Website helps South Sounders find affordable travel options

The Thurston Regional Planning Council has a new website designed to help people find affordable travel options in this time of soaring gasoline prices and tight household budgets.

Included on the site is a variety of information about travel options, public and private transportation services and other transportation related resources in Thurston County and the Puget Sound area.

ThurstonHeretoThere.org also includes a number of links to trip-planning tools, maps, travel calculators, travel conditions, blogs and community organizations.

The project was funded using a small piece of a $2.16 million grant from the federal government’s Energy Efficiency and Conservation Block Grant program. A portion of the federal grant targeted Bucoda, Tenino, Yelm, Rainier and Tumwater. Planning Council studies show that the average, one-way commute for South County residents is 20.7 miles. Someone making this workday commute in a mid-sized sedan could expect to spend about $10,000 a year on fuel, insurance, maintenance, depreciation and taxes, according to AAA.

About one-third of South County commuters work in Lacey, Olympia and Tumwater, and 23 percent work in Pierce County, according to the Planning Council. About 84 percent of those commuters drive single-occupancy vehicles.

The travel tips and resources on the site are designed for anyone who wants to reduce transportation costs and stretch household budgets, Planning Council senior planner Karen Parkhurst said.

Website visitors can:

• Navigate more than a dozen public-transit service providers from Portland to Bellingham.

• Learn more about bicycle commuting and the bike lanes and more than 50 miles of the region’s paved trails.

• Explore local walking maps and resources for recreation, physical fitness or routes to work.

• Learn more about rail and air travel outside Thurston County, including how to catch the train at the Amtrak Centennial Station in Lacey.

• Get ideas about “tele-working” and flexible work schedules.

• Learn about Intercity Transit’s vanpool program and find a carpool partner online.

jdodge@theolympian.com
360-754-5444