Harris County Judge Robert Eckels and City of Houston Mayor Lee P. Brown have jointly endorsed and signed a letter encouraging area businesses to consider vanpooling as a commuter options for their employees.

County and City officials join representatives from METRO, Houston-Galveston Area Council (H-GAC), business leaders, and area transportation organizations to help launch this year’s Commute Solutions Month celebration in September. H-GAC’s 2002 Summer Vanpool Promotion is designed to motivate more local businesses to offer vanpooling as a commute option to their employees. In addition to increasing vanpool ridership and the number of vanpools, Commute Solutions Month will feature events throughout the region and across the state.
All new riders who sign up to join an existing vanpool or start a new vanpool before September 30 will ride FREE the first month. After the free month, vanpoolers receive a $35 incentive each month for as long as they are part of a vanpool. For more information about program details, call 1-888-606-RIDE or visit www.commutesolutions-hou.com.

Area businesses are considered the key to the success of the Commute Solutions Vanpool Program because they are the destination of commuters. By vanpooling, commuters can help take vehicles off the roads to alleviate traffic congestion, improve mobility and travel times, and help clean our region’s air. In fact, early results indicate that this Summer Vanpool Promotion has helped to initiate 17 new vanpools and has placed more than 300 new riders in vanpools. Vanpools operating in the Uptown/Galleria area alone will help reduce vehicle miles traveled an estimated 411,700 miles per month, or 4.9 million miles a year.
Vanpooling is one of the program elements of Commute Solutions, a partnership of the Houston-Galveston Area Council (H-GAC), METRO and other public transit agencies, the Texas Department of Transportation (TxDOT), and the region’s Transportation Management Organizations (TMOs). The TMOs include TREK, Central Houston’s “Downtown in Motion,” North Houston Association, and Bay Area Transportation Partnership (BATP). The Commute Solutions Partners have helped employers in the region offer their employees more benefits, and get them to work more efficiently and cost effectively.

    Commute Solutions is also part of H-GAC’s Mission Clean Air. Mission Clean Air (www.missioncleanair.org) is an incentive-based campaign designed for businesses, industries and local governments to lead the challenge of improving air quality and reducing traffic congestion.

The Houston-Galveston Area Council (H-GAC) is a voluntary association of local governments and local elected officials from the 13-county Gulf Coast Planning Region – an area of 12,500 square miles with more than 4.8 million people. H-GAC works to promote efficient and accountable use of local, state and federal tax dollars; serves as a problem-solving and information forum for local governments; and helps local governments, businesses and civic organizations analyze trends and conditions affecting the area in order to respond to their needs.