The Transportation Subcommittee of UB's Environmental Task Force and the NFTA recently teamed up to launch a pilot program known as Rideshare, a computer-coordinated system of matching commuters who live conveniently near each other to arrange to carpool to the university. The program has already been successfully launched in western cities including Salt Lake City, Houston, Denver and Los Angeles.

"We are the region's mobility managers," explained NFTA Transit Product Manager Daniel Gajewski, "so we find rich rewards in promoting this type of program, as opposed to investing in more pavement." Flyers describing the program were distributed widely on campus earlier this year and responses have been trickling into the NFTA, Gajewski said.

The university was an ideal locale for the pilot project, Gajewski explained. "One of the major things you need is a strong, central destination point," he said. "Also, experience shows that the program works best where there is a significant work force with a commute time of more than 20 minutes." Several other heavily traveled corridors in the region are being considered for future projects, perhaps including a "reverse commute" project for suburbanites who travel to the South Campus or LaSalle subway stations on their way to work downtown.

Although it is too early to gauge the success of the program, Gajewski explained that a grant application NFTA submitted calculated that the UB project could remove up to 500 single-occupant vehicles from area roadways each day.

Carpooling was first promoted more than two years ago by a group of undergraduate students, according to former geography student Cindy Guguentz. "Initially, I approached the NFTA about getting student 'flash passes' for their buses," recalls Guguentz, who is an activist with the Buffalo Environmental Task Force. However, these geography students went on to employ a computerized Geographic Information Services (GIS) program, similar to the one now used by the NFTA, to develop matches for carpooling.

Guguentz observes that students with regular class schedules, graduate students and faculty/staff would likely make good use of such a program if "adequate incentives" were available. Guguentz suggests getting a break on a possible faculty/staff parking fee or being eligible for more desirable parking locations on campus could draw more commuters to Rideshare.

Information on Rideshare is available from the NFTA, through Ellen Goldbaum at UB News Services or on Wings at http://wings.bu ffalo.edu/news/newsbureau/rideshare.