Share-A-Ride: reduces commuter costs: employer vouchers help some workers ride for free.

• Author: Resz, Heather A.
• Position: TRANSPORTATION

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When Greg Parrish started using Share-A-Ride in 1996, gas cost about $1 a gallon. A dozen years ago, when he made the switch to vanpooling, it was the wear and tear on his vehicle that led him to his lifestyle change.

"I was tired of replacing my vehicle every four years," Parrish said.

Now he's the primary driver on Share-A-Ride van No. 67048, which travels to Fort Richardson Monday through Friday from the Palmer-Wasilla area.

"It's a great deal. I don't know why more people don't get in on it," Parrish said.

As a Department of Defense employee, he also is eligible to receive vouchers worth about $1,400 a year that cover the cost of his commute in the vanpool, Parrish said.

Any employer can choose to be part of the federal Commuter Choice Program, which allows businesses to contribute each month toward their employees' mass-transit expenses.

Neither employer nor employee pays tax on the transit benefits of up to $115 per month and parking benefits of up to $220 per month.

With the price of gas about $3.70 a gallon, more and more Mat-Su Valley commuters are parking their cars and hitching a ride to Anchorage aboard one of the Anchorage Municipality's 45 Share-A-Ride vans.

When the municipality invited industry leader VPSI Inc. to take over the program in October 2005, it had just 24 vanpools.

Today the vanpooling program serves 580 commuters and there are at least that many more people are on waiting list, said Elizabeth Jespersen, Northwest area manager and a 17-year VPSI employee.

Although commuter rail, a Knik Arm Bridge and a ferry system are all possible future links between the economically intertwined communities, for now, Share-A-Ride is one mass-transit option Valley residents have for getting to their jobs in the city, Jespersen said.

Mat-Su Transit also offers daily mass-transit service between the Valley and Anchorage.

VALLEY HOME TO MOST SHARE-A-RIDE ROUTES It costs about $30 a day for Parrish to use

his own truck to make the roundtrip between Anchorage and his home off East Seldon Road in the Mat-Su Borough.

Such costs probably have a lot to do with why most Share-A-Ride routes originate in the Palmer and Wasilla areas, Jespersen said.

For workers who commute 20 miles or more, vanpooling can be a moneysaving alternative to the daily commute, she said. Plus, it reduces wear and tear on personal vehicles and frees people up to sleep, work or relax and visit with other riders, Jespersen said.

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