Van Pools Blog

In early March, VPSI partnered with OhioRideShare to assist the Louis Stokes VAMC Cleveland staff with their commutes. The Brecksville location is being closed and nearly 1,200 employees will be moved to the downtown Cleveland Wade Park campus.  The relocation has created a need for some creative ways to assist with the new commutes the staff will soon face. Rising gas prices were another driving force for the staff to look for ways to not only save money on their commute, but to reduce their carbon footprint, as well the employee parking requirements at Wade Park.

Over the course of 2 days, nearly 200 people registered into the vRide program, which allows users to create their own “pools” based on where they reside, their work schedule and their new work location. While the original focus was on helping the Brecksville staff get to the Wade Park Campus, as word spread around about the events, existing Wade Park staff started forming their own pools.

Some of the comments received about the registration events were:

• “The people were happy the VA made this happen”.
• “The event was extremely well organized”.
• “After we registered, we kept going back online to check responses. We were anxious to see if anyone else had joined our pool”.

Since the events were held, many more VA employees have signed up. As we work through the various transition dates of the move, we are confident we will be able to help many people find an efficient “pool” to get to work. Kudos to the Louis Stokes VA staff that helped organize the event and it is now something that they can “check off their list” of tasks to accomplish for this consolidation project.

Colleen Donnelly, transportation planner at OhioRideShare, said she is excited about the program.

“The partnership between OhioRideShare and VPSI will help hundreds of VA staff save a lot of money on their commutes and we are pleased to be able to offer this wonderful service to them,” she said.

Congratulation to Mary Latino who won the Grand Prize of a $499 Apple Gift Card!