Colleagues Irene Laschuk and Vanessa Jones are not only co-workers, but they also spend every day riding to work together. For the past four years, these employees of Atlanta Center for Reproductive Medicine have vanpooled from their homes in Woodstock to their Perimeter area office.
“It costs about $100 per month for us to vanpool, and it really saves me from putting tons of miles on my car,” said Irene, a Patient Financial Services Manager.
The State Road Transit Authority (SRTA) currently provides a monthly cash incentive of $375 per vanpool, an increase that took effect at the beginning of 2016. “SRTA increased the incentive in order to increase participation in this cost-effective form of public transportation,” said Parker Martin, Performance Analyst with SRTA.
Vanpool popularity is on the rise, and over a dozen currently come to the Perimeter area daily, with more forming every month. Vanpools typically have bewteen seven and 15 passengers, and the van is owned, insured and maintained by a private vanpool provider. Driving in the HOV or HOT lanes is one of the many advantages of vanpooling.