About

GO GERONIMO aims to provide affordable and convenient transportation alternatives for people of all ages and incomes.

What follows is the history of GO GERONIMO and a description of our community. We’ve provided a great amount of detail to help other communities start similar programs.

  1. Where in the world is the San Geronimo Valley?
  2. GO GERONIMO’s Parents: the San Geronimo Valley Healthy Start Program and the Lagunitas School District
  3. The Steering Wheel Committee’s First Meetings
  4. Strategies to get the Reg up and running
  5. Preparing for the Lift-Off Party
  6. Making the Laminates
  7. Transportation Independence Day
  8. The GO GERONIMO Reg, Up and Running

1) Where in the World is the San Geronimo Valley?

The San Geronimo Valley is located in Marin County, California, 25 miles northwest of San Francisco and the Golden Gate Bridge. The community is home to approximately 4,000 residents living in four villages: Woodacre, San Geronimo, Forest Knolls, and Lagunitas. Our Valley is anchored by two non-profits, the San Geronimo Valley Cultural Center with its host of arts and social service programs, and the Woodacre Improvement Club, a center for Valley recreation. Perhaps even more important is our Lagunitas School, located centrally in San Geronimo, which educates 450 students from kindergarten through grade 8. White’s Hill geographically separates the San Geronimo Valley from the more developed areas of central Marin, with Fairfax being the closest town “over the hill.”

The San Geronimo Valley is a geographically isolated community. Our residents must travel to central Marin for groceries, banking, gas, etc. Our high school students are bused or driven to Sir Francis Drake High School in San Anselmo, approximately seven miles away. The limited bus service provided by Golden Gate Transit does coincide with school hours but makes no provision for after-school activities and sports. The only commuter bus returning to the Valley arrives at about 7 PM.

Prior to GO GERONIMO, if you did not own a car, your choices for traveling in and out of the Valley were limited tohitchhiking,riding a bike (seven miles each way, including one formidable hill) or arranging for a ride in advance.

Cycle back to the top

2) GO GERONIMO’s Parents: the San Geronimo Valley Healthy Start Program and the Lagunitas School District

In 1995, the state-funded Healthy Start program granted the Lagunitas School District a $50,000 planning grant, enabling our community to survey and analyze the school community’s social service needs. This grant also allowed the District to prepare an application for a $400,000 three year Healthy Start Collaborative grant, whose programs would link the school to local non-profit organizations in order to create preventative programs and provide comprehensive social services for our community.

As part of the planning grant survey, members of the community were asked to rank services needed in the San Geronimo Valley. Out of 87 possibilities, including such heavies as childcare, emergency food, health care, and job training, better transportation services was indicated as the number one community need. This belief was substantiated by both the adult survey and a survey of middle school students.

While everyone in the San Geronimo Valley knew that transportation was a big problem (one early morning bus leaves the Valley each weekday and costs $5 for a relatively short round trip, supplemented by a mid-afternoon bus circulating on school days), most people were surprised to see it emerge as the most pressing need within the community.

In response to such consensus, Healthy Start board member Peter Oppenheimer asked the Healthy Start Governing Board to make provisions for transportation within their program. A special committee began investigating and proposing specific solutions in September of 1996. The group included Peter Oppenheimer, Jasper Thelin, and Debbie Hubsmith, who named themselves the Steering Wheel Committee.

Cycle back to the top

3) The Steering Wheel Committee — First Meetings

Throughout the Fall of 1996, the Steering Wheel Committee brainstormed ideas for solving our community’s transportation problems. At this point there was no budget for programs or staff; committee members were all volunteers.

Four ideas were developed, which continue to guide us today:

1) A Ride Registry (“The Reg”): a flexible, registered ride-sharing service with ID cards and road-side stops. Ride arrangements are not made in advance. Registered drivers pick up registered riders waiting at designated stops as they drive in and out of the Valley. Since there is only one roadleading in and out of the Valley, but plenty of people with room in their cars, the committee thought there might be a way to formalize hitchhiking and make a safer community ride-sharing program.

2) A Ridesharing Schedule (“The Skedge”): The Ridesharing Schedule is a bulletin board and database listing rides offered and rides needed. The database is included within this web site. Unlike the Reg, people using the Skedge contact each other directly and make their own travel arrangements.

3) A Valley Shuttle Bus: Middle school students, residents, and other Valley organizations continue to express interest in obtaining a bus to travel between the Valley and Fairfax, the nearest town with regular public transit.

