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Picture This!
What's
new this week in transportation
Traveling on the Net
 Look
for this online banner to instantly find carpool and vanpool partners
who have a similar commute with yours. It's the first regional
public service of its kind in the nation.
King County Executive Ron Sims today launched the first
self-serve, regional public Internet ridematching service in the nation. RideshareOnline.com
instantly matches commuters with carpool or vanpool partners with a
similar daily commute in nine Puget Sound area counties, including King,
Pierce, Snohomish, Kitsap, Thurston, Island, Mason, Skagit and Whatcom
counties.
"This new service puts the power into the hands of commuters,"
said Sims. "Instead of sending in
applications and information and waiting for a reply, you can go online
anytime day or night to find names in our database of 9,000 registered
commuters, e-mail them directly yourself, and within minutes you could be
hearing back from a potential rideshare partner."
Online registration is simple. After typing in their
e-mail address and choosing a password, users enter their work location and
the starting point of their commute--either a home address or a nearby
intersection. To preserve privacy, home addresses are not displayed
publicly. They enter their weekly work schedule and any daily variations.
By return e-mail they receive a confirmation code to complete their
registration. They can instantly see a list of rideshare matches to whom
they may e-mail a rideshare request.
King County Transportation's Ridematch program is
one of several Web-based programs aimed at helping commuters avoid
congestion, programs that include King County Alerts! for road and bus
updates on major transit disruptions and road closures, Metro
Online for transit and other commuting alternatives, and BusView and
MyBus for real-time bus locations. And there's more coming. Later this spring the county will unveil a network of traffic cameras on selected
key county arterials that will provide real-time views of traffic
conditions. Together, these powerful information tools are giving
commuters more travel choices than ever before.
Related links
"Ride-share
commuters have a new Net weapon," The Herald of Everett, Tuesday,
March 20, 2001
"Web site helps car-pool singles get connected,"
by Caitlin Cleary, Seattle Times, Monday, March 19, 2001
Metro
Online news release on RideshareOnlne.com
King
County Metro Online Trip Planning sample pages
Ridequest.com,
Ridematch services for Redmond
BusView,
a demonstration project funded by the federal Model Deployment Initiative
that displays near real-time locations of buses on a map. The user
specifies which map area and route to see. (note: not yet compatible with
Netscape 6.0)
MyBus,
a demonstration project funded by the federal Model Deployment Initiative
that shows bus departure predictions at specific time point locations along
a bus route.
SmartTrek,
regional technology-based traveler information systems, created through
the federal Model Deployment Initiative.
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