Delaware Valley Regional Planning Commission

Who is Emergency Ride Home (ERH) for?

This service is available to:

  • commuters who apply and are approved by signing up on the Share-A-Ride site (ERH is component of Share-A-Ride but you do not need to involved in matching to qualify);
  • commuters who are already registered with the Share-A-Ride (SAR) ridematch program; or
  • employees registered through an employer that participates in the TripSmart PA program.

Employees who register for ERH must commit to leaving their car at home at least two (2) times a week, and the request for ERH must be made on a day when the commuter is not using their own car. Commuters who qualify will be given detailed instructions of requirements and procedures upon registration.

Note: ERH is not valid on work-from-home days.

To qualify for the ERH Service you must:

  • Work in southeastern Pennsylvania (Bucks, Chester, Delaware, or Montgomery counties or the City of Philadelphia)
  • Agree to share a ride to work at least two (2) days a week
  • Be approved (per the information on your application)
  • Be willing to pay for transportation up front, and send in required materials to be reimbursed
  • Register every three (3) years to stay active in the database

How does ERH work?

  1. Once your application is accepted and filed, you're in the database and will receive an instruction form and a reimbursement form.
  2. If a true emergency* arises, take a taxi or a ridehailing service (e.g., Uber, Lyft), rent a car, or take transit to get you where you need to go.
  3. Make sure you obtain an official receipt from the transportation provider! If a colleague drives you, make sure to record the mileage—we will reimburse them at the current government rate per mile.
  4. Send the receipt with a completed Reimbursement Form to Emergency Ride Home, within 30 days. This can also be downloaded and emailed to njackson@dvrpc.org.
  5. Upon approval, ERH will send reimbursement in the form of a check within 45 days.

*What constitutes an emergency?

For the purposes of ERH, an emergency might include but is not limited to: sudden illness or injury of immediate family member or person for whom you have an appointed guardian; unplanned home problem that is immediately threatening (fire, flood, collapse, etc.); illness or problem that prohibits your regular carpool driver from providing a ride; or unplanned overtime required by supervisor which would prohibit using your regular ride home.

Participants may only use this service two (2) times in a calendar year, and may only be reimbursed up to $50 per use or no more than $100 per year.

Special note to transit riders:

Please note that in some instances, depending on the location of your work site and transit schedules, it may still be faster to get to your car or to the place of emergency via transit instead of using a taxi service or rental car. If schedules are not accommodating, please use the ERH service. ERH DOES NOT COVER TRANSIT DELAYS OR STOPPAGE DUE TO NATURAL DISASTER, SEVERE WEATHER, OR CRASHES.