Commuters: Get paid $2 a day to carpool

WASHINGTON - A pilot program that pays people $2 a day to carpool is expanding.

"As long as you work in the Washington, D.C. region and you form a new carpool, you would qualify to participate," says Commuter Connections Director Nicholas Ramfos.

Ramfos says you will get paid up to $130 over three months for carpooling.

When Commuter Connections' Pool Rewards pilot program started last fall, it offered $2 a day to those coming and going on three routes only:

• Interstate 495: Bethesda to Tysons Corner (westbound in the morning, eastbound in the evening)
  
• Interstate 495: Baltimore-Washington Parkway to Interstate 270 (westbound in the morning, eastbound in the evening)
  
• Interstate 395: D.C. to Northern Virginia (southbound in the morning, northbound in the evening)

Ramfos says the pilot program needed at least 700 participants to evaluate whether it is a good strategy to reduce congestion.

The current program is "well below that," so the program is expanding.

Ramfos says Commuter Connections was "anticipating that we would have so many participants on those three corridors and didn't meet that goal."

Anyone interested in Pool Rewards must sign up by March 31.

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