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	Emergency Ride Home Toolkit

Sponsored by: U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and the U.S. Department of Transportation

Benefits of ERH Programs

Hundreds of metropolitan planning organizations, transit agencies, rideshare organizations, universities, and private employers across the country offer emergency rides home as part of their commuter assistance programs. It is easy to understand why. An ERH program is a relatively simple and inexpensive way to increase commuter satisfaction. It can also remove the real and perceived barriers for commuters to make the switch to taking transit, biking, or carpooling instead of driving alone.

As an employee or commuter benefit, the availability of emergency rides home is a welcome perk that boosts commuter satisfaction. As a component of Transportation policy, ERH programs enhance almost all other efforts to increase the effectiveness of commuter options programs for commuters.

Commuter Benefits from Emergency Rides Home

Commuters greatly appreciate knowing that they have an emergency ride home if they need one. When employers offer emergency rides home to their staff, they provide a highly valued service for surprisingly little cost per employee.

In addition, ERH programs generally:

	•	Encourage commuters to participate in other commuting assistance programs.
	•	Provide a sense of ride security, even to employees who never actually need an emergency ride.
	•	Help commuters who are responsible for providing child or elder care to feel at ease with leaving their cars at home.
	•	Boost employee satisfaction, which leads to reduced turnover rates.
	•	Grant managers greater flexibility to assign unexpected overtime.
	•	Give commuters who depend on public transit or ridesharing a sense of comfort when working at more remote work sites.

TDM Rewards of Emergency Rides Home

ERH programs are an important component of overall transportation demand management. ERH programs:

	•	Encourage commuters to leave their cars at home and try other commuting options, such as carpooling, vanpooling, biking, and transit.
	•	Attract new membership in TMAs (since employers are motivated to join so that their staff may have access to an emergency ride home).
	•	Helps to decrease single-occupancy vehicle trips, reduce congestion and air pollution.
	•	Demonstrate the sponsoring organization’s commitment to addressing local TDM issues.

Here are some links to more information and resources on the TDM benefits of offering emergency rides home.

Report by the Comsis Corporation for the California Air Resources Board, A Survey and Analysis of Employee Responses to Employer-Sponsored Trip Reduction Incentive Programs. This report looks at the relative effects of offering an emergency ride home and other incentives that were provided by California employers to reduce vehicles miles traveled by employees. (1994)

Emergency ride home entry in the Victoria Transport Policy Institute’s TDM Encyclopedia. This summary describes the TDM benefits of ERH programs. (2002)

Best Workplaces for Commuters’ Emergency Ride Home Research Report. (MS Word) This report reviews the current state of ERH programs across the country. (2002)

Continue to explore the TDM section

Additional Resources

ERH Site Index


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