COLUMBUS (WCMH) – If you’ve ever thought about carpooling or vanpooling to work, there’s a new incentive that might help calm your fears about being stranded at work without a vehicle.

The Mid-Ohio Regional Planning Commission (MORPC) is helping to tear down barriers to alternate modes of transportation with a new, free program called Emergency Ride Home. It allows people who carpool, vanpool, bike or take public transportation to work to get a free taxi to wherever they need to go in an emergency.

“Stress free, worry free,” said Janet Whampler, who’s been vanpooling to work for two years. “Even the stress of not driving, you can sit back and let somebody else drive, that’s so helpful.”

Her commute is 45 minutes each way from Springfield to Columbus. She pays about $130/month for the vanpool, a decent savings compared to the $200/month on gas she used to spend.

But, what if something unexpected happened while she’s at work?

“You never know when you’re going to get stuck at work or what’s going to happen,” she said.

Since she doesn’t have her own vehicle handy, the Emergency Ride Home program allows her to get where she needs to go.

“You just simply go online, print the voucher, call the Yellow Cab Company, tell them what time you want to be picked up and they’re there,” she said. “Boom, no problems.”

MORPC said it’s a way to encourage commuters to try carpooling, vanpooling, biking or public transit to work, without the fear of being stranded at work.

“The biggest thing we hear is, ‘Oh, I couldn’t do that because what if I had a child get sick? I would have to be able to get to my child’ or ‘What if the school called, I wouldn’t be able to get to my child.’ There’s that fear of being stranded,” said MORPC vanpool program developer Patty Olmsted. “With our alternate transportation program, we’re trying to reduce the barriers of people trying a new mode of transportation besides driving alone to improve the air quality and reduce road congestion.”

Whampler said not only does she save on car and gas costs, but this new program takes the stress out of vanpooling while helping to improve air quality.

“There’s a total of 10 of us on the van, think about that. That’s one vehicle for 10 people, that would have been 10 vehicles,” she said.

Olmsted said the program is paid for through a federal air quality grant.

Anyone who commutes to their 15 county region is eligible for the free programs.To sign-up, CLICK HERE.