The match screen contains three main parts: the map, the matchlist and the improvements sections.

Map

A map of your home neighborhood will appear on the left side of the screen. At the center of the map is a red dot indicating your home location or starting point. Circled letters appearing on the map indicate others who can share your commute with you. If you do not see the red dot, it may be that it is underneath a circled letter. Carpoolers are shown as bright pink circled letters, vanpool drivers are shown as maroon circled letters. The circled letters on the map correspond to the names on the list on the right side of the screen. You may need to scroll down to see the entire map. The map and the list scroll separately.

If you have entered multiple stops for your commute trip, you can view a map of each one. Click on the "MAP" button in the matchlist section to load a new map. The blue title above the map indicates which stop is being depicted.

Depending upon the speed of your internet connection, it may take the map 15 seconds to 1 minute or more to load.

Matchlist

The letters next to each name on the matchlist correspond to the circled letters on the map. The names of potential carpool partners are written in white text, the names of vanpool drivers are written in maroon text. The matchlist is ordered so that the "best" matches are listed first. The ranking tries to take into account such factors as distance from home, distance from work, number of days matched and number of partial days matched (either start time or stop time matches), so the first name on the matchlist may not be the person closest to your home. The beige box entitled "Matching Trips" indicates on which days, and for which trips the listed person's commute matches yours. The letters indicate the days of the week, starting with Sunday.

If you have registered multiple stops on your commute, each stop is listed separately, with a list of matches unique to that stop. It is possible that the same name will appear on your list under more than one of your stops. This simply means that that person also has a trip with multiple stops, some of which match yours.

sacregion511.org will automatically create and send an email to any or all names on your matchlist. To send an email, just check the box to the left of each name on the list. You may need to scroll down to see the entire list. The map and the matchlist scroll separately. Once you have checked the boxes of all the names to whom you wish to send email, click on "EMAIL" at the bottom of the list. A window will pop up with a pre-written email message giving the recipients some basic information about your commute, and letting them know that you are interested in sharing the ride. You may edit this message if you like. If you decide not to send this message, simply close the window. Otherwise, click on "SEND MESSAGE." The message is sent with your email address in the "Reply to:" field, so recipients simply needs to hit the "Reply" button to respond to your message.

Improvements

If you are not satisfied with the matchlist you received, you have three ways in which you can improve it.

1. Increase your search radius

   When the matchlist is first created, sacregion511.org searches an area around your home of about 15% of the total length of your trip. In other words, if your trip to work is 10 miles, sacregion511.org will look for matches within a 1.5 mile radius around your house. You can increase or decrease this search radius, both around your house and around your worksite. The options presented in the pull down menu are the only distances at which you can set the search radius. Once you have selected a new radius, click on "MAKE CHANGES" to create a new map and matchlist.

2. Search from another location

   If you are willing to travel some distance from your home to meet a carpool or vanpool, or if you are willing to pick up others at certain stops along your way to work, you can click on the button labeled "ADD LOCATION" to register up to 10 additional locations. Clicking this button will bring you to a screen which will allow you to enter additional pick-up or drop-off points, identifying them by either an address, an intersection, or selecting a location from a list of Park & Ride lots.

You can make improvements and recreate a matchlist as often as you like.

You can also improve you matchlist by making changes directly to your registration record. To do this, click on "Registration" in the toolbar to go to the Registration screen. On the Registration screen, along with the items mentioned above, you can also change:

1. Start Time Flexibility, Stop Time Flexibility.
   The more flexibility you show, the more likely you are to find matches
2. Ride/Drive Preference.
   If you indicated "Ride Only" or "Drive Only", changing this to "Both" will increase your likelihood of finding matches.