RIDE Solutions redefines your commute by providing a mix of cost-effective, time-efficient, and Eco-friendly travel options. Opt for public transit and enjoy a productive commute that lessens your carbon footprint, lowers insurance costs, and offers tax advantages. Embrace the convenience of ‘bikes on bus’ services or find the perfect carpool match using our secure platform. For the health-conscious, our scenic trails encourage walking or biking and are easily integrated with transit options. Join RIDE Solutions to be part of a community-centric movement, enriching each journey for you and the environment.
How to Ride
Explore Your Commuting Options with Ride Solutions
Benefits of Transit
Valley Metro is an easy and affordable way to get around the Roanoke Valley, with service to the City of Roanoke, City of Salem and Town of Vinton. In this video, learn how to plan your next trip and navigate the service. Plus get a look at other services offered by Valley Metro including MetroFLX, the SmartWay Bus, and the Star Trolley Line
Taking public transit is an excellent way for commuters to save money, reduce wear and tear on their vehicles, improve regional air quality, and include a healthy activity in their day. Plus, it offers the opportunity to read or relax during travel. Specifically, transit:
- Provides an economical alternative to your monthly fuel bill
- Offers time to read, relax, or view emails
- Positively impacts local air quality by reducing a commuter’s carbon footprint
- May reduce auto insurance costs: Some insurers will change the status of your vehicle to “leisure auto” and lower your premium. Contact your auto insurance agent for details.
- Offers possible tax benefits: The Commuter Tax Benefit program allows commuters to pay for a portion of their commuting expenses with pre-tax dollars.
RIDE Solutions can help you find the best transit option, and as a RIDE Solutions member, you are eligible for the Ride Home Rewards program.
Get There By Rail
Amtrak’s destinations throughout the country can be accessed via Roanoke, Lynchburg, Danville, and Clifton Forge. Amtrak has expanded its carry-on bike program for Northeast Regional trains operating in Virginia, allowing passengers to store their bikes inside the passenger coach for a nominal fee. (Learn more here.)
Carpool
Carpooling, the most common form of ridesharing, is an arrangement in which two or more commuters ride together in a privately owned vehicle on an ongoing basis.
If you’re seeking a convenient carpool, we’re here to assist. The ConnectingVA app offers complimentary commuter matching services to anyone living, working, or studying in Virginia.
Vanpooling is usually set up at the workplace. You share a ride with coworkers who live nearby or along your commute route in a vehicle owned by a third-party leasing company.
The vanpool company provides insurance, vehicle maintenance and repairs, and a backup vehicle if the leased vehicle becomes unavailable.
Vanpools registered through the ConnectingVA agreement receive a monthly subsidy that reduces the total cost paid by the commuters.
Contact us to learn more about the ConnectingVA Vanpool Program.
Vanpool
Bike & Walk
Whether you’re driving or biking, it’s important to be able to identify different types of bike lanes in the City of Roanoke. Find out what different road markings mean, and how bike lanes may impact shared use activities such as parking or storing trash cans.
In Virginia, every Corner is a Crosswalk, whether it’s painted or not. Pedestrians: CROSS at the corner. Drivers: STOP at the corner.
Commuting by Bike
If you’re considering switching to biking or walking as a healthier, cleaner alternative to driving for your daily commute, or simply enjoying the region’s greenways, trails, and bike paths for recreational use, the Roanoke and New River Valleys offer ample opportunities for a safe and enjoyable experience.
You can request information on safe bike routes directly from RIDE Solutions.
Biking to work or school is easier than you think, healthy, clean, and economical. We have gathered a compilation of safety and commuter tips and resources to assist all bicyclists – from beginner to advanced – have a safe and fun bicycling experience.
Finding a Route
- Developing the best route to your destination is not always easy and often requires trial and error in finding the best route. Travel time, road conditions, bicycle facilities, traffic flow, and geography are all considered when planning your route.
- Safety is a top concern; ride with caution and obey traffic laws.
Details to Consider:
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- Plan for weather and transporting clothes/supplies
- Have a secondary transportation option for emergencies
Resources:
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- RIDE Solutions can help you find and recommend a bike route.
- Find detailed resources on how to prepare for bike commuting at the League of American Bicyclists’ Commuting Page
- TheRide Home Rewards benefit provides any registered member (with ConnectingVA) a free ride home in an emergency. This bike commuting “insurance policy” is your assurance you will not get stranded at work.
Walking
Walking is the most common mode of transportation. It is also one of the easiest and least expensive forms of exercise. However, in a car-centric world, developing a strategy to stay safe and visible is important. Expanding the pedestrian environment—such as sidewalks, crosswalks, and pedestrian islands—has become a focus and priority for all the localities within the RIDE Solutions region.
Enrique Peñalosa, the former mayor of Bogotá, explains walkability this way:
“As a fish needs to swim, a bird to fly, a deer to run, we need to walk, not in order to survive, but to be happy.”
