Commuter Connections to pay people to carpool

WASHINGTON -- Would you give up your car to carpool -- if you were paid a couple of bucks? Regional transportation leaders hope so.

Starting in the fall, the Commuter Connections Work Program will pay people $2 every day they carpool. The aim is to reduce the number of solo drivers on the three of the area's most congestion-choked roads.

Ron Kirby, director of transportation planning with the National Capital Region Transportation Planning Board, says it is already being done successfully in Los Angeles and Atlanta.

"After people try it once, they say 'Hey, this is not too bad. I'm going to keep doing it.'"

Similar programs have been set up during major construction projects in the D.C. region. Most notably, a program known as "Bridge Bucks" was set up where Wilson Bridge commuters were paid $50 a month for one year to switch from cars to transit or vanpools. Also, drivers who switched from cars to transit or vanpools during major work on the South Capitol Street Bridge/Frederick Douglass Bridge in D.C. were paid $50 a month during construction.

Commuters in three areas are the focus of this new pilot program:

• The Capital Beltway between Bethesda and Tysons Corner;
• The Capital Beltway between the Baltimore/Washington Parkway and Interstate 270;
• Interstate 395 North from Northern Virginia into D.C.

"In some of these circumferential corridors, it is a little harder for people to get together," says Kirby.

According to a recent Transportation Planning Board study, these three particular areas also are some of the most congested in the region.

Program participants will be tracked electronically and only be paid for the days they actually carpool. The pilot program will last 3 months.

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