Fort Polk, Louisiana - April ushered in significant expansion of the vanpool program at Fort Polk with four new groups! All the participants were new to the program and they could not wait to start. One of these groups was made up of all active duty members who work on the north end of Fort Polk.
VPSI and its military-focused website, Militaryvanpool.com, was featured on Monday evening, January 11th, as the Army Wife Network’s Army Wife Talk Radio (AWTR) “Resource of the Week”. The show is available as a AWTR podcast here. AWTR host Melanie Kish interviewed Michael Norvell, VPSI’s Vice President of Business Development, about how the Department of Defense (DoD) expanded the Commuter Choice tax-free transportation benefit for qualified transportation like vanpooling to all civilian employees and military service members throughout the nation. Today, more than 700 VPSI vanpools are in service with groups of military and DoD civilians at 73 different military installations throughout the country. Militaryvanpool.com features “Vanpool Listings” pages with detailed rosters of vans, and where these vanpool groups originate, commuting to each of these 73 Army, Navy and Air Force bases. Read More
The following post was written by Rosendo Corral from El Paso, Texas. It was originally submitted to our iPhone contest, but it was so enjoyable that we had to share it with our readers.
I have been participating in the military Mass Transportation Benefit Program for some time now, and have seen accidents, breakdowns, among other interesting things.
One of the more common experiences riding to work in the mornings are the encounters with oryx (an African antelope introduced to New Mexico many years back). It’s a truly wonderful looking animal, yet aggressive and strong. Some of the oryx out here grow to be the size of a horse. Read More
Fort Bragg shares a similar situation with many large to medium size cities. Fort Bragg and the surrounding region was built using a suburban sprawl model. Therefore moving about makes motor vehicle travel a necessity. Internal and external roadways are overburdened, traffic accidents continue to increase, and funding to build roadway capacity does not exist. Assuming funding were available, the time factor involved in roadway construction delays any relief in the afore mentioned shortcomings.
But there’s good news! According to a recent story published in the Fayetteville Observer, a new high-occupancy vehicle (HOV) lane will now help commuters travel to Fort Bragg.
We wanted to find out how this new HOV lane would benefit vanpoolers commuting to the fort, so we asked Charles Young, Fort Bragg’s Sustainable Transportation Planner, what he thought.
VP.com: What kind of an impact do you think these new HOV lanes will make on vanpooling at Fort Bragg?
CY: The HOV lanes as applies to vanpools conceptually will do two things: 1) reward those who vanpool with quicker access to post through the ACPs, and 2) greatly reduce the number of vehicles traversing post. The obvious advantage to Fort Bragg will be reduced demand on the roadway network. Consider that a single vanpool will replace an average of seven vehicles yields a high impact solution.
VP.com: Do you know if this is the only HOV lane that goes to a military installation in the country?
CY: I am not aware of HOV access at any other Army post. I am not sure about other services.
VP.com: How has vanpooling helped Fort Bragg commuters?
CY: The Army’s Mass Trans Benefit Program essentially reduces commuting costs to $0.00. Individuals that normally use a POV for commutes save not only the direct costs of commuting, but dollars associated with vehicle ownership. Suffice to say that once fully engaged, a family may find that only one vehicle, rather than two are needed to care for a family’s transportation needs. Savings are likely to be $5,000 - $7,500 annually per family.
Multi-tasking comes naturally to LTC Janis Hatcher, U.S. Army Reserve. In late October, LTC Hatcher relocated from Georgia to California, handling the myriad activities necessary to move into a new home, a new office, and arrange local transportation for her commute. As a long-term vanpooler at Ft. McPherson, LTC Hatcher expected to transition into a VPSI van when she arrived in California, however she learned that there were no vanpools matching her commute. But she did not let that stop her. She quickly found enough people in her area, signed up as a driver, applied for the vouchers and started a van from her area on November 1, 2009. LTC Hatcher’s positive energy and ‘can do’ attitude extends beyond her unit as well, as she has also spread the word about the benefits of vanpooling throughout the U.S. Army Reserve, and three additional vans will start in December and January. A salute to LTC Hatcher for her commitment, not only to a safer America, but a cleaner, greener America too!
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This sounds like fun - cannot wait to see the photos. by BJ Sanders
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I agree with the other comments. I’d like to know when this starts. The annoucement of this... by Monique St.Louis
Please let me know when this starts! Thanks! by Kachun Wong
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