VIRGINIA: Northern Virginia Real-time Ridesharing Pilot Project
The Northern Virginia (VA) Regional Commission administered a Real-time Ridesharing Pilot along the I-95/395/495 corridor from Fredericksburg, VA to Washington, D.C. There are 200,000 cars along the corridor with an estimated 85,000 being military, civilian, or defense contractors with an 85 percent rate driving single occupancy vehicles. The project goal was to provide military commuters with a new, innovative transportation option that would help to bring relief from traffic congestion while reducing the number of cars on the road and at the gates. This would allow commuters to save time, gas money, wear & tear on their vehicles, and commute with others in their community going the same way.
The project, funded by a grant from the Federal Highway Administration, with matching funds from Virginia Department of Transportation, the District of Columbia and local government partners, focused initially on bringing real-time ridesharing to those Department of Defense (DoD) employees who were directly impacted by the re-locations from the base re-alignment and closure (BRAC), by aiding DoD employees, and contractors traveling along the I-95/395 and Route One Corridors. The program focused on seven BRAC sites: Marine Corps Base Quantico, Fort Belvoir, Engineering Proving Grounds/National Geospatial Agency (NGA), the Mark Center, Defense Health Headquarters (DHHQ), the Navy Yard, and Myer-Henderson Hall.
The approach provided financial incentives to both riders and drivers to establish a critical mass of users necessary for a self-sustaining, real-time ridesharing system as well as assist in the formation of traditional car and van pools. Using smart phones, web and mobile applications, commuters would be able to share commuting costs through automated electronic payment based on passenger miles traveled.
Goals
- Recruit at least 500 drivers and 1000 riders to participate
- Achieve 20 ride matches per month, per participant
- Reduce at least 120,000 vehicle miles traveled (VMT) over 6 months
- Provide a means of reducing traffic congestion, parking demand and fuel consumption by stimulating a modal shift to ridesharing
- Determine whether innovative pricing strategies for ridesharing may change travel behavior
- Quantify what critical mass of participants is required to create a self-sustaining, real-time ridesharing system
Project Status
Complete
For More Information Contact
Peggy Tadej
NOVA BRAC Regional Coordinator
Virginia Regional Commission
3060 Williams Drive, Suite 510
Fairfax, VA 22031
Phone: (703) 642-4635