4) Bikes: Early on the committee made a commitment to upgrade local bicycling conditions. Over the past three years we have established several group ride events, worked with kids in the schools, set up classes in repairing bikes, worked on trail maintenance and reclamation, establishing new trails, better facilities, and advocating for better biking conditions throughout the County.

Cycle back to the top

4) Strategies to get the Reg up and running

Back in 1996 the Transportation Team decided to use the following strategies to see if the community would support our four pronged approach:

A) Community Survey: The Transportation Team published a questionnaire in the January 1997 issue of Stone Soup, a community newsletter published by the Cultural Center which is distributed to every Post Office boxholder living in the San Geronimo Valley. We also sent it home with each schoolchild, and left copies of the questionnaire at the Post Offices with return boxes. This netted responses from 50 people; all were positive and many offered to help.

B) Request for Budget: In the winter of 1997, the Transportation Team applied to San Geronimo Valley’s Healthy Start Program for $5,000 to initiate our programs. The team was awarded the money and was off and running (though some chose to walk or cycle instead).

C) Contest for a Name: In the January 1997 questionnaire and elsewhere, the Steering Wheel Committee publicized that the Transportation Team was searching for a name and logo. GO GERONIMO was chosen, submitted by Valley teen Greg Terziev. Valley native Buck Parle designed our logo with help from professional designers Stephanie Furniss and Larry Brauer.

D) First Project: GO GERONIMO decided to take on “The Reg” as our first project. We began researching similar programs and discovered a pilot ride-sharing program with ID cards which had been administered by Golden Gate Transit during 1979 and 1980. The program enabled commuters from two Marin County communities to get car rides to and from San Francisco by waiting at bus stops holding ID cards which specified destinations. This pioneer program convinced us that the GO GERONIMO Reg could work.

E) Legality and Liability: GO GERONIMO contacted several insurance companies and discovered that whenever a driver offers a ride to someone else, he or she is liable for any problems which arise. Offering rides through GO GERONIMO gives the driver the same liability as giving a ride to a friend or neighbor. We worked with a lawyer to develop a waiver form required by all registering drivers and riders.

F) Community Input: In order to figure out what would make people feel safe using The Reg, GO GERONIMO held an open “Focus Group” meeting and specifically invited parents, teachers, and students. People stated that they wanted the following requirements for joining the program:

1) Everyone should live, work or have kids attending school in the Valley.

2) Drivers must be at least 21 years old.

3) Drivers must present valid license, registration and insurance.

4) Riders must have parental consent and have graduated from 6th grade.

5) All adults must pass a background Sheriff and DMV check.

G) County Cooperation: After hearing what the community wanted, the Steering Wheel Committee met with County Supervisor Steve Kinsey to see if he could help. Through Supervisor Kinsey’s help, GO GERONIMO was granted free background checks by the Sheriff’s Department, permission to use Golden Gate Transit bus stops as GO GERONIMO stops (with our sign clipped to the top of the GGT stop), and an arrangement with the County Department of Public Works to establish new road-side GO GERONIMO stops where bus stops did not exist. The DPW inspected and approved all GO GERONIMO stops to ensure safety.

H) Registration Day: GO GERONIMO decided that we needed to build energy toward a “Lift-Off” Day when people would first be able to sign-up as riders or drivers with the Reg. We decided that the best way to do this was to hold a big, free party. We picked Saturday, May 17th as the date.

Cycle back to the top

5) Preparing for the Lift-Off Party

Since GO GERONIMO now had a budget, we invited the entire community via a Valley-wide mailing to register on May 17, 1997. Included was a letter to community members, a poster about the event, a registration form, a legal waiver, and a parental consent form.

In order to encourage everyone to register on this first day, we dubbed the event the “GO GERONIMO Lift-Off” and planned a party to be held in the Cultural Center parking lot, right on Sir Francis Drake Boulevard.

Prior to the party we:

* mailed invitations to all P.O. Boxes and sent a letter home with every student at the Lagunitas School.

* painted a billboard sign announcing the event.

* took a promotional photo of about 30 kids with the billboard sign.

* submitted the photo and a press release to all the papers.We got front page coverage on the Marin Independent Journal, the main daily paper for the County.

* arranged for several bands to play throughout the day.

* received sponsorship from a local supermarket, which provided free soda, chips, etc.

* gave away other promotional items for registrants such as a free car wash and henna body art.

* arranged for speakers to talk about transportation and GO GERONIMO in the middle of the event, which ran from 10 AM – 4 PM.

