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With gas close to $5 a gallon and vehicles causing 50 percent of carbon emissions in our cities, it’s time to get serious about getting people out of their cars.
At the San Mateo County Council of Cities meeting for council members, two experts on transportation recently offered Top 10 lists for how to encourage people to use alternatives to cars. Here’s what they had to say.
Christine Maley-Grubl, executive director of the Peninsula Traffic Congestion Relief Alliance
No. 10 – Encourage employers to offer telecommuting as an option for employees to leave their cars at home. The Alliance can provide information on establishing a telecommute program.
No. 9 – Encourage employers to urge employees to vanpool if they are commuting long distances. Vanpool providers such as VPSI or Enterprise can provide the vans. The Alliance can help coordinate vanpools and also offers cash incentives to vanpool drivers and to riders.
No. 8 – Encourage healthy commute alternatives such as biking and walking. Most public transit has bicycle racks or bike cars. The Alliance offers incentives to purchase bicycle racks and lockers at work sites, schools and other public buildings. Encourage a “walking school bus” of parents and children who walk to school once a week.
No. 7 – Encourage employers to subsidize an emergency ride home to employees who normally take public transit, carpool or vanpool but have an unexpected emergency during the day or need to work late. The Alliance administers the program and pays 75 percent of the cost of a taxi or rental car. This is an inexpensive program to administer than averages 45 cents per month per commuter and 15 minutes of time per week per 100 commuters.
No. 6 – Encourage employers to save payroll tax dollars while enhancing the employee benefit package by providing the Commuter Tax Benefit. Federal law allows employers to provide $115 per month to employees through a pre-tax or fully paid employer benefit to help offset the cost of taking public transit or vanpool rides. Companies such as Commuter Check or Wage Works can be used to set up this program. The Alliance can help coordinate this effort.
No. 5 – Promote carpooling or school pooling to employers and residents as a flexible commute alternative to driving as a solo driver. Utilize Alliance carpool and school pool incentives once you commit to ridesharing at least two days per week for eight weeks, and you will receive a $60 gas card per participant.
No. 4 – Encourage use of the 511.org Web site to find a carpool or vanpool partner or to plan your transit trip using the trip planner feature. The 511 RideMatch tool allows you to find a carpool or vanpool partner who lives near you and has a similar work schedule. The Trip Planner shows you how to get to your destination using public transit. (NOTE: Also see the beta version of the new Trip Planner at http://tripplanner.transit.511.org.)
No. 3 – Encourage people to use the “Try Transit for Free” program on Caltrain, SamTrans, BART and shuttles. The Alliance offers this program in cooperation with public transit agency partners that provide free transit tickets to try transit. The Alliance has brochures available and offers information about the program online at www.commute.org.
No. 2 – Model the behavior you want others to have by being an advocate for alternatives to driving. Programs you can promote include a try transit once a week or month program in your city, including a carbon calculator on your city’s Web site, providing bike maps and bicycle safety instruction (free through the Alliance), including public transit directions for all city meetings, and recognizing local employers and citizens who utilize transit alternatives.
No. 1 – Direct employers and local residents to the Peninsula Traffic Congestion Relief Alliance for free assistance. For employers, the Alliance coordinates commute programs to get employees out of their cars through participation in employee meetings and fairs. For residents, it offers the latest information on incentives for trying commute alternatives and planning their commutes. Details can be found at www.commute.org or by contacting the Alliance office at (650) 588-8170.
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Mark Simon, Special Assistant to the CEO at the San Mateo County Transit District, offered this Top 10 list:
No. 10 – Transit is convenient and safe. It means someone else is fighting the traffic and worrying about getting you there on time, and you are free to read, listen to music, work, sleep or visit with a fellow passenger. Transit is 30 times safer than driving a car.
No. 9 – Transit is cheap. The basic local fare on SamTrans is $1.50. The average fare on Caltrain is $4.
No. 8 – Gas is expensive.
No. 7 – Transit is good business. Every $10 million spent building public transportation infrastructure results in $30 million in increased business sales.
No. 6 – Lots of other people are already using transit. SamTrans buses are the cleanest in the country and are renowned for the number of miles they go between breakdowns. Caltrain has won national, state and regional recognition for innovation. It has had a 50 percent increase in ridership and a 100 percent increase in revenues.
No. 5 – Auto-related delays in San Mateo County are increasing; they were up 1 percent (7,700 hours) between 2005 and 2006.
No. 4 – More improvements are on the way:
Ø SamTrans will have 50 new solar-powered bus shelters, a Predictive Arrival system, a new fare-box system, traffic signal prioritization that will improve performance and a Senior Mobility Plan.
Ø Caltrain is scheduled to be electrified by 2014, which will greatly improve service and reduce pollution; future plans call for a rapid rail system that will rival the best systems in Europe; it will be upgrading stations during the coming year.
No. 3 – Some cities are way ahead of your city in providing commute alternatives.
No. 2 – Cars are the enemy. They contribute 55 percent of a household’s carbon footprint
No. 1 – Using transit is easier than you think. It’s better than you think. You already know it’s the right thing to do.
