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Show Regional Council Continues Study On Local Transportation By MARK D. MICKELSEN BOUNTIFUL -A county-wide county-wide ridesharing program aimed at pinpointing car and van pools, plus transit services for energy conscious Davis residents re-sidents may begin as early as next year, according to Wasatch Front Regional Council representatives. COUNCILM EMBERS asked the Wasatch Front Transportation Coordinating Committee recently to allocate $45,000 in Federal Air-Urban funds toward the planned transportation "brokerage" beginning in 1982. Mick Cran-dall, Cran-dall, WFRC assistant director, said Tuesday if the proposal is accepted county residents will have access to a number of energy-saving transportation alternatives ranging from car and van pools to specific bus routes. WFRC spokesman Richard Welch said the "whole idea" behind the brokerage is to evaluate eva-luate a person's transportation needs and pattern those needs toward a specific service while at the same time saving valuable gas and energy resources. re-sources. HE SAID there are currently no other local agencies agen-cies implementing actual car and van pool management. He also said the proposed brokerage broker-age is not being set up as a means to downplay the Utah Transit Authority. The idea of a brokerage was spawned, said Mr. Crandall, from a similar program initiated initi-ated by the University of Tennessee in Knoxville. For every dollar spent on the program prog-ram in Knoxville, $37 in city funds were spared, Crandall explained, however, along the Wasatch Front, "we're a little skeptical about $37," he said. ALTHOUGH, the WFRC is pushing for acceptance of the proposal, staff members say the council would not be responsible re-sponsible for operating the brokerage. "It would be a separate entity," Crandall said. "The likelihood of the regional re-gional council providing services ser-vices is low." He said a private non-profit organization will be the likely choice to carry out the operational opera-tional duties of the brokerage. IF FUNDING for the Federal Feder-al Air-Urban project is approved, the initial $45,000 will be enough to get the brokerage brok-erage off the ground, according accord-ing to Mr. Crandall. He admitted, admit-ted, however, that additional funding must be secured on a year-to-year basis to continue brokerage services. One possible contributor is the Utah Energy Office, which Crandall says has been allocat-ing allocat-ing money each year for ridesharing programs. Rut with additional federal funding cutbacks affecting every facet of state government, Crandall said the UEO's money resources re-sources are limited. ACCORDING to Crandall, staffers at the UEO were the first to suggest ridesharing services ser-vices for the Wasatch Front, but at the time there weren't a lot of people around to anwer the phones and carry out the plan. With the brokerage, residents resi-dents would be able to call in, state their problem and receive almost instantly a list of ride alternatives, said Mr. Welch. He said the plan calls for the installation of a small "in-house" "in-house" computer system, capable cap-able of storing the regurgitating regurgitat-ing ridesharing information. THE COMPUTER would be capable of keeping track of not only those wanting rides, but those willing to car and van pool. While residents are on the phone requesting service, the computer is kicking out all the necessary information. Participants Parti-cipants are assigned to a specific speci-fic ridesharing grid, based on where they live in a certain community, Mr. Welch explained. ex-plained. IE VAN and car pools are not available in their area, residents resi-dents are provided w it h a schedule sche-dule to matching bus routes. "This is a much more efficient effi-cient service than is being offered now." Welch said. MR. CRANDALL said, as yet, no private, non-profit organizations have offered to manage the brokerage, but said the UEO is supportive of the plan. "They've been cooperative all the way down the line." In California, private organizations orga-nizations willing to sponsor brokerages have been able to draw on private contributors as a source of funding for the operation, Crandall added. Working with donors, he explained, ex-plained, "is easier than working work-ing with government agencies" agen-cies" for the money. EITHER THE remaining two-thirds of the money needed to continue the operation opera-tion will have to come from private pri-vate donors or there will have to be some "fee charges" for the brokerage service, he said. The regional council is currently cur-rently working with the UEO. the Utah Department of Transportation Trans-portation and the Utah Transit Authority, attempting to get input on the brokerage proposal. prop-osal. ALL THREE agencies "are supportive of the idea." Mr. Crandall said. "I think there is unanimous support of the project," pro-ject," Mr. Welch concluded. |