* got lots of volunteers to help in shifts.

* had a Sheriff’s representative present at the event to verify signatures requesting background checks.

* arranged for a cameraperson to shoot video footage of the day. This is now part of the GO GERONIMO video which premiered on March 17, 1999.

The “Lift-Off” was a huge success! Over 200 people from the community registered on May 17, 1997. We were busy all day long.

Cycle back to the top

6) Making the Laminates

After everyone had registered, we had a lot of paperwork to deal with. No adults would be officially registered until we had received back a Sheriff’s letter stating that the person had passed the background check. This process was tricky because, due to privacy concerns, the Sheriff’s Department mailed these good conduct letters to the applicants, not to GO GERONIMO. The registrant had to bring the letter to GO GERONIMO before they could receive a laminate.

Nonetheless, we did receive many letters of good conduct and were able to schedule several laminate-making parties so that we could produce the community’s tickets to ride. We mailed out 150 laminates the last week in June 1997, and announced that the first day people would be able to give and receive rides was July 4. We dubbed it Transportation Independence Day.

Cycle back to the top

7) Transportation Independence Day

For decades, the Woodacre Improvement Club has held a 4th of July parade and flea market. It’s probably the biggest Valley event of the year.

GO GERONIMO registered to march in this parade. This was our opportunity to train members of the community to give and get rides. With two old-style convertibles driven by registered drivers, we cruised the parade strip, while kids waited at mock-up GO GERONIMO stops. Wherever kids were waiting at these GO GERONINO stops, the drivers stopped and picked them up. A hastily assembled group of GO GERONIMO dancers, grooving to African drum beats, directed the audience’s attention to the ride hook-up.

After the parade we had a registration booth and signed up 50 more people for the program. We now conduct registrations several times a year at existing community events. GO GERONIMO also registers people by appointment at the San Geronimo Valley Cultural Center.

Cycle back to the top

8) The GO GERONIMO Reg Up and Running

The Reg program now includes 360 fully registered drivers and riders. About 100 people are riders, the rest are drivers (who are also encouraged to use the program as riders).

Click here to see the Reg page, which includes program details, registration forms, and frequently asked questions. Of course, GO GERONIMO is way more than The Reg. You can link to the Skedge page, Bikes page, or Advocacy page right now!

1) Where in the World is the San Geronimo Valley?

The San Geronimo Valley is located in Marin County, California, 25 miles northwest of San Francisco and the Golden Gate Bridge. The community is home to approximately 4,000 residents living in four villages: Woodacre, San Geronimo, Forest Knolls, and Lagunitas. Our Valley is anchored by two non-profits, the San Geronimo Valley Cultural Center with its host of arts and social service programs, and the Woodacre Improvement Club, a center for Valley recreation. Perhaps even more important is our Lagunitas School, located centrally in San Geronimo, which educates 450 students from kindergarten through grade 8. White’s Hill geographically separates the San Geronimo Valley from the more developed areas of central Marin, with Fairfax being the closest town “over the hill.”

The San Geronimo Valley is a geographically isolated community. Our residents must travel to central Marin for groceries, banking, gas, etc. Our high school students are bused or driven to Sir Francis Drake High School in San Anselmo, approximately seven miles away. The limited bus service provided by Golden Gate Transit does coincide with school hours but makes no provision for after-school activities and sports. The only commuter bus returning to the Valley arrives at about 7 PM.

Prior to GO GERONIMO, if you did not own a car, your choices for traveling in and out of the Valley were limited tohitchhiking,riding a bike (seven miles each way, including one formidable hill) or arranging for a ride in advance.

   Cycle back to the top

2) GO GERONIMO’s Parents: the San Geronimo Valley Healthy Start Program and the Lagunitas School District

In 1995, the state-funded Healthy Start program granted the Lagunitas School District a $50,000 planning grant, enabling our community to survey and analyze the school community’s social service needs. This grant also allowed the District to prepare an application for a $400,000 three year Healthy Start Collaborative grant, whose programs would link the school to local non-profit organizations in order to create preventative programs and provide comprehensive social services for our community.

As part of the planning grant survey, members of the community were asked to rank services needed in the San Geronimo Valley. Out of 87 possibilities, including such heavies as childcare, emergency food, health care, and job training, better transportation services was indicated as the number one community need. This belief was substantiated by both the adult survey and a survey of middle school students.

While everyone in the San Geronimo Valley knew that transportation was a big problem (one early morning bus leaves the Valley each weekday and costs $5 for a relatively short round trip, supplemented by a mid-afternoon bus circulating on school days), most people were surprised to see it emerge as the most pressing need within the community.

