The eastern Oregon-based nonprofit Commute Options offers Wasco and Sherman county employers an effective employee benefit tool that helps large and small employers address employee commute issues and enhance job satisfaction. In 2021, the Get There Rewards program has expanded to include employers based in Hood River County.
Contact Kim Curley at Commute Options to find out more.
What is the Get There Rewards program?
The Get There Rewards program changes personal travel behavior, improving health, saving money, and reducing parking needs. Joining the Get There Rewards program gets you a wide variety of benefits.
Commute Options can: provide your business with a customized transportation options plan, process and pay for incentives to employees, host Challenges and events and provide presentations, brochures, posters, training materials and a website, all geared towards promoting non drive-alone commuting choices. Commute Options staff can talk to your organization about bicycle commuter and business energy tax benefits, bike parking installation, transit options, carpool coordination, bicycle commuter safety, and The Oregon Friendly Driver training.
Employees at your business track their trips walking, biking, carpooling, vanpooling, riding the bus, and teleworking using the Get There Oregon website to earn a $20 gift certificate of their choice for every 45 points they log.
Gorge Residents living in Washington also have access to the Get There Program at the Get There Southwest WA website.
Vanpooling Solutions
Recruiting and retaining employees can be a challenge, and work satisfaction today plays a big role. That includes the commute, which for many onsite employees has become longer and more costly.
Bring your workforce a smarter way to commute with vanpooling. Vanpools let employees (typically 4-15) who live near each other and have longer commutes (about 20+ miles) share the ride to work and the costs. It’s a win-win that makes employee commutes better, serves as a retention and recruitment tool, and helps achieve other business goals.
There are comprehensive employee vanpooling support services and tools offered from Get There Oregon, local partners, and Commute with Enterprise.
- Match employees into vanpools using Oregon’s free online tool Get There Connect
- Onsite matching support services provided by Commute with Enterprise
- Connect employees with vehicle rental and maintenance, insurance, and roadside assistance from Commute with Enterprise
- Track and report real-time metrics, including vanpool participation, money saved, and reduced CO2 emissions using Get There Connect.
Contacts to learn more about vanpooling programs and options: Kathy Fitzpatrick at MCEDD, and Kim Curley at Commute Options.
Safe Routes to Schools
Hood River Walk and Roll
Walk and Roll to School is Hood River County School District’s Safe Routes to School program. This program is designed to inspire a culture of walking, rolling and biking to school and afterschool activities for students and caregivers at all 8 schools in the Hood River County School District.
The program addresses a diversity of barriers to families including physical abilities, economic, and cultural backgrounds to increase walking, rolling and biking to school. Concerns about safe streets, intersections and routes to school will be addressed with better bikeways and walkways for all ages, abilities, incomes and cultural backgrounds. The program manager is actively involved with building partnerships, educating stakeholders and policymakers and helping to secure funding for infrastructure that makes walking and rolling to school safe and convenient in Hood River, Odell, Parkdale, Cascade Locks and the County. For more information, visit:
The program’s website school district page here.
The program’s social media page at https://www.facebook.com/HoodRiverWalkandRoll/.