For many, the car is the ultimate vehicle of freedom. Depending on someone else to get us where we need to go is a giant pain. It involves making well-timed arrangements with people, working around schedules with kids and, most important, takes away from the personal space we find in our own little metallic bubble.
However, it is this notion of mechanized isolation that drove the Central New Hampshire Regional Planning Commission to initiate the Program for Alternative Transportation and Health, otherwise known as PATH.
PATH provides people who live or work in Concord and the surrounding area with the information and resources they need to find alternative ways of getting to and from work. This includes carpooling and using public transit, as well as encouraging people to choose biking or walking to work.
The organization works directly with the Department of Transportation's Ride Share program to give members access to a database of roughly 1,600 people who are looking to carpool or who can provide a ride for other members. With this collaboration, PATH is hoping to instill a heightened sense of community by linking people together under the common goals of reducing traffic, carbon dioxide emissions and the amount people spend on gas.
The program is offered at no cost, and members enjoy the benefits as little or as much as they choose. There are no obligations or fine print.
PATH also provides members with incentives to practice alternative modes of transportation. I sat down with Nicholas Coate, public outreach coordinator of CNHRPC, and he covered some of these benefits.
“Every month, we ask our members to send us an e-mail letting us know if they carpooled, rode a bike or took the bus to work 10 times or more in a month,” said Coate. “Their names are placed in a drawing for various gift cards to local businesses that we work with directly, such as S&W Sports and Goodales bike shop.”
The program is just ending its first year and thus far has been funded by Concord 20/20, a citizen involvement group with goals of supporting local community-based projects such as PATH. With this partnership, PATH hopes to encourage people to take advantage of the public transportation system, build new working relationships and build a foundation for a better quality of life.
The program's main benefit and what separates it from the Ride Share program is its “guaranteed ride home” system. This system, offered through a partnership with Enterprise, gives members a discounted rate on rental cars in case they are without a ride home – that's peace of mind if an emergency should arise.
With gas prices fluctuating and the average family spending about $9,000 a year to keep their cars running, finding the solutions are just as simple as knowing where to look.
PATH aims to open the door for the residents of central New Hampshire to realize these options aren't as impossible as they may seem. Coate believes that the reward in the end is well worth the cost: “Fewer cars on the road means fewer carbon dioxide emissions, less congested traffic and better air quality. If people are riding their bike or walking to work, they're getting exercise and improving their own health. We can't be all things to all people, but if they know the options are out there then we've done our job.”
For more information on PATH, visit path-nh.org.
