[Editor: This is the text of a February 7, 2017, news release from the Metropolitan Transportation Commission.]
MTC Partnership Promotes Carpooling to UCSF, Kaiser
Waze Carpool Now Open to All in San Francisco Bay Area
Adapted from Waze’s release.
The Metropolitan Transportation Commission (MTC), UC San Francisco and Kaiser Permanente today announce a partnership with Waze Carpool to encourage employees to carpool to work. Commuters can now use Waze Carpool to pick up a carpool partner on their way into San Francisco hospital campuses that are not well-served by BART and trans-bay transit, thereby reducing solo driving and traffic congestion within the Bay Area’s most congested freeway corridors. UCSF and Kaiser Permanente will use Waze Carpool as a tool to reduce traffic and parking crunch around their Mission Bay, Geary and Parnassus campuses.
Waze, the free, real-time crowdsourced traffic and navigation app powered by the world’s largest community of 75 million monthly active drivers, launched Waze Carpool in the Bay Area last year to connect riders and drivers with nearly identical commutes based on their home and work addresses. Waze’s advanced mapping capabilities connect carpool partners from the same local communities, making it easy to carpool all for the shared cost of gas – resulting in less traffic and congestion during rush hour.
As part of the partnership, UCSF and Kaiser Permanente will offer Waze Carpool as an option in their transportation demand management programs aimed at reducing single-occupancy vehicle driving. The MTC, UCSF and Kaiser Permanente partnership opens up carpooling to a significant number of Bay Area commuters.
“The partnership with Waze, UCSF and Kaiser,” noted Steve Heminger, MTC’s Executive Director, “is part of an MTC initiative known as Bay Bridge Forward that delivers near-term operational improvements to move more people rather than more cars across the bridge. Because of UCSF and Kaiser Permanente’s large employee base and proximity to one another, using Waze Carpool expands the options available for commuters who want faster and cheaper alternatives to driving alone. And it’s a tool that can help improve mobility and reduce congestion throughout the region.”
Riders and drivers can join Waze Carpool’s trusted community by downloading the app from Google Play or the App Store. New registrants will receive two free rides upon downloading the free Waze Carpool apps – Waze (for drivers) and Waze Rider (for passengers) on iOS or Android. Additionally, for a limited time, UCSF and Kaiser Permanente employees will receive an additional free ride when they register under their work email addresses.
“After a successful pilot program, we are pleased to expand Waze Carpool through our partnerships with MTC, UCSF and Kaiser Permanente to help minimize parking and traffic issues near their campuses,” said Josh Fried, Waze Carpool’s head of business development. “With more than 900,000 Waze users in the Bay Area, this partnership will help reduce traffic throughout these neighborhoods and across the city and region.”
Waze Carpool, which launched a pilot program in 2016, is now open and available to everyone in the nine Bay Area counties, as well as from Sacramento to Monterey. To find out more about Waze Carpool, visit https://www.waze.com/carpool.
About MTC
MTC [link added] is the regional transportation planning, financing and coordinating agency for the nine-county San Francisco Bay Area. Bay Bridge Forward is a package of near term initiatives to move more people in fewer vehicles, through carpools and transit, on the most congested east-west Bay crossing in the Bay Area.
About Waze
Waze is the social navigation pioneer, leveraging mobile technology and a passionate global community to redefine expectations of today’s maps. Waze is home to the world’s largest network of drivers who work together daily to outsmart traffic and save time and money. The app consistently recommends the fastest routes based on real-time driving and data from millions of users. From traffic reroutes to low gas price alerts and relevant offers from favorite brands, Waze is one of the most comprehensive driving companions in the marketplace.