In response to such consensus, Healthy Start board member Peter Oppenheimer asked the Healthy Start Governing Board to make provisions for transportation within their program. A special committee began investigating and proposing specific solutions in September of 1996. The group included Peter Oppenheimer, Jasper Thelin, and Debbie Hubsmith, who named themselves the Steering Wheel Committee.

   Cycle back to the top

3) The Steering Wheel Committee — First Meetings

Throughout the Fall of 1996, the Steering Wheel Committee brainstormed ideas for solving our community’s transportation problems. At this point there was no budget for programs or staff; committee members were all volunteers.

Four ideas were developed, which continue to guide us today:

1) A Ride Registry (“The Reg”): a flexible, registered ride-sharing service with ID cards and road-side stops. Ride arrangements are not made in advance. Registered drivers pick up registered riders waiting at designated stops as they drive in and out of the Valley. Since there is only one roadleading in and out of the Valley, but plenty of people with room in their cars, the committee thought there might be a way to formalize hitchhiking and make a safer community ride-sharing program.

2) A Ridesharing Schedule (“The Skedge”): The Ridesharing Schedule is a bulletin board and database listing rides offered and rides needed. The database is included within this web site. Unlike the Reg, people using the Skedge contact each other directly and make their own travel arrangements.

3) A Valley Shuttle Bus: Middle school students, residents, and other Valley organizations continue to express interest in obtaining a bus to travel between the Valley and Fairfax, the nearest town with regular public transit.

4) Bikes: Early on the committee made a commitment to upgrade local bicycling conditions. Over the past three years we have established several group ride events, worked with kids in the schools, set up classes in repairing bikes, worked on trail maintenance and reclamation, establishing new trails, better facilities, and advocating for better biking conditions throughout the County.

   Cycle back to the top

4) Strategies to get the Reg up and running

Back in 1996 the Transportation Team decided to use the following strategies to see if the community would support our four pronged approach:

A) Community Survey: The Transportation Team published a questionnaire in the January 1997 issue of Stone Soup, a community newsletter published by the Cultural Center which is distributed to every Post Office boxholder living in the San Geronimo Valley. We also sent it home with each schoolchild, and left copies of the questionnaire at the Post Offices with return boxes. This netted responses from 50 people; all were positive and many offered to help.

B) Request for Budget: In the winter of 1997, the Transportation Team applied to San Geronimo Valley’s Healthy Start Program for $5,000 to initiate our programs. The team was awarded the money and was off and running (though some chose to walk or cycle instead).

C) Contest for a Name: In the January 1997 questionnaire and elsewhere, the Steering Wheel Committee publicized that the Transportation Team was searching for a name and logo. GO GERONIMO was chosen, submitted by Valley teen Greg Terziev. Valley native Buck Parle designed our logo with help from professional designers Stephanie Furniss and Larry Brauer.

D) First Project: GO GERONIMO decided to take on “The Reg” as our first project. We began researching similar programs and discovered a pilot ride-sharing program with ID cards which had been administered by Golden Gate Transit during 1979 and 1980. The program enabled commuters from two Marin County communities to get car rides to and from San Francisco by waiting at bus stops holding ID cards which specified destinations. This pioneer program convinced us that the GO GERONIMO Reg could work.

E) Legality and Liability: GO GERONIMO contacted several insurance companies and discovered that whenever a driver offers a ride to someone else, he or she is liable for any problems which arise. Offering rides through GO GERONIMO gives the driver the same liability as giving a ride to a friend or neighbor. We worked with a lawyer to develop a waiver form required by all registering drivers and riders.

F) Community Input: In order to figure out what would make people feel safe using The Reg, GO GERONIMO held an open “Focus Group” meeting and specifically invited parents, teachers, and students. People stated that they wanted the following requirements for joining the program:

1) Everyone should live, work or have kids attending school in the Valley.

2) Drivers must be at least 21 years old.

3) Drivers must present valid license, registration and insurance.

4) Riders must have parental consent and have graduated from 6th grade.

5) All adults must pass a background Sheriff and DMV check.

G) County Cooperation: After hearing what the community wanted, the Steering Wheel Committee met with County Supervisor Steve Kinsey to see if he could help. Through Supervisor Kinsey’s help, GO GERONIMO was granted free background checks by the Sheriff’s Department, permission to use Golden Gate Transit bus stops as GO GERONIMO stops (with our sign clipped to the top of the GGT stop), and an arrangement with the County Department of Public Works to establish new road-side GO GERONIMO stops where bus stops did not exist. The DPW inspected and approved all GO GERONIMO stops to ensure safety.

