MassRIDES clarification

The Tuesday, September 9 edition of the Falmouth Enterprise made an error, but the paper was gracious enough to print a correction I submitted to them in today's Letters column...

I would appreciate the opportunity to clarify my opposition to MassRIDES. Specifically, the September 9 issue of the Falmouth Enterprise suggested that I cited a figure of 20,000 commuters on the Southeast Expressway; this figure was incorrect and used out of context.

In fact, I noted that between 2000 and 2004, there was an increase of 20,000 cars on the Southeast Expressway. According to MassRIDES' own statistics, they have found rides for approximately 5,000 of the 13,000 individuals who use their database. If every one of those 5,000 individuals represents one car on the Southeast Expressway, there was still an increase of 15,000 cars during that timeframe.

Moreover, MassRIDES has found rides for less than 40 percent of its participants. This number is further dwarfed by the fact that according to U.S. Census statistics, there are about 3.1 million commuters in Massachusetts, so those 5,000 individuals represent just one half of one percent.

In contrast, more than 261,000 people use public transportation - about 8-1/2 percent of all commuters.

Even more telling is the fact that there are nearly 280,000 individuals who carpool. This means that 275,000 people managed to carpool without using MassRIDES.

Every government-funded program has a cost, and citizens expect that their tax dollars will be spent in the most efficient way possible; we should be getting the most bang for our buck. Knowing all this, do you think we should be supporting MassRIDES by being a "partner"?