by N i c o l e S e q u i n o

On the first day of carpooling together, Sheila Bubka and I met shortly after 7 a.m. in front of the Duck Ponds, a little habitat for Wading River's longtime duck and geese residents and an agreeable halfway point between our neighborhoods. We drove off in my Kia Spectra 5, enroute to the Long Island Expressway, which I previously avoided sans a carpool buddy.

I found Bubka chatty and pleasant as we reached the LIE's high occupancy vehicle (HOV) lane near the Medford/ Port Jefferson Route 112 sign (Exit 60). Within a half hour, we were traveling in Nassau County, bypassing rubbernecking traffic in the other lanes. Feelings of guilt and pity emerged as I recalled the many times I have been trapped, exasperated and anxious, in such traffic.

Bubka and I met through Long Island Transportation Management's ridesharing program, advertised as 1(877) 4COMMUTE/www.4Commute.com on blue highway signs. Bubka, a safety and compliance manager at Canon USA Inc., touts the program as a saving grace to the 54-mile commute to her job in New Hyde Park. She said she had been searching for a carpool partner since the spring, when she bought a Toyota Prius and acquired a Clean Pass Vehicle sticker from the state Department of Motor Vehicles so she could access the HOV lane on her own.

"The commute was so bad for me, that, even though I hate having a car payment, I went ahead and bought the Prius just to keep sane," she says. Now, she adds that she will also save money and wear and-tear on her car by carpooling.

Bubka and I are among thousands of New York residents that are ridesharing to their jobs as an alternative to driving alonethrough LITM and the two other ridesharing networks funded or supported by the New York State Department of Transportation (NYSDOT), CommuterLink and MetroPool. These nonprofit groups reach out to employers and commuters to help alleviate traffic downstate, decrease pollution and reduce wear-and-tear on state highways, says NYSDOT spokeswoman Eileen Peters.

MetroPool coordinates ridesharing programs for companies and residents in the lower Hudson River Valley at 1(800) FIND-RIDE or www.metropool.com, and it also coordinates Easy StreetNY, a vanpooling program for commuters in Dutchess, Orange, Putnam, Rockland, Ulster and Westchester counties. Commuters and employers in the five boroughs can find assistance through Commuter- Link at 1(866) NYCOMMUTE or www.commuterlink.com, which also receives support from the New York City Department of Transportation.

With rising gas costs and traffic congestion, more New Yorkers have been applying to the ridesharing programs for carpooling or vanpooling partners in recent years. "One of the only positives about increasing gas prices is that it's an encouragement for people to share rides and reduce traffic and pollution on Long Island and in New York," adds Peters.

This growing interest in carpooling differs from the national trend: The share of people carpooling declined nationwide from 12.2 percent in 2004 to 10.7 percent in 2005, according to an analysis by the U.S. Census Bureau. In fact, 77 percent of people drive alone to and from work, according to the bureau's report.

Marianne Carillo, LITM president and CEO, says that her organization works with Long Island corporations to promote alternate modes of travel to employees-carpooling, vanpooling and telecommuting-and reduce single-vehicle drivers. LITM's Commuter Choice Program reaches out to approximately 93,000 commuters, Carillo says. She adds that deciphering how many people actually carpool through LITM's services is difficult to track on a daily basis because commuters use a variety of transportation sources. According to Carillo, education and awareness motivate commuters to change their habits of driving alone.

John Galgano, CommuterLink's president and CEO, says interest in his organization's services surged beginning in April of last year as gas prices escalated well over $3 a gallon. Approximately 2,900 people applied for carpooling partners and nearly 1,600 asked for help planning their mass transit commute. CommuterLink still receives between 100 and 200 applications a month, Galgano says.

"I think the biggest selling point for all of our services is that you're not only doing good work for mobility in the region and helping improve air quality," he adds, "but that it also doesn't cost you anything. It's a free service provided by the state."

The savings add up, too. A savings calculator on LITM's Web site estimates that Bubka and I are each saving $194 a month, or more than $2,300 a year, by carpooling together five days a week. Plus, we have both registered with the NuRide program (www.nuride.com), an online service that also matches people looking to carpool and rewards them with incentives, such as restaurant gift cards or movie tickets.

Christine Court, an event planner for the Hospice Care Network in Woodbury, says she has been meeting four of her co-workers at a Park & Ride location off Exit 58 of the Long Island Expressway to carpool to work since the 40-mile HOV lane was completed in June 2005. "Why bother going into work individually when we all live within ten minutes of each other?" says Court, of South Setauket. As a side benefit to their gas and car maintenance savings, Court adds that she and her co-workers have become fast friends. "It makes the commute more enjoyable and fun," she says.

For commuters still reluctant to try carpooling out of fear of being left stranded, each of the ridesharing programs offers some reassurance. At CommuterLink, for example, commuters left without a ride home because their carpooling partner went home sick from work or had another emergency needn't fear: They will be reimbursed with a voucher for their taxi or transit expenses (up to $50 per transit/taxi ride, but not to exceed $200 a year) through the Guaranteed Ride Home program, Galgano says.

LITM and MetroPool, meanwhile, offer similar services for commuters through the similarly named Guaranteed Ride program when their employers register with their organizations. "Our goal is to make it as painless as possible for people to change their behavior, and to provide those safety nets to encourage people to use the program," adds Carillo.

Employers also may apply for tax benefits and grants to establish commuting programs for their employees through CommuterLink and LITM; MetroPool also offers help with tax benefits. In addition, employees who carpool are less stressed from their commute and perform better at work.

Back to my first day commuting with my newfound carpool buddy: I reached Bubka's workplace off Exit 41/New Hyde Park by 8:04 a.m., and we made plans to ride together on Friday. "Same Bat time, same Bat channel?" I quipped. "Sounds good," Bubka replied, smirking at my reference to the cheeky 1960s Batman television show.

New Hyde Park, it turns out, was a short distance from AAA New York's headquarters in Garden City, as I arrived at my job within10 minutes. As I pulled into the parking lot, a feeling of satisfaction crossed my brow: I now have a manageable commute, even from the far reaches of Wading River.

Copyright © 2007 by AAA New York. This article appeared in Car & Travel magazine, November 2007.