H) Registration Day: GO GERONIMO decided that we needed to build energy toward a “Lift-Off” Day when people would first be able to sign-up as riders or drivers with the Reg. We decided that the best way to do this was to hold a big, free party. We picked Saturday, May 17th as the date.

   Cycle back to the top

5) Preparing for the Lift-Off Party

Since GO GERONIMO now had a budget, we invited the entire community via a Valley-wide mailing to register on May 17, 1997. Included was a letter to community members, a poster about the event, a registration form, a legal waiver, and a parental consent form.

In order to encourage everyone to register on this first day, we dubbed the event the “GO GERONIMO Lift-Off” and planned a party to be held in the Cultural Center parking lot, right on Sir Francis Drake Boulevard.

Prior to the party we:

* mailed invitations to all P.O. Boxes and sent a letter home with every student at the Lagunitas School.

* painted a billboard sign announcing the event.

* took a promotional photo of about 30 kids with the billboard sign.

* submitted the photo and a press release to all the papers.We got front page coverage on the Marin Independent Journal, the main daily paper for the County.

* arranged for several bands to play throughout the day.

* received sponsorship from a local supermarket, which provided free soda, chips, etc.

* gave away other promotional items for registrants such as a free car wash and henna body art.

* arranged for speakers to talk about transportation and GO GERONIMO in the middle of the event, which ran from 10 AM – 4 PM.

* got lots of volunteers to help in shifts.

* had a Sheriff’s representative present at the event to verify signatures requesting background checks.

* arranged for a cameraperson to shoot video footage of the day. This is now part of the GO GERONIMO video which premiered on March 17, 1999.

The “Lift-Off” was a huge success! Over 200 people from the community registered on May 17, 1997. We were busy all day long.

   Cycle back to the top

6) Making the Laminates

After everyone had registered, we had a lot of paperwork to deal with. No adults would be officially registered until we had received back a Sheriff’s letter stating that the person had passed the background check. This process was tricky because, due to privacy concerns, the Sheriff’s Department mailed these good conduct letters to the applicants, not to GO GERONIMO. The registrant had to bring the letter to GO GERONIMO before they could receive a laminate.

Nonetheless, we did receive many letters of good conduct and were able to schedule several laminate-making parties so that we could produce the community’s tickets to ride. We mailed out 150 laminates the last week in June 1997, and announced that the first day people would be able to give and receive rides was July 4. We dubbed it Transportation Independence Day.

   Cycle back to the top

7) Transportation Independence Day

For decades, the Woodacre Improvement Club has held a 4th of July parade and flea market. It’s probably the biggest Valley event of the year.

GO GERONIMO registered to march in this parade. This was our opportunity to train members of the community to give and get rides. With two old-style convertibles driven by registered drivers, we cruised the parade strip, while kids waited at mock-up GO GERONIMO stops. Wherever kids were waiting at these GO GERONINO stops, the drivers stopped and picked them up. A hastily assembled group of GO GERONIMO dancers, grooving to African drum beats, directed the audience’s attention to the ride hook-up.

After the parade we had a registration booth and signed up 50 more people for the program. We now conduct registrations several times a year at existing community events. GO GERONIMO also registers people by appointment at the San Geronimo Valley Cultural Center.

   Cycle back to the top

8) The GO GERONIMO Reg Up and Running

The Reg program now includes 360 fully registered drivers and riders. About 100 people are riders, the rest are drivers (who are also encouraged to use the program as riders).

Click here to see the Reg page, which includes program details, registration forms, and frequently asked questions. Of course, GO GERONIMO is way more than The Reg. You can link to the Skedge page, Bikes page, or Advocacy page right now!

GO GERONIMO aims to provide affordable and convenient transportation alternatives for people of all ages and incomes.

What follows is the history of GO GERONIMO and a description of our community. We’ve provided a great amount of detail to help other communities start similar programs.

1) Where in the world is the San Geronimo Valley?
2) GO GERONIMO’s Parents: the San Geronimo Valley Healthy Start Program and the Lagunitas School District
3) The Steering Wheel Committee’s First Meetings
4) Strategies to get the Reg up and running
5) Preparing for the Lift-Off Party
6) Making the Laminates
7) Transportation Independence Day
8) The GO GERONIMO Reg, Up and Running

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