.bodytext {float: left; } .floatimg-left-hort { float:left; margin-top:10px; margin-right: 10px; width:300px; clear:left;} .floatimg-left-caption-hort { float:left; margin-bottom:10px; width:300px; margin-right:10px; clear:left;} .floatimg-left-vert { float:left; margin-top:10px; margin-right:15px; width:200px;} .floatimg-left-caption-vert { float:left; margin-right:10px; margin-bottom:10px; font-size: 10px; width:200px;} .floatimg-right-hort { float:right; margin-top:10px; margin-left:10px; margin-bottom:10px; width: 300px;} .floatimg-right-caption-hort { float:left; margin-right:10px; margin-bottom:10px; width: 300px; font-size: 10px; } .floatimg-right-vert { float:right; margin-top:10px; margin-left:10px; margin-bottom:10px; width: 200px;} .floatimg-right-caption-vert { float:left; margin-right:10px; margin-bottom:10px; width: 200px; font-size: 10px; } .floatimgright-sidebar { float:right; margin-top:10px; margin-left:10px; margin-bottom:10px; width: 200px; border-top-style: double; border-top-color: black; border-bottom-style: double; border-bottom-color: black;} .floatimgright-sidebar p { line-height: 115%; text-indent: 10px; } .floatimgright-sidebar h4 { font-variant:small-caps; } .pullquote { float:right; margin-top:10px; margin-left:10px; margin-bottom:10px; width: 150px; background: url(http://www.dmbusinessdaily.com/DAILY/editorial/extras/closequote.gif) no-repeat bottom right !important ; line-height: 150%; font-size: 125%; border-top: 1px solid; border-bottom: 1px solid;} .floatvidleft { float:left; margin-bottom:10px; width:325px; margin-right:10px; clear:left;} .floatvidright { float:right; margin-bottom:10px; width:325px; margin-right:10px; clear:left;} It’s 6:48 a.m., and John Boccella is looking at his watch.

A couple of years ago, his vanpool would already be on the road at this point. But after he had to turn around and go back a few times to pick up a comrade he left behind, he decided setting a departure time and sticking to it was the best policy.

At 6:49 he remembers a woman who no longer rides with him. She was always late, constantly complaining and uncooperative.

“We left her behind a few times,” said Boccella, a network administrator with the Iowa attorney general’s office. “This van leaves at 10 till every day, and we just have to be firm with that, because everyone has to get to work.”

When the hands on his watch show that it’s 6:50, Boccella puts the van into gear and begins the 35-mile journey from Ames to Des Moines with his 13 passengers.

Boccella’s van and 11 others that leave Ames every weekday are part of the Des Moines Area Regional Transit Authority’s Central Iowa RideShare program, which provides vans and fuel to commuters willing to ride to work as a group. Eighty vans are in service, with at least six more groups waiting to be provided vans, said Brian Litchfield, DART’s chief development officer.

“This is a very successful program and a model for many other communities,” Litchfield said. “Omaha, for example, doesn’t have a program like this. Their transit authority recently called us asking for advice and assistance in how to set up a RideShare for their community.”

He said Des Moines’ program is currently at capacity, with more than 800 people riding to work in DART vans every day.

Sharing the road

Vanpooling is carpooling taken one step further. Five to 15 commuters ride together to and from work in a fully equipped passenger van. Vanpool members live within a few miles of one another, work in the same general area and have similar work hours.

Litchfield said DART’s vans travel roughly 150,000 miles a month, from areas as far north as Nevada, nine miles east of Ames, and as far south as Humeston, a town in Wayne County near the Missouri border.

“We have vans in 17 different counties,” he said. “The majority usually travels around 60 to 100 miles round trip, but we do have people traveling much farther every day.”

The beauty of the program, Litchfield said, is that it pays for itself.

“RideShare covers its own costs,” he said. “There is some federal grant money used to purchase the vans, but it is paid for by the monthly fees.”

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Now take that figure and imagine how much gas is saved by removing 800 cars from the road, and the benefits and success of RideShare come into focus, Litchfield said.

Boccella’s vanpool leaves every workday from the Kmart parking lot on South 16th Street in Ames. He first became interested in the program after some bad carpooling experiences, and got on DART’s waiting list to join. But a friend who was a DART van driver began a new job in Ames, so his van needed a new driver.

