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Carpool Sites and Etiquette
We often carpool to events. It saves gas, is better for the environment, and gives us a chance to catch up with old friends and meet new ones. Primary carpool spots:- Santa Rosa: Coddingtown mall library
- Rohnert Park: Hwy 101 Park and Ride at Rohnert Park Expressway
Infrequent carpool spots: (only used when needed for that event or organizer)
- River Road: Meet at the PG&E substation west of HW101 and River Road.
- East Santa Rosa: St Francis Shopping Center, Safeway at HW12 and Calistoga. (RESTRICTED)
- Sebastopol: Coffee Catz, 6761 Sebastopol Avenue (HWY12), part of Gravenstein Station.
- Sebastopol - Nick's house: 7237 Maple Avenue, Sebastopol.
- Cotati: Hwy 116 and Redwood Dr, West side of Hwy 101, next to 76 / Burger King
- Petaluma: Hwy 101 Park and Ride at South Petaluma Blvd
Please note that not all activities carpool, they often only carpool from 1 location, and sometimes carpool from a new one. Your invite will have the relevant details.
Etiquette
Before joining us on an event or joining a carpool, we'd like to share some expectations. We consider these issues of courtesy and respect for the rest of your friends here.If you are joining us, ALWAYS RSVP by selecting the "Join Event" button on the event page! If we don't know that you're coming, then we won't look for you. At carpool locations and at the trailhead, once all people have arrived, we leave! This sometimes means we leave early, otherwise we leave on time. If no one RSVP's as a YES for a carpool spot, we might not check it to see if anyone is there. (this is also true if the only responses are maybes - always update any maybe status at least an hour before we start) If you are running really late, we will leave without you, as it's not fair to make everyone else wait. However, we'll keep an eye out for you during the event so you can catch up to us.
If you are a MAYBE, RSVP as a maybe, and then update your status before joining us and at least 1 hour before the event starts. Otherwise the event organizer may consider you a NO.
If you wish to join a carpool, come prepared to drive! Everyone else may also show up not wanting to drive also. Please be generous in compensating the drivers. EACH RIDER should contribute. Please insist your driver accept the money. It's to cover more than gas money...it's the wear and tear on the vehicle. If there are bridge and parking fees, please contribute more to help cover them. With a full carpool the driver should NOT have to incur any of the costs.
| Amount | 1-way driving time |
|---|---|
| $0 | < 15 minutes |
| $5 | <= 1 hour |
| $8 | > 1 hour |
For example: if you are carpooling to Mt. Tam in Marin and it takes 70 minutes to get there, then each person in the car would contribute $8 a single time for a ride both ways.
We take guidance from federal tax/work guidelines which pay more than 40 cents/mile when workers drive their own cars for business use. For a 1 hour drive of ~60 miles, this works out to $24, or about $5 per person for 5 people. The US government is notoriously cheap and assumes a super low cost car. Our guidelines are about half this, as we assume 3 extra people in the car and driving there and back. For the Mt Tam example above, federal guidelines would pay $56 while 3 carpoolers would contribute $24 or less than half the federal guidelines.
If you disagree or have other ideas on how this should be run, please drive yourself to the starting location instead. No one is forcing you to follow this policy.
Quite often a bunch of people show up at a carpool spot, where everyone wants a lazy day and doesn't want to drive. Totally understandable, but of course impracticle. If there are not enough vollunteers, we'll ask everyone how much space they have in their vehicle and start picking carpool drivers. We often do this quickly so we arrive at the other carpool spots and our starting trailhead on time.
The joke about common sense is that it is anything but common. With any large group - and our group is > 1000 people - you will find a huge range of opinions on everything. We've found about 5% of our members tend to have very different opinions than the rest of the group. You're entitled to your own opinion, if you disagree with our policy, drive yourself. We've seen some people show up consistantly with no car and no money to help, or retirees on a strict budget who want to park a mile away from the starting spot to save entrance fees. Sorry things are tough - drive yourself. Thanks!
Santa Rosa - Coddingtown Library
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In Santa Rosa, we meet at the Coddingtown Library.
(It's official name is the northwest regional library) To get there, take highway 101 to Northern Santa
Rosa, and get off on the Steele Lane / Guerneville Road exit. Go West
on Guerneville road, do not turn on Cleveland road, and take a left at the main
stop light into the middle of the mall. Take another immediate left and
park next to the library. If you are unfamiliar with Coddingtown, you
may wish to print a map first or
give yourself an extra 5-10 minutes to find it. Wow, times have changed since we started ~1994. We used to meet at Sonoma Valley Bagel, then it changed to Wolf Coffee, then Black Wolf Coffee, and then in 2012 Coddingtown demolished that part of the mall, so for now we meet at the library. :) |
East Santa Rosa - Safeway
| sorry no picture - please take one and send it to us! |
WARNING: this shopping center now has signs that long term parkers may be ticketed
or towed. Please pick another location! St Francis Shopping Center at Calistoga road and HWY12: 100 Calistoga Rd, Santa Rosa. See map, zoom out to orient yourself. Park and meet on the outer part of parking lot near the intersection. |
River Road Carpool - PG&E substation park and ride
| sorry, no picture - please take one and send it to us. | River Rd Park and Ride is at the PG&E substation just west of Hwy 101 at the River Road exit. See map. |
Rohnert Park Carpool Site
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In Rohnert Park, we meet at the Park and Ride at HWY 101 and Rohnert Park Expressway. To get there, take 101 South, take Rohnert Park Expressway exit, then go straight through the light to get back on the freeway, and veer slightly to the left into the park and ride. NOTE: In Fall 2005, another Park and Ride was created for the northbound direction. Make sure you know which Park and Ride to meet at before you go. If it isn't clear, ask the person organizing the event. |
Cotati Carpool - Park & Ride
| sorry, no picture - please take one and send it to us. | Cotati Park & Ride, Hwy 116 and Redwood Dr (not Old Redwood Hwy), West side of Hwy 101, next to 76 / Burger King. See map. |
Sebastopol - Coffee Catz
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Coffee Catz is at 6761 Sebastopol Avenue Sebastopol, CA 95472 (707) 829-6600. It is part of the Gravenstein station shops on HWY just east of downtown towards Santa Rosa . [map]. |
Sebastopol - Nick's House
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Nick's house is at 7237 Maple Avenue, Sebastopol. [map]. |
Petaluma Carpool Site
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We rarely carpool from Petaluma as we only have a few hikes south of
Petaluma where a lot of people from that area join us. If you'd like a
Petaluma carpool, please request it of the event organizer. |
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