County program encourages carpooling to school

<p>An online program is being launched to link students and their parents with potential carpool partners.</p><p>Called 511 SchoolPool, it is modeled after the 8-year-old RideMatch service that links Bay Area commuters for ride sharing.</p><p>The project is a joint effort of Safe Routes to Schools and the Metropolitan Transportation Commission's 511.org system.</p><p>Safe Routes to School is sending out a letter this week to all public school districts in Sonoma County through the Office of Education, outlining the program and asking schools to join the network.</p><p>“There are a lot of parents increasingly concerned with climate change and school safety with all of the traffic coming in and out of schools,” said Susan Heinrich, project manager with the 511.org rideshare and bicycling program.</p><p>The SchoolPool system asks parents to sign on with an e-mail, home address and where their child attends school. The student's name and address do not appear publicly, but the program matches families who live along a similar route and who attend the same campus.</p><p>It is up to parents to make contact with other parents, and ultimately whether to create a carpool, said Tina Panza, director of Safe Routes to School for the Sonoma County Bicycle Coalition, which is providing outreach for the 511.org program.</p><p>“By putting themselves into the system, they are not necessarily saying, ‘I'm going to carpool with anyone who calls me,'” she said. “It's still under their control. They have a conversation, meet that person at school the next day, just like you would do in any other situation.”</p><p>Parents also can select options for riding bicycles or walking to school with other students and families.</p><p>“You put your address in when you are signing up but it doesn't appear anywhere,” Panza said. “The system needs to know where you live.”</p><p>Sonoma County districts will not be included in the program unless local officials agree, Panza said. From there, parents have to actively input their information to take part. They will not be included automatically.</p><p>“We just really hope that parents see it as a valuable thing because it won't work if families don't get involved,” Panza said.</p><p>The program has already been approved in pilot form in Sebastopol, where the district has an active Safe Routes to School program. Parents will get information on SchoolPool later this month, said Superintendent Liz Schott.</p><p>“From our standpoint, anything we can do to facilitate fewer cars on the road, this seems like a good start,” she said.</p>