Wednesday, July 2, 2008

Ask HR

What can Mountain Rides do for you?


With gas prices soaring through the roof, as an employer you must wonder whether this problem is going to affect heavily on your recruiting and retaining employees within your company. As an employee, you're probably wondering, "How I can save money, reduce my stress, and increase my free time with gas prices hitting over $4 a gallon."

Let Mountain Rides help you. It is "one-stop shopping" for all transportation alternatives, including walking, biking, rideshare, vanpool, carpool, fixed-route bus and transportation counseling.

Mountain Rides currently runs fixed-route services through Blaine County. The Down Valley Commuter Bus Service serves Bellevue, Hailey, Ketchum, and Sun Valley, providing frequent service during rush hours and throughout the day. Mountain Rides is taking a "system approach" to developing services long term, with the end result being more service and more options for those who work in Blaine County.

The Around Town Bus provides free town and neighborhood buses that serve Ketchum, Sun Valley, Elkhorn, Warm Springs and River Run. The long-term goal is for the cities of Hailey and Bellevue to eventually have "Town and Neighborhood Circulators" that will feed to the Down Valley Service and help promote "walkable communities," which complements the new roles envisioned for public transportation in the county.

Another great component of their transportation programs is their vanpool and carpool services. They currently have eight vanpools running from Twin Falls and Shoshone into Blaine County. Their goal is to continue to work with employers to create more van fleets that will serve the Twin Falls, Shoshone, Carey and Fairfield workforce. Mountain Rides has also teamed up with RideShareOnline.com, an organization based in Washington and now operating in Idaho that helps people find others interested in carpooling to work or even if you just need a ride to Boise for the weekend. Log on to www.rideshareonline.com. It's easy, it's free, and you might see ride matches right away.

In conjunction with RideShareOnline.com, the creation of the "Ride Match" board will be developed inside Mountain Rides headquarters. You will be able to come in and offer carpool services or find a car-pooler to help you out on your commute. Mountain Rides' long-term goal for the vanpool and carpool programs is, if we continue to receive federal funding and as ridership develops, to replace some of the van and car pool services with fixed-route bus services.

This array of vigorously marketed, high-quality public transportation services will significantly contribute to the mobility and satisfaction of workers who need to commute longer and longer distances, not to mention the enhancement and preservation of our unique quality of life.

This column contains human resource suggestions by human resource specialists. This information is not intended as professional or legal advice of any kind.

Please e-mail us at askhr@woodriverhr.com. All questions to the Internet site are confidential and names/identities are not published with the column.




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