6:12 a.m.: Park and ride lot, Taylor Road off Interstate 80, Roseville

Arnette Bates pulls in from Roseville and Nancy Dorsey arrives from Lincoln on a Thursday morning during the heat wave in late June. The temperature is already in the mid-70s. They park their cars and quietly climb into the white Dodge van that will take them 33 miles to their jobs at UC Davis.

"I don't like to drive in traffic at all," says Dorsey, academic personnel coordinator in Sproul Social Sciences Administration who is in her fourth year in the vanpool. She rides farthest back in the van, and, like all the other riders, has a comfortable captain's chair. "I'm more relaxed when I get to work."

Another benefit is the cost savings. Drive alone and you will pay for all your gas and the entire cost of a parking permit, say $456 a year for C-lot privileges. Join a vanpool and you share the costs: A vanpool parking permit is $312 a year; with seven members in a typical vanpool, the cost works out to about $45 apiece for parking.

Divide the cost of $3-a-gallon gasoline seven ways, and you will pay just under 43 cents a gallon. Government subsidies can cut your costs even more. For example, Placer County pays for all of the gas for this van from Roseville, and half the cost of the van lease, which includes maintenance and insurance.

There are downsides, to be sure, but riders use them to their advantage. For example, you must be on time in the morning and evening, or the van might leave.

"It forces me to keep a pretty strict schedule at work," says Bates, an associate director of Undergraduate Admissions, who starts her workdays in Mrak Hall at 7:30 a.m. "I have to leave at 4:30 — which is a plus."

6:17 a.m. More arrivals

Founding members Ann Davies-Nesbitt and Sarah Roeske carpool in from farther east on I-80. Davies-Nesbitt is from Auburn and Roeske from Newcastle; they had met this morning at the Newcastle park and ride lot. Usually another commuter joins them from Grass Valley.

Davies-Nesbitt checks the van schedule to see who is signed up to ride today, and makes sure everyone is accounted for. Soon a copy of O, the Oprah Magazine, is circulating. Each captain's chair has an overhead light.

"In the morning, sometimes we're pretty quiet, depending on how much coffee we've had," says Davies-Nesbitt, who serves as the vanpool's coordinator, maintaining the schedule and keeping the financial records.

The vanpool — nicknamed I-80-Eight, with the "eight" referring to the van's maximum capacity — has no official connection with the university; the riders arranged their own van lease through Placer County and Vanpool Services Inc. Similarly, Davies-Nesbitt's duties as coordinator have no official connection with her university job, even though she is the alternative transportation coordinator for Transportation and Parking Services, or TAPS.

Her TAPS duties include assisting other employees wishing to be in vanpools or carpools, and helping workers secure bus and train fare discounts. She practices what she preaches, having been in the I-80-Eight vanpool since it began in 1991.

6:28 a.m.: Hitting the highway

The normal departure time is 6:20 a.m., but the vanpoolers are less strict in spring and summer. In winter, "we're more of a stickler because the traffic can be worse," says Joe McConologue, who is driving this day.

He maneuvers onto westbound I-80, already bustling with traffic but with no slowdowns. The I-80-Eight van slides into the carpool lane and zips along at 65 mph, with no one in front as far as the eye can see. The traffic crunch is building, though, with cars backed up at the onramp metering lights.

McConologue lives in Citrus Heights, which means that he must drive his own car about five miles east — away from UC Davis — to meet up with the vanpool each day.

"I'd rather do that than drive myself every day," says McConologue, a press operator for the university's Repro Graphics unit. He has been carpooling or vanpooling to work for 27 years, the last six with the I-80-Eight van.

He said "backtracking" to the van is worth it. As a driver, he pays $59 a month to be in the vanpool. Nondrivers pay $85 a month.

6:48 a.m. Along Interstate 80

The radio is tuned to KXJZ-FM 88.9 (Capital Public Radio) or KFBK-AM 1530, both of which offer traffic reports. If the riders hear of a problem ahead, they can detour north to Elverta Road.

But today is a good traffic day. "The time goes faster in a vanpool," says Roeske, a researcher in the Department of Geology. "You have someone to talk to, or you can read. You're not just sitting at the wheel by yourself."

Bates agrees: "It's not wasted time." She has been riding with the van for eight years.

Other great benefits, she says, are not having to drive alone in bad weather, and saving wear and tear on your own vehicles.

Riders say there is no need to worry about what to do if you suddenly need to get home, say, to tend to an emergency or to pick up a sick child from school. The university, through TAPS, offers emergency rides home.

6:52 a.m.: On the causeway

This three-lane passage across the Yolo Bypass can be a bottleneck on many commute days, but the I-80-Eight van makes it across today with ease, headed for the first drop-off: ReproGraphics on Chiles Road.

McConologue pulls up to the building and exits the van just before 7 o'clock, which is 45 minutes before his starting time. He uses the time to get some exercise, by walking around the large building.

Davies-Nesbitt takes over the driving for the last leg to campus. Her first stop is near the east gate, where Dorsey gets out to begin her walk to Sproul Hall.

7:12 a.m. Mrak Hall

Bates gets out here, and so does Roeske, who then begins her short walk to Physics/Geology.

Davies-Nesbitt explains that the I-80-Eight vanpoolers are a bit spoiled, with the van dropping people off at their work sites or fairly close. Other vanpools may pick a centralized spot for loading and unloading.

Vanpooling is not for everyone, Davies-Nesbitt says. "It is a change, because you're in a van with the same people five days a week."

That does not seem to be a problem in her vanpool, now 15 years old.

"We've been riding together for so long, we've all become pretty good friends," she says. She recalls the cappuccino stops that the van used to make on the way to work, or stops at a produce stand to buy fresh fruit.

7:18 a.m. Last stop

The driver chooses where to park the van on campus, always in a marked vanpool space. Davies-Nesbitt pulls into a slot in the new West Entry Parking Structure next to the new TAPS building.

In her office, she talks more about how the rising cost of gasoline is spurring greater interest in vanpools and other alternative modes of commuting. "A phone that didn't ring (before the price spike) is ringing now, and keeping me really busy."

In recent months, she assisted in the formation of two new vanpools: one in Elk Grove and the other in north Natomas. Recently she sent out e-mails to gauge interest in a second Natomas van, and one from West Sacramento.

For would-be riders, the I-80-Eight contingent says the answer is clear: Vanpooling is the way to go.

VANPOOLING AT A GLANCE

Four vanpools run to and from UC Davis’ main campus; they serve Placer County, North Natomas, Elk Grove and the East Bay. The medical center in Sacramento has five vans, from Grass Valley, Woodland, Rocklin-Roseville, Lincoln and Stockton-Modesto.

The medical center recently signed up enough people for an Elk Grove vanpool, set to begin running Aug. 1, and with a few more could add a second Elk Grove van.

Interest is growing on the main campus, too, where a second North Natomas van is in the works.

For more information:

Main campus

• Ann Davies-Nesbitt -- 530-752-MILE (752-6453) or amdaviesnesbitt@ucdavis.edu

• Transportation and Parking Services (TAPS)—www.taps.ucdavis.edu (click on “Alternative Transportation”)

Medical center

• Dave Entrekin -- 916-734-2239 or dave.entrekin@ucdmc.ucdavis.edu

• Parking and Transportation

Services—www.ucdmc.ucdavis.edu/parking(click on “Commuter Choice”)