already owned ; private automobiles.4 Carpooling can increase personal mobility, access to services, reduce ; environmental and infrastructure impacts, reduce individual transportation costs and save energy. For ; example, average vehicle occupancy rates in the US for work trips are about 1.1 per vehicle, down from ; 1.3 in 1977. Slight increases in the number of people per vehicle could provide the same energy savings ; as switching to an alternative fuel, without building new fueling stations or making any new additional ; investments.5 ; However, the percentage of commuters carpooling has significantly decreased since 1980 both ; nationally and in Vermont. Factors in that decline include increasing car ownership, decreases in ; household size, changes in travel behavior, the relatively low cost of energy and other socio‐ ; demographic changes. The purpose of this research is to examine potential obstacles and opportunities ; to increasing carpooling for the journey‐to‐work commute in Vermont and provide research‐based ; information for state policy‐makers regarding programs and policies designed to increase carpooling in ; Vermont. 6 ; This research is jointly funded through the VTrans Efficient Transportation Systems project and the UVM ; Transportation Research Center (TRC) Signature Focus Area Transportation Energy and System ; Efficiency. In this report, we focus on the GoVermont program – a state managed rideshare matching ; program – as a window into the obstacles and opportunities to increasing carpooling in Vermont. We ; conducted an initial survey of 370 GoVermont participants and then conducted four in‐depth ; conversations with 25 of those respondents. Researchers also reviewed GoVermont materials, previous ; research on carpooling and examined data from the US Census and NHTS data on travel behavior at the ; individual and household level.  
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• Format:
  PDF
• Download URL:
  https://rosap.ntl.bts.gov/view/dot/20579/dot_20579_DS1.pdf
• File Type:
  [PDF - 435.62 KB]
• Collection(s):
  US Transportation Collection
• Main Document Checksum:
  urn:sha-512:e401165777af75f2b1dc2e76a2ede8acf98c1fc7b7418638ce84f335aa9db99fb96c682c83444cc907062cc4509986c490c847b91fcf019cc667bfd23874c6aa