Vanpooling

How Will This Help | Target Market | Implementation Examples | References

Introduction

Target Market

Vanpools work best in areas with little transit service and inadequate parking. Commuters get the benefits of transit without requiring the local transit agency to serve their area. This service is best paired with managed lanes that offer a price and time savings for vanpools and in areas with park-and-ride lots.

Congested Corridors Where Trip Lengths Are Longer than 20 Miles
Freeways and streets can become congested with commuters traveling from suburbs into the city or from one suburb to another. Vanpools traveling long distances to the city provide options to the suburban population and remove vehicles from the road. The decrease in vehicles reduces congestion, fuel use, overall travel time on that road, and parking needs.

Downtown or Other Activity Centers
Parking and congestion are major problems in the central city area and other large activity centers. Vanpools reduce the number of automobiles on the roadways, which in turn reduces congestion and parking demand.

How Will This Help?

Reduces Congestion
Vanpool programs eliminate cars from the road. Consolidating people who would be traveling individually into one large vehicle can remove more than 10 cars and increases the available capacity of the road.

Lowers Cost
Encouraging and implementing vanpool programs can be done at relatively low cost for all involved: the user, employer, and vanpool sponsor:

• The cost of using a vanpool service is typically lower than operating a personal car every work day, reducing the overall cost to the employee.
• To help employers, local government can offer subsidies for encouraging the use of vanpool services. The employer needs fewer parking spaces, and employees are tardy less often.
• The city’s costs are reduced with fewer cars using the road, lowering maintenance, extending the lifespan of the road, and, in the best cases, delaying major construction projects to increase capacity that can cost millions of dollars.

Lowers Auto Emissions
Vanpool programs lower auto emissions by removing cars from the road and allowing more efficient speeds. Less congestion reduces vehicle idling time and rapid accelerations in stop-and-go traffic.

Implementation Examples

Dallas, Texas
Dallas Area Rapid Transit has a vanpool program consisting of 174 leased vans. The program resulted in a reduction of about 35 million miles traveled. The total annual cost of the program is about $16,000 per vanpool.

Phoenix, Arizona
Valley Metro has a vanpool program consisting of 380 vans owned in-house. The program resulted in a reduction of about 55 million miles traveled. The total annual cost is about $9,000 per vanpool.

Application Techniques and Principles

The city and employers can start programs to help promote vanpool use. The city government can offer subsidies for businesses that use vanpools or use a pay-for-parking plan that increases personal vehicle parking costs. Employers can also offer incentives to increase or maintain involvement.

The program sponsor should promote the program and provide adequate information on how vanpools benefit employers and employees. The local government typically pursues these programs, but employers can also highlight the benefit to their workers. Promoters can display the benefits of not driving, including the option of one fewer household vehicle and how the programs help the community with fewer cars on the road.

Management of the vanpool program depends on the budget and preferences of the local government. The local government can run the vanpool program in-house while keeping ownership of the vans, or it can use a third-party company to provide vans and run the program.

Vanpools need operations support. This support includes collecting fares, purchasing or leasing new vans, finding room for new riders, scheduling and conducting van maintenance, paying for tolls and gas, and getting the necessary insurance.

Issues

Vanpools can be implemented quickly and inexpensively by employers or third-party operators. However, the motivation for employers to provide vanpool services is based on employees’ interest level. Public agencies can encourage and facilitate vanpool services through incentives, subsidies, marketing, and regulation.

Who Is Responsible?

A local government, transit agency, or regional planning agency is generally responsible for running vanpools. Local government promotes and encourages businesses to use the program and markets to the general public. Because these programs exist in areas where there is limited or no public transit service, the public may be unaware of the vanpool.

Private businesses may also provide vanpool services to their employees, especially when workers both live and work in similar locations.

Project Time Frame

Implementing a vanpool program has a short time frame when compared to other programs or mitigation techniques. The time needed for vanpools includes promotion, scheduling, administration, and acquisition of vehicles. A typical vanpool program takes between six months and 1.5 years to develop and implement. The time frame is dependent on the program structure. A local government can more quickly contract out a vanpool program to a third party than it can purchase, implement, and administer the program in-house.

Cost

Vanpools have a lower cost than many other congestion-mitigation techniques. The primary costs come from purchasing/leasing the necessary vehicles, funding basic operating costs (i.e., gas and maintenance), and ensuring administration. Fuel is about 40 to 60 percent of the required cost. Most vanpool programs are a pay-to-use service and receive some additional government funding. The vehicle is often assigned to a primary driver who is given a price break on his or her subscription fee and sometimes allowed to use the vehicle for personal travel. A vanpool study conducted by the Texas A&M Transportation Institute in 2010 found the following.

Vanpooling Best Practices

• Type of location: Activity centers attracting many suburban commuters.
• Agency practices: Strong program support from administrators and policy makers.
• Frequency of reanalysis: Annually.
• Supporting policies or actions needed: Incentives or subsidies to vanpool sponsors.
• Complementary strategies: Managed lanes, park-and-ride transit service, and telework options.

Data Needs

Vanpools do not need large amounts of data for evaluation. Standard information required is:

• The average commuter trip distance.
• Annual ridership.
• Average daily ridership.
• Passengers per van.

Other useful information includes:

• Traffic volumes on major roadway segments.
• Typical travel times for each participating area.
• The number of vanpools.
• The number of participants in each area.
• The schedules of the riders.

This information is useful for logistical purposes and to ensure the vanpools meet the travel needs of current and potential users.

For More Information

Crawford, J. A., T. B. Carlson, W. L. Eisele, and B. T. Kuhn. A Michigan Toolbox for Mitigating Traffic Congestion. Texas Transportation Institute, Texas A&M University, College Station, Texas, September 2011.

Texas Transportation Institute. H-GAC Commute Solutions: An Evaluation of Selected Elements. College Station, Texas, January 2011.

Texas Transportation Institute. Mobility Improvement Checklist: Managing Demand: Vol. 1. College Station, Texas, September 2004.