“I went from a wannabe rider to a driver that quick,” he said.

Drivers take a five-hour driver safety course on a Saturday to ensure that they can handle driving a 15-passenger van.

“We took turns driving and attempted to park the van,” he said. “It was pretty daunting at first, to go from a car to this huge van.”

Even now, several years later, he still doesn’t feel completely at home in the driver’s seat.

“Every six months I don’t put a scratch on the van is another step toward being comfortable behind the wheel,” he said. “I wouldn’t ever dream of trying to parallel park that thing.”

Those interested in joining a vanpool contact DART, which tries to match them with an existing vanpool or puts them on a waiting list in the hopes of a new vanpool starting up. Once placed with a vanpool, passengers pay a monthly fee based on the number of miles round trip and the number of people in the van, which usually ranges from $65 to $100 per month. Drivers pay no fee, and backup drivers get a $10 discount.

“Not only that, but the driver gets a certain amount of miles for personal use,” Litchfield said.

Boccella said he gets 200 miles a month for personal use, and after that he gets charged 50 cents a mile.

“But if you want to take a big group to the ballgame, it’s pretty inexpensive to have everyone chip in for gas and ride together in the van,” he said.

Sleeping all the way

Irene Montgomery used to have to buy a new car every couple of years.

“I just put so many miles on them, I ran them into the ground,” she said. “And that doesn’t even factor in the money I spent on gas.”

But since 1998, Montgomery’s cars have sat in the garage.

“I last bought a car in 2001, and it has very little mileage on it,” she said.

Montgomery lives in Nevada and works in West Des Moines. Her vanpool leaves a little earlier than most, at 5:45 a.m. every weekday.

“It was kind of formed around my schedule, since I started it,” she said. “Most everyone else sleeps on the way in.”

Montgomery, who works as an account manager for Travelers Insurance Co., makes seven stops to drop off her fellow vanpoolers, then at 4 p.m., begins the journey to pick everyone up and head back toward Ames and Nevada.

“It’s absolutely wonderful,” she said. “I love it.”

Litchfield said the convenience of the program is what attracts people to it, but high fuel prices have definitely helped its popularity grow.

“It’s so much less expensive than driving,” he said.

RideShare started more than a decade ago when several downtown businesses realized that in order to meet their demand for workers, they would have to recruit from outside Des Moines, Litchfield said.

“As the demand for workers increased, they needed to figure out a way to get people from outside of Des Moines to the downtown area,” he said.

The first 10 vans that were part of the program took employees to and from Principal Financial Group Inc., Litchfield said, and the company still contributes $35 toward any employee’s monthly vanpool fee.

Some companies, like Aviva USA, subsidize 100 percent of a worker’s monthly fee, Litchfield said.

“That is a tremendous benefit for employees,” he said.

Just getting along

“Everyone in my vanpool gets along really well,” Boccella said. “But I could write a book about some of our experiences.”

Occasionally, people just don’t hit it off. That’s human nature, Boccella said, so you just have to deal with it.

“We try to work it out as adults,” he said. “But sometimes we have to get DART involved so they can handle us like children.”

Shotgun, or the seat up front next to the driver, is a coveted commodity, Boccella said. Not only is it the most comfortable seat, but it also provides the most room to stretch out on the long ride to Des Moines.

“Who gets the comfy seat was an issue we had to work out,” he said.

Being a part of the program also takes a pretty rigid schedule, Boccella said.

“You can’t get in early, and you can’t work late,” he said. “Thirteen other people want to get home or get to work, so you really have to have a set schedule. Not to mention a very understanding boss.”

Litchfield said most problems are left up to the vanpools to sort out for themselves, but DART steps in if needed.

In 2005, there were 60 vans going to and from Des Moines every day, Litchfield said. Last year, that number grew to 73. Today, it stands at 80, with more vans scheduled to be delivered next month.

“It is a huge program for a community our size and it just keeps growing,” he said. “It’s something we’re all really proud of.”

At 4:40 p.m., Boccella’s van is once again on the interstate, barreling towards Ames with his passengers strapped in their seats.

“In my opinion, RideShare is far superior to commuting in alone or carpooling,” he said. “I’m so glad I got involved.”