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10/03/2006: "New Group Want To Hear From The Community"

Liza Michaelson recently returned to San Juan Island from a trip to South America, and found she enjoyed the experience of hitch hiking, and the knowledge that one less car on the road had to be a good thing. Why not encourage that in San Juan County? "It was easy and delightful," she said, "and got me wondering how to encourage other islanders to give it a try." What if there was a way to share rides in some sort of program that would allow confidence that the car, and the driver, were safe, and that the "hitch-hiker" was also "safe"?

As is often the case with good ideas, other people had similar ideas, and with a little research, Liza found that a excellent model existed in San Geronimo Valley California, where 4000 people live 25 miles north of San Francisco.

Liza and others have now organized a group called SJ Ride Share to test out community reaction to the idea, and have cited the California example as to what could be done in SJ county to encourage ride sharing. If it is possible to have a safe program of ride sharing in Californian for over a decade, San Juan County should be a snap.


SJ Ride Share points out that in California "They not only worked out safe community-supported hitchhiking, they have also moved into other community ride sharing that we could one day consider for both a simple island transportation system and for shared trips to the mainland."

When the California model asked their citizens what requirements they wanted the program to have, they came up with some general requirements that they wanted to be a part of the program. The basic idea was that members of the program would be pre-approved, so that both a rider and a driver knew each had been found to meet some minimum requirements, such as they "should live, work or have kids attending school in the community; Drivers must be at least 21 years old; Drivers must present valid license, registration and insurance in order to be enrolled in the program" and, all adults must pass a background Sheriff and DMV check.

What may come as a surprise was how their local government not only embraced the idea, but became active in helping to make it work, providing background checks by the Sheriff's office, and assistance from their Public Works department in providing road-side stops for the program.

The goal of SJ Ride Share is to "Save both gas and town parking spaces, build community, and ease island traffic . The group found general public support when they presented the idea at the San Juan County Fair, and now asks for formal resident input. To that end, they are asking the public to go to their website, at sjrideshare.org/, and take an on-line survey, and to also add comments.