Travel Information Bulletin
November - December 2003
Quality of Life…Work-Life…Commuter Choice…
Best Workplaces For Commuters!

Employee Work-Life is a major component of Employee Quality of Life Issues.  How you manage your home-life and your work-life to achieve an optimal balance determines the quality of life you enjoy.  Your home-life gives meaning to all your endeavors.  Your work-life goes a long way in determining your effectiveness, your productivity, and your job satisfaction.  Commuter Choice provides you a plethora of choices that go a long way in making this balance achievable.  And you will find this balance at one of the Best Workplaces for CommutersSM!

For the employer and the employee, Commuter Choice provides a range of options that may affect aspects of employee behavior.  Travel choices consist of
 Mode Choice, i.e.:  transit for employees with convenient access to bus, train or ferry; car-pooling for two or more employees; van- pooling for six or more employees; bicycling and walking;
Time Choice, i.e.:  Flex Time Work Schedule to allow employees to plan their trip around peak commute hours; Alternative Work Schedules, such as compressed work schedule to allow employees to better juggle work and home life;
Location Choice, i.e.: Telework, consisting of telecommuting, or proximate-commuting to allow employees to perform their function at home or other location close to home, but away from company main office; and                    
Route Choice, i.e.: Real-time commuter services, enabled by real-time traveler information technology, to allow employees to plan their trip to avoid traffic bottlenecks.

The employer has a major role to play in providing employees access to commuter choice initiatives.  How far an employer goes in providing these initiatives will determine the extent to which it ranks as one of the Best Workplaces for CommutersSM.  An employer stands to benefit in many ways:

  • Enhanced employee recruitment and retention;

  • Improved working conditions for employees;

  • Reduced operating costs, such as work space and parking spaces;

  • Increased productivity due to high morale and reduced stress for employees;

  • Improved public reputation and corporate image;

  • Tax incentives under the Commuter Choice pre-tax benefits.

Best Workplaces for CommutersSM is a new public-private sector voluntary program advocating employee commuter benefits.  The program offers solutions to commuting challenges faced by employers and employees.  Established by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT), this program publicly recognizes employers whose commuter benefits reach a National Standard of Excellence.  Providing commuter benefits helps employers address limited or expensive parking, reduce traffic congestion, improve employee recruiting and retention, and minimize the environmental impacts associated with drive-alone commuting.  Participating companies earn the designation “Best Workplaces for CommutersSM”- a mark of excellence for environmentally and employee-friendly organizations.

The program builds on the efforts of many top employers to help get employees to work safely, on time, and free of commute-related stress.  It provides the tools, guidance and promotion necessary to help U.S. employers of any size incorporate commuter benefits into their standard benefits plan, reap financial benefits, and gain national recognition.

We urge you to visit the website at www.bwc.gov and go to “About Employers” and check your company out at “Do I Qualify?”  Please remember that we are here to help and guide you to qualify and earn this national prestige for your company.  Call Westchester’s SMART COMMUTE Program at (914) 813-6006 and request for guidance in becoming one of the Best Workplaces for CommutersSM.

Facts and Figures

Traffic Impact

  • The number of vehicles in the United States is increasing twice as fast as the population growth.

  • In the United States, three-quarters of all trips made to and from work are in single-passenger vehicles.

  • Since 1982, the U.S. population has grown 20 percent, but the time spent by commuters in traffic has grown 236 percent.

  • Last year, commuters in the United States spent $60 billion in gasoline travelling to and from work—more than double the annual revenues of Microsoft Corporation.

  • A typical household spends nearly 20 percent of its income in driving costs—more than it spends on food.

  • Nine billion gallons of fuel are wasted in traffic congestion each year—800 times the amount of oil spilled by the Exxon Valdez.

  • A typical commuter who switches from driving alone to using Best Workplaces for CommutersSM benefits for transit, walking, cycling, or telecommuting saves over $800 per year in transportation expenses including fuel, taxes, and vehicle maintenance.

Commuter Benefits Mean Savings for Employers

  • By offering commuter benefits, a company with 1,000 employees can lower its annual parking expenses by more than $70,000 and save participating employees $13,000 each year in taxes and $160,000 each year in gasoline, parking, and vehicle costs. Calculate your company's savings.

Commuter Benefits Improve Employee Quality of Life

  • Eight of 10 U.S. workers believe commuter benefits are valuable to employees.

  • With commuter benefits, a typical employee can avoid driving 3,300 miles each year, which is greater than the distance between New York and Los Angeles.

  • Average commuters in Atlanta, Los Angeles, and Seattle spend more than an entire work-week every year delayed in traffic.

Commuter Benefits Improve Traffic Flow and the Environment

  • On average, an employer with 1,000 employees that joins Best Workplaces for Commuters can take credit for taking 175 cars off the road, saving 44,000 gallons of gasoline per year, and cutting global warming pollution by 420 tons per year.

  • The American Lung Association reports that even low levels of ground-level ozone, which is produced by automotive tailpipe emissions and is a component of smog, adversely affect nearly one-third of our population.

  • If half of all U.S. commuters worked for Best Workplaces for Commuters, air pollution and traffic would be cut by the equivalent of taking 15 million cars off the road every year.

Sources: U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Commuter Model, Texas Transportation Institute, American Lung Association, Xylo Inc., and the Metropolitan Transportation Commission.

As always, for more information and for any of your commute needs, please call Westchester’s SMART COMMUTE Program at (914) 995-4444, or e-mail us at tvo1@westchestergov.com

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