Employees commuting to Pleasanton from as far away as Napa, Sacramento and Santa Cruz have found vanpools the way to go. Vanpooling is a relaxing, inexpensive and fun way to commute.

Now there is another advantage; vanpools can get Vanpool Commuter Club Discount Booklets and Commuter Club Cards, and save even more money. Using the card and booklet, vanpoolers get discounts on bay cruises, gasoline, stereos, phot reproduction, tires, body work and other useful items.

RIDES for Bay Area Commuters, the regional ridesharing agency (861-POOL), created the discount booklet. According to Joanna Grant, RIDES’ representative in Pleasanton, “The Commuter Club gives vanpoolers an added incentive to vanpool as well as being another service, RIDES offers to show its appreciation for ridesharing participants.”

This service is sure to be welcomed by employees vanpooling to Pleasanton, such as those employees in pools which have been formed at AT&T Communications. Arthur Wehl drives a fourteen-person pool which originates in San Francisco. He enjoys vanpooling because it eliminates the wear and tear on his personal car which would occur if he drove it to work everyday, cuts down the mileage on his car, reduces his personal gasoline expense, overall, says Wehl, “It is definitely a savings.”

Another AT&T employee, Al Hamlin, commutes 80 miles to work from Sonoma in his six-person vanpool. Hamlin admits that commuting is a "necessary evil” but says that he does enjoy some extra time to sleep on the days others in his vanpool drive.

RIDES has already distributed coupon books to 230 vanpool groups in the Bay Area. If your vanpool would like coupon books and club cards, have one member send a request along with $5.00 to RIDES, Attention: Delfina, 601 Van Ness Avenue, Suite 2006, San Francisco, CA 94102. Twenty club membership cards and 20 books will be sent to the person making the request for distribution to the pool members. For further information, call 861-POOL.

To see a reproduction of the original article and edition of Pleasanton Pathways, visit: January 14, 1985 Pathways.