In Victoria Hugo-Vidal’s Jan. 6 column, she outlined a variety of ways to make Maine a greener state.

One of her ideas was a way to encourage carpooling in Maine to help Mr. Smith and Mr. Jones get to work and to pick up other carpoolers, Mr. LaPointe and Mr. Allen along the way. I am happy to say a program specifically designed to do this already exists!

GO MAINE is a commuter program funded by the MaineDOT and the Maine Turnpike Authority. We match up carpoolers throughout Maine. It is like Match.com for carpoolers and is completely free.

Potential carpoolers just need to sign up online with GO MAINE, input information about their commute and see if anyone else is going their way. For those who register with GO MAINE and who record their trips (simple to do online or in the GO MAINE App) we offer the Emergency Ride Home benefit, which in most cases is an Enterprise rental car to get you home in case of a work day emergency, such as illness. There are guidelines that must be followed and of course, the commuter must have a valid driver’s license.

In addition, GO MAINE rewards people who take green commutes. GO MAINE offers discounts to local, online and national businesses for making your green commute, not to mention monthly raffles and the fun business-to-business challenge in October, Way 2 GO MAINE.

All you need to do is go to gomaine.org to make your commute green and maybe save some miles on that old Subaru.

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