The Point: Travel options for Riverside County residents can be rewarding
No car? No problem. There’s more than one way to get around Riverside County. The region’s bus, passenger rail, and ridesharing programs are available for residents to get to their destinations without the use of a car. The Clean Air Day and Rideshare Week campaigns hope to encourage increased engagement with public transit services and ridesharing programs by inviting residents to reduce their carbon footprint through alternative travel modes.
Measure A, the voter-approved half-cent sales tax for transportation improvements in Riverside County, provides funding to expand travel options throughout the region. Some of these funds used for bus and passenger rail services, motorist assistance, and ridesharing programs that residents use every day to get to and from work or around their community.
Here’s how residents can get involved:
The Coalition for Clean Air’s 7th annual California Clean Air Day raises awareness about air pollution and promotes actions – such as taking public transit, bringing lunch to work, or even shopping locally – to improve air quality and protect public health. Riverside County transit service providers will make it easy to take action by offering free rides on Clean Air Day. Metrolink will be providing free rides on all trains and Riverside Transit Agency will be offering free rides on all local, CommuterLink, and GoMicro buses. To get started, take the Clean Air Day pledge and enjoy a free bus or train ride on October 2.
Rideshare Week (Oct. 7 – 11) encourages commuters – whose main mode of transportation to work features driving a car – to explore new modes of travel with an emphasis on reducing greenhouse gas emissions, such as biking, walking, vanpools, riding the bus or taking the train. IE Commuter, a collaboration between RCTC and the San Bernardino County Transportation Authority, is a popular ridesharing program that assists commuters by providing incentives for ridesharing, personal ride matching services (including carpools and vanpools), Park & Ride lot information, and transit trip planning services. In 2023, IE Commuter supported more than 1,100 regional employers and reduced 10.7 million pounds in vehicle emissions through ridesharing programs and RCTC’s VanClub service.
This October, ditch the car keys and hop on the bus or train, join a carpool, or ride your bike to work and enjoy an improved, stress-free commute.