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Contacts: Diane Greenberg, (631) 344-2347 or Mona S. Rowe, (631) 344-5056

Brookhaven Lab Wins 2007 Commuter Choice Regional Leadership Award

June 27, 2007

UPTON, NY - The U.S. Department of Energy's Brookhaven National Laboratory has won the 2007 Commuter Choice Regional Leadership Award for its numerous programs to encourage ridesharing among 2,600 employees and more than 5,000 visiting scientists each year. The Laboratory was among ten Long Island companies that won awards this year in the regional contest that also includes New York City, Westchester, Rockland and Putnam Counties. The New York Metropolitan Transportation Council sponsors the awards in collaboration with the Metropolitan Mobility Network.

Jeff Williams, Brookhaven's Employee Transportation Coordinator with the Commuter Choice Reagional Leadership Award. (Click image to download hi-res version.)

"Brookhaven Lab actively promotes ridesharing among its employees to reduce air pollution and to save gasoline, a non-renewable resource," said Jeff Williams, the Laboratory's Employee Transportation Coordinator. "Ridesharing saves wear and tear on a vehicle, and, on a personal level, reduces stress and encourages conversation."

About 140 Brookhaven Lab employees are members of NuRide, a national program that matches drivers via computer, and offers points for each shared ride, which can be redeemed for gift certificates. Brookhaven joined NuRide about two years ago. During 2006, Brookhaven employees using NuRide took 9,328 fewer commuter trips, reduced their vehicle emissions by more than 101 tons, and reduced their commuting travel by 233,000 miles.

Brookhaven joined the Long Island Commuter Choice Program about three years ago. As participants in the program, Brookhaven Lab employees who rideshare are eligible to use the guaranteed ride service, a program that offers free rides in emergencies to carpool commuters who do not have access to a car. Long Island Transportation Management, a not-for-profit organization that developed the Long Island Commuter Choice Program to help employers bring voluntary commute alternatives to the workplace, finances this amenity.

The Laboratory offers a variety of shuttle van services for employees and visiting guests, including an on-site courtesy shuttle, which provides door-to-door transportation service during working hours around Brookhaven Lab's 5,300-acre site. On average, the shuttle makes 37 trips transporting 76 passengers per day. Also, a shuttle operates twice daily during workdays, transporting employees and visitors to and from the Ronkonkoma train station, more than 27 miles away. For visitors who live in housing on site, the Laboratory offers a shuttle that travels twice per week to a local shopping center in Shirley.

Related Links

• BNL Commuter Choice Program

Number: 07-75  |  BNL Media & Communications Office

One of ten national laboratories overseen and primarily funded by the Office of Science of the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE), Brookhaven National Laboratory conducts research in the physical, biomedical, and environmental sciences, as well as in energy technologies and national security. Brookhaven Lab also builds and operates major scientific facilities available to university, industry and government researchers. Brookhaven is operated and managed for DOE’s Office of Science by Brookhaven Science Associates, a limited-liability company founded by Stony Brook University, the largest academic user of Laboratory facilities, and Battelle, a nonprofit, applied science and technology organization.

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