Champion Commuter

Norberto Castro

Robert is a Maintenance Facilities Technician for Providence St. Luke’s Rehabilitation Medical Center. With a 38-mile round-trip commute from the Suncrest area, Robert has been carpooling for over 20 years. He began carpooling with his daughter when she was starting college. Since then, he’s also carpooled with his wife, mother-in-law and his younger son/daughter (?) throughout the years.

Since logging his trips on the commute calendar in 2009, Robert has carpooled over 2,000 days, saving nearly 80,000 miles being driven off our roads and has saved over $22,000 in commuting costs.

Robert enjoys the money he saves by carpooling but also knows the positive impact carpooling has on the environment. But admitted, he also enjoys having company in the car during his commute.

Robert doesn’t necessarily feel he has any challenges to overcome by carpooling. Through the years, they’ve all had to be a little flexible. And on occasion, Roberts had to change his work schedule to make carpooling work for him and his family. But his manager was always willing to accommodate and for that, he’s very grateful. He said they’ve always been able to make it work for all of them; they all just need to be a bit flexible.