Expand Your Options On How You Get To Work

One of the most expensive and sometimes stressful parts of most people’s days is their commute to and from work. Between the poor conditions of the economy, the cost of fuel and the overall cost of maintaining a vehicle, many workers are always on the lookout for other options regarding how they get to and from the workplace. Depending on the alternative method found, sometimes significant savings can be had when the right change is implemented. In various places around the country there are a number of options available, some involve workers themselves instituting the new method of transportation, while others involve the workplace or a government agency providing some or all aspects of a new method of transportation. Sometimes all it takes to find a new, and possibly economically better, way to commute to and from a job is a little research as there are a number of options available.

Carpools and Vanpools
A carpool or vanpool is merely a group of employees that work for the same company, or in the same vicinity, that choose to for any reason commute to work together in the same vehicle. There are a number of benefits that can come from commuting to work together in this fashion. When a group commutes together in one vehicle they are reducing the amount of money spent on fuel and vehicle maintenance as they are eliminating multiple vehicles from the roadway in exchange for just taking one vehicle. This is also environmentally beneficial too as it reduces the amount of fuel burned as well as the amount of vehicle pollution put into the air. Another benefit that can come from carpooling is that the employees that are not driving might be able to save time during their morning rituals by eating breakfast or getting caught up on work or other projects during the time of the actual commute. Carpools and vanpools are easy to create, implement and benefit from. Many are started by groups of employees organizing themselves while many others are sponsored by government agencies or actual workplaces. While some carpool groups arrange to pick up their members at their homes, there are also a number of government owned parking lots known as Park and Rides where people can meet to begin their joined commute to work.

Ride Matching
Ride matching is usually set up as a program within a company where employees can either post on a board or submit their names to a transportation coordinator who will match willing participants who share comparable commutes with eachother. The people that usually are active in ride matching do not have enough fellow commuters who share the same commute so that they can participate in carpooling or vanpooling. This is also a great program for people who don’t know which co-workers may live in the same area as themselves.

Traveling By Bus
Commuters who are wishing to save money on their commute and either may not want to participate or are not able to participate in another option may choose to ride the bus to work. Many state and local governments have set up metropolitan bus departments and most modern bus systems are more than capable of getting pretty much any worker from any location to their workplace in a reasonable amount of time. Riding the bus to work also provides extra time for the commuter as they can sometimes get tasks accomplished either on the way to work or the way from work each day.

Traveling By Train Or Subway
Similar to commuting to work via the bus, a number of communities also offer public transportation through the use of a subway or train system. This is usually a very fast method of commuting as trains do not encounter near as many delays as road based vehicles do. Traveling by train or subway is a great way to commute to work for people who live a considerable distance away from their workplaces.

Human Powered Options
Two alternate methods of commuting to work that may serve the commuter well if they live relatively close to their workplace are human powered options. Riding a bike or even walking to work is significantly cheaper than driving to work and cheaper even than carpooling or riding the bus. These two methods are also the best modes of transportation when considering environmental impact considering that no fuel is used and no emissions are created.

For those wanting to completely reinvent the way they commute to and from work, there are a number of options to choose from. A radical approach would be to take a human powered option, but workers don’t have to go this far if they don’t intend to or are not able to. There are plenty of other options available to those looking to commute to work in a more efficient and more economically affordable way including joining with others in a government or workplace sponsored program, using municipal public transportation and finding ride sharing options on their own or with the help of their workplace. Anyone wanting to make a change in their method of commute to work is free to do so, there is nothing stopping workers of today from reinventing how they get to and from their workplace.