As the Route 120 corridor progressively becomes a popular travel path and hub of business development, the amount of rush hour traffic along the road continues to increase. A proposed solution to the traffic problem involves a program has been around for more than two decades — Upper Valley Rideshare.
Upper Valley Rideshare is a free carpooling platform under the direction of the Advanced Transit transportation system that connects people in the Upper Valley who want to carpool. Carpools can range from occasional trips to every day commutes to work.
In January, Upper Valley Rideshare initiated the Route 120 commuter challenge, aiming for all companies and municipalities situated along Route 120 to have 10 percent of their employees carpool to work everyday, Upper Valley Rideshare marketing and program manager Susan Berry said.
The goal is to decrease the number of cars on Route 120 during rush hour, Berry said, which should consequently decrease the amount of standstill traffic occurring during peak travel times. Route 120 runs in front of the Hanover Co-op and Thompson Arena and connects Hanover to Lebanon.
Two years ago, a Route 120 corridor workgroup was formed to look at the amount of current as well as future traffic on the road, Berry said. This past summer, the workgroup proposed that Upper Valley Rideshare focus on decreasing the amount of traffic along Route 120.
Hanover Town Manager Julia Griffin participated in the workgroup, Hanover parking division supervisor Patrick O’Neill said. In the last budget year, Hanover’s board of selectmen decided to contribute $10,000 to support Upper Valley Rideshare’s work.
Along with supporting efforts to decrease the amount of traffic along Route 120, the parking division uses Upper Valley Rideshare’s carpool matching services as a way to increase the amount of parking spaces available in downtown Hanover. This idea stemmed from a parking study performed on Hanover’s central business district, O’Neill said.
If employees carpool to work, O’Neill said, they open up spaces for customers and visitors to park in town.
Upper Valley Rideshare has promoted the commuter challenge in a variety of ways, including social media and flyers. Upper Valley Rideshare recently partnered with Everything But Anchovies, and the restaurant will be putting a flyer promoting the commuter challenge on top of each of their pizza boxes.
In 1992 — the year Upper Valley Rideshare was founded — the primary motivation to rideshare stemmed from environmental concerns, Berry said. The economic benefits of carpooling, however, seem to have become the main reason people now carpool to work, she added.
No matter where a carpooler’s main intention may lie, the economic and environmental benefits to ridesharing are not mutually exclusive. Ridesharing combats carbon sequestration and global warming and saves drivers gas money.
Each user has his or her own calendar, accessible on Upper Valley Rideshare’s website, that tracks the amount of money he or she saved and carbon dioxide emissions he or she reduced by carpooling, Berry said.
Upper Valley Rideshare also provides an emergency ride home benefit for their registered users who carpooled, walked, rode a bike or used a bus to get to work on the day of the emergency. Upper Valley Rideshare will reimburse an individual for their emergency ride home up to six times per year.
Dartmouth College uses Upper Valley Rideshare in conjunction with another online carpool matching service: Zimride. The College began partnering with Zimride in 2008.
Only those with a Dartmouth email address are able to access Zimride’s online carpooling database to coordinate rides with other members of the Dartmouth community. In comparison, Upper Valley Rideshare can coordinate rides between anyone living in the area.
The College offers incentives to faculty, students and staff members who carpool to work.
Faculty and staff members who form carpools made up of two people get a reduced on-campus parking rate, while carpool groups of three or more people can park for free at a reserved parking space, College parking operation coordinator Robin Guay said.
Students who form carpools are offered reduced on-campus parking rates, Guay said, but added that fewer than 10 students have applied for this carpooling benefit.
Along with the College and the Town of Hanover, Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center, Hanover-based industrial cutting machinery manufacturer Hypertherm, the City of Lebanon, Upper Valley Lake Sunapee Regional Planning Commission and Upper Valley Transportation Management Association partner with Upper Valley Rideshare. These partners have contributed money or services to the Rideshare program, Berry said.
Director of planning and zoning for the City of Lebanon David Brooks wrote in an email that because Lebanon is the employment and shopping center for the Upper Valley, it is in the best interest of the city and businesses to make sure traffic along Route 120 does not become a safety problem, inhibit the movement of people or goods or have an adverse impact on quality of life.
