Most Recent Newsletter
Also available as PDF DownloadJune 2008
Welcome to the newsletter of the Contoocook Valley Transportation Cooperative, a grassroots organization established to create a sustainable, affordable, accessible, coordinated, inclusive community transportation system for and with the residents of the Contoocook Valley.
If you can give a ride to your neighbor on an occasional basis, please contact us and we will put you in touch with your town’s coordinator.
The rideshare program will not only encompass traditional carpooling to the workplace but also errand-pooling, school-pooling and event-pooling. If you and your neighbors post your grocery store trips and other errands, you can ride together and save on gas. Similarly, parents can use the rideboard to form carpools for the school run, and friends can use the rideboard to arrange rides to concerts and ballgames. You can check the rideboard to see if anyone is going your way and save 50% or more on gas.
CVTC has begun meeting with regional employers to discuss the rideshare program and develop rideshare kits that will have all the tools needed to promote carpooling to their employees, including posters, activities, reward/incentive programs, and a guaranteed-ride-home program to take the worry out of carpooling.
Best wishes,
Rebecca Harris
CVTC Project Coordinator
1-877-428-2882, rlharris@cvtc-nh.org
New Funding
Support for our project continues to increase. In April, CVTC was awarded an Express Grant from the Monadnock Fund of the New Hampshire Charitable Foundation to help pay for the CVTC website and online rideboard. In June we received word that the New Hampshire Endowment for Health has approved our application for a Theme Implementation Grant. This will provide essential startup funds to help pay for administration of our transportation programs. We were also successful in our application for funds from the New Freedom Program of the Federal Transit Administration. This federal funding will support our volunteer driver program and allow us to provide accessible transportation through the use of two small buses equipped with lifts.New Toll-Free Phone Number
CVTC now has a new toll-free phone number:1-877-428-2882Beginning in the fall, we will have volunteers staffing this number during business hours to help the people of our region get where they need to go. You can call this number now to speak to CVTC staff members.
Community Dinner
On Sunday, the 4th of May, CVTC hosted a celebration to mark the launch of our first transportation offerings. Fifty people from all over the region came to enjoy a delicious dinner catered by Donna Brand of Antrim, and to hear about CVTC and our new transportation offerings: volunteer driver networks, rideshare, and community supper shuttles.Volunteer Driver Networks
Local volunteers, coordinated by our tireless Town Transportation Representatives, are developing volunteer driver networks in each town. The first town network to start giving rides was Antrim. Volunteers there are coordinating with the Red Cross, which offers rides on Tuesdays and Thursdays. So far the Antrim Volunteer Driver Network has given 5 rides and referred others to the Red Cross for their Tuesday and Thursday trips. This fall CVTC will join all of the town networks into one integrated volunteer driver program, funded in part by our New Freedom grant, and accessible through our new toll-free number.If you can give a ride to your neighbor on an occasional basis, please contact us and we will put you in touch with your town’s coordinator.
Rideshare Program
In the fall, CVTC will launch its regional rideshare program, utilizing our new website with online rideboard, currently under development. The rideboard will also be accessible through our staffed toll-free number.The rideshare program will not only encompass traditional carpooling to the workplace but also errand-pooling, school-pooling and event-pooling. If you and your neighbors post your grocery store trips and other errands, you can ride together and save on gas. Similarly, parents can use the rideboard to form carpools for the school run, and friends can use the rideboard to arrange rides to concerts and ballgames. You can check the rideboard to see if anyone is going your way and save 50% or more on gas.
CVTC has begun meeting with regional employers to discuss the rideshare program and develop rideshare kits that will have all the tools needed to promote carpooling to their employees, including posters, activities, reward/incentive programs, and a guaranteed-ride-home program to take the worry out of carpooling.
New Website
CVTC has hired Consensus Technology of Peterborough to develop a professional, secure website which will not only be our presence on the web, but will be an essential administrative tool for coordinating all of the transportation options we are developing. The online rideboard with its searchable and sortable database will reside here, as well as a members-only section where organizational members of CVTC can access services and technical assistance. The website is being implemented in compliance with Section 508 of the Federal Rehabilitation Act, to make it possible for people with disabilities to access the website with the use of text readers and other aids.Community Supper Shuttle
We thank the Town of Antrim and its Recreation Department for providing the Antrim Community Bus for a six-month pilot project. The CVTC Supper Shuttle serves the residents of Antrim, Bennington, Francestown, Greenfield and Hancock, delivering them to the rotating 4-town Community Supper each Thursday. The first shuttle delivered diners to the Francestown Community Supper on May 1st. Ridership is steadily increasing as more people find out how much fun it is to ride the bus to the supper. The bus stops at the town centers as well as the two senior housing complexes: Antrim Village and Greenfield Commons. Local businesses in each town have provided funds to pay for the bus and its fuel. We hope to expand these supper shuttles to other towns later this year. For example, Peterborough has three community suppers each week.RCC Update
Southwest Region Planning Commission received a planning grant from the Federal Transit Administration to support the creation of the Regional Coordinating Council (RCC) for our region and to update the 2006 Coordinated Community Transportation Plan for the Southwest Region to include new activities such as those being undertaken by CVTC. See www.nh.gov/dot/scc/ for more information.TDM Update
As part of our effort to coordinate our transportation programs with neighboring regions, CVTC has joined the Transportation Demand Management Committee for Keene and beyond. TDM is a way of looking at strategies that result in more efficient use of transportation resources, including carpooling, alternative transportation, land use, and workforce housing. This Keene TDM is joining with other groups in the state to work on these issues.Join Us
We need more volunteer drivers, phone coordinators and town transportation representatives. Give us a call, and become part of the solution to the transportation challenges facing this region.Best wishes,
Rebecca Harris
CVTC Project Coordinator
1-877-428-2882, rlharris@cvtc-nh.org
Past Newsletters
You can download previous newsletters by clicking on the links below.March 2008
January 2008
November 2007
October 2007
