Van, car pools cut stress and save commuters money

By Noelle Chun
Advertiser Staff Writer

It's the same routine nearly every weekday morning for Sally Haywood and her van-pooling friends.

From left, Virginia Ma'ae, Amor Soquena, Sally Haywood, Tony Burgess and Jorge Asen have been van-pooling from the Kapolei and 'Aiea areas to Marine Corps Base Hawaii on Kane'ohe Bay for nearly five years. Rebecca Breyer • The Honolulu Advertiser

By 5:30 a.m., they've made their way to 'Ewa Beach to pick up Virginia Ma'ae and Jorge Asen. Minutes later, Tony Burgess is picked up from 'Aiea.

Timing, they'll tell you, is everything when it comes to a successful car or van pool.

"Sometimes, leaving two minutes later could conceivably cause us to be in a traffic scenario," says Burgess, a former military man and the principle driver, who claims this van pool — celebrating its fifth year together this summer — has a 98 percent on-time rate that would make any airline or cab company blush.

Car-pooling isn't all the rage on O'ahu yet, but as traffic pressures grow, the timing could be right for more commuters.

"Homes are branching out to West O'ahu, while the jobs remain in town," said Scott Ishikawa, state Department of Transportation spokesman. "You're going to have more and more people coming from Central and Leeward O'ahu into town."

Mix in an estimated 42,000 students returning to college, public and private schools this month, and if you haven't thought of car-pooling before, you may want to now.

Members of Haywood's group take turns sharing driving responsibilities, and their success rate is no small feat.

They rise early to keep one step ahead of the traffic from Kapolei to the Marine Corps Base Hawaii near Kane'ohe, where they all work. At 3 p.m., they pile into the same van and head home together. And they've been doing it for nearly five years now.

The riders are not only one step ahead of the traffic; they're among the few commuters coping with rising gas prices. According to the American Automobile Association, Hawai'i's average gasoline prices are the highest in the nation.

For every reason given not to car-pool, there's another reason hinting that if you can, you should at least try.

For starters, the Nimitz contraflow and zipper lanes are exclusively for cars with passengers. They reflect the state's effort to encourage ridesharing. Ishikawa couldn't tally all car-poolers in the state, but Vanpool Hawaii reports having about 1,600 vehicles in its program.

Lisa Chun, 38, car-pools in with her cousin, Kim Ho'okala, and Ho'okala's friend every morning before dawn to get from her home in Wahiawa to her office downtown. They leave at 6:30 a.m. to make sure they arrive when the zipper lane is open. "If there's an accident," she said, the zipper lane "makes a big difference — at least half an hour."

It works out well for Chun because she has free parking downtown, while Ho'okala has a nicer car — an Acura with leather seats and air-conditioning. They take turns driving and sleeping. The two women are close friends, so they enjoy the time spent together, joking around and talking about what's up in Hale'iwa.

If Chun is in the passenger seat and not catching up on her sleep, Ho'okala said, she turns up the radio now and then to have a pre-work mini-party. Sometimes Ho'okala joins Chun for her morning Breakfast Jack (egg whites only).

The two women split the cost of gas. Chun estimates that she saves $40 to $50 a month on gas, in addition to reducing wear and tear on her car. It works out to saving at least $500 a year.

For Burgess, the benefit is even greater. Burgess' car pool is set up through Vanpool Hawaii, an organization hired by the state government to provide vehicles for car-poolers.

For a little more than $365 a month, Burgess and his passengers get to use the van the whole week, with Vanpool Hawaii taking care of the van's insurance and maintenance.

"The only things they need to pay are seat fee, parking and fuel," said Vicki Harris, executive director of Vanpool Hawaii.

In addition, the person who drives the car at the end of the week gets to keep it for the weekend.

As a federal employee, Burgess gets an added bonus: His job as budget director for the P-3 Wing Command at the Marine base qualifies him for car-pool vouchers. Every six months, he and his car-pool members receive $100 vouchers to cover the van fee and gas.

"Essentially, we're coming to work for free," Burgess said.

Family affair

Burgess, who lives in 'Aiea, and Haywood, who lives in Makakilo, share the driving with the other members of the group. Burgess says their van pool boasts a 98 percent on-time rate. Rebecca Breyer • The Honolulu Advertiser

While family ties boost the state's car-pool participation, other would-be car-poolers say those ties prevent them from joining in on the zipper lane.

Sherilyn Cajimat, 26, was asked to join Burgess' van pool but declined. Traffic is bad near her home in 'Ewa Beach, she said, but Cajimat is more concerned with being available for her 5-year-old daughter in case of emergency.

"It would be hard for me to just leave (work). If I have other errands to do," she said, "I have the other people to think about first. I just can't go my own way."

When the principal driver for Wendy Ford's car pool moved to Maui, Ford decided to leave her Vanpool ride.

She said she felt bogged down with taking care of the van, finding drivers to fill seats, weaving smoothly among other vehicles, and avoiding personality clashes among passengers.

"Vanpool will help, but you still have to fill seats," she said. "It just got to be too much."

After six years of car-pooling from 'Ewa to her job at the Sheraton Waikiki hotel, Ford, 57, alternates between driving herself and taking a commuter bus.

With a half-month commuter-bus pass at $55, Ford says, the cost is about the same as van-pooling.

Even Burgess concedes to some of the disadvantages of car-pooling. "In my van, we've had an incident with body odor," he said. "I don't think that the person would admit it, but when you're locked in the van for the that period of time and you get the same smell every day, the moment that person enters the van ... It's definitely a distraction."

Burgess said the issue has been resolved, but "some people become reticent when it comes to issues like those."

The morning drive

Through a program for federal employees, the quintet (left to right: Asen, Burgess, Soquena, Haywood, and Ma'ae) qualify for vouchers that cover gas and their Vanpool Hawaii fees. Rebecca Breyer • The Honolulu Advertiser

Drivers, for instance, have seen pregnant mothers trying to pass as car-poolers because of their fetal tag-alongs. Other listeners have called in to complain about inflatable-dummy passengers.

Police do stop violators, with fines up to $200, but people still try to cheat the system. Last year, 1,011 drivers were fined for HOV passenger violations, and 224 were fined for zipper-lane violations.

Some would rather just skip car-pooling, arguing that opening up the HOV and zipper lanes to all traffic is more beneficial.

The announcers says it all depends on whether the people of Hawai'i get behind it or not.

For 'Ewa Beach resident David Lato, 25, the advantages outweigh the disadvantages. He planned to start car-pooling with a co-worker before school started. "Initially, it was the gas prices," he said. "Then, especially with the news of the UH housing shortage, there are going to be many more cars on the road."

Lato said coordination of schedules makes car-pooling more difficult, but with his commute taking as long as two hours, he still likes the idea of company and a little extra time to sleep. He'll start by car-pooling a few times a week.

Maybe it will give him more time to contemplate the mystery of traffic. "Sometimes you sit for minutes and don't move," he said. "And then you pass it and you're like, 'Why were we not moving? There's no accident!' "

Reach Noelle Chun at 535-2413 or nchun@honoluluadvertiser.com.