County Urges Workers to Keep the Car In the Garage
Ride Sharing Advocated; Take-Home Fleet to Shrink
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Thursday, August 14, 2008
Howard County Executive Ken Ulman has unveiled a proposal aimed at getting county workers out of their cars and into those of others.
It's all perfectly legal, of course.
Ulman (D) wants to encourage more county workers to carpool with colleagues.
"Everyone would like to find a way to save money on the cost of fuel," said Ulman, who drives a Ford Escape hybrid. "In addition to saving money, reducing the wear and tear on vehicles, carpooling is another way to help the environment."
The county is offering its employees a chance to find carpool matches on its Web site. It has also added to the site a program that calculates how much employees could save by carpooling, Ulman said in the news release that accompanied the announcement last week.
Non-county employees can also take advantage of ride-sharing programs by going to the county's Web site, at http:/
"The county executive feels that if we put a little weight behind it, it could help add to the numbers of people doing these things," said county spokesman Kevin Enright.
For the past several weeks, Ulman has been rolling out initiatives aimed at reducing fuel consumption among county employees and encouraging more environmentally friendly commuting. Many of the measures are also aimed at cutting fuel costs.
The county executive said such alterations must not affect the level of service that Howard residents receive.
Ulman also announced a plan last month to revisit the county's alternative work schedule policy.
Howard County Council Chairperson Courtney Watson (D-Northeast County) said council members are testing a six-month, flexible-time program that gives their 25 staff members the option of working a modified schedule -- for example, coming in earlier or later or working 40 hours over four days.
Although such a program has been available to council employees during the summer for several years, Watson said council members are interesting in seeing whether it could be in effect year-round.
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