Ithaca Blog

Thursday, April 24, 2008

New Transportation Initiative in Tompkins County

With gas prices near $4 a gallon, people are desperate to save some of the thousands of dollars a year they are pumping into their cars and burning into the sky.

Ridewise is a new project looking for answers to transportation issues, such as the expense and waste of individual car use, and the limits of our current public system, particularly its limited operating schedule.

Ridewise is a federally-funded initiative being developed by Cornell Cooperative Extension of Tompkins County. Its first phase will be a series of surveys and workshops for people looking for transportation alternatives. The information will go directly to TCAT and other transportation providers, including potential new providers such as car sharing services, and subsidized car pooling efforts.

Resignation to highway robbery, it seems, is no longer necessary. Ithaca Blog will continue to monitor and report on Ridewise's efforts.

Stephen Burke
for Ithaca Blog

1 comment:

Dwight Mengel said...

RIDEWISE is one of a number of new community transportation initiatives that are rolling out in 2008. You have Ithaca Carshare (now enrolling members), TCAT's Van Pool (now collecting a list of prospective riders) and RIDEWISE that were already announced.

There will be more new services. The strategy is to create a wide spectrum of transportation choices for consumers and to promote current and future services through RIDEWISE.

Dwight Mengel, Chief Transportation Planner, Tompkins County DSS