Valley Leads In Reducing Commute Trips

Trying to get employees to stop driving solo to work is no easy task.

There’s the bus stop a mile away from the office. There’s the bike lane that crosses stampedes of traffic. And, of course, there are excuses: errands, sick kids, soccer practice, overtime, groceries.

But that’s no obstacle for Valley employers. In fact, they led the way for Spokane County in 1997 in reducing the number of worker commute trips to work.

Of 86 Spokane County companies, who were required by a 1991 Washington law to plan ways to reduce commute trips, 26 were in the Valley.

And of the 35 companies that met their goal to reduce worker commutes by 20 percent by 1997, 30 percent were Valley employers.

“That’s really good,” said Melanie Rose of Spokane County’s Commute Trip Reduction program. After all, she pointed out, downtown businesses have more access to bus services and pedestrian friendly services.

The law tells companies with more than 100 full-time workers starting work between 6 and 9 a.m. to develop a plan to reduce commuting trips.

Valley companies such as Kaiser Aluminum-Trentwood, Huntwood Industries, Safeco, Valley Hospital and Medical Center, Hewlett Packard and Olsy North America all met their goal to increase carpooling, or reduce trip miles or both.

The next goal is to have companies reduce commute trips 25 percent by 1999 and 35 percent by 2005, Rose said.

It’s easy to reduce workers’ commute trips if there’s management support, an effective company transportation coordinator and communication, Rose said. “Some might have a great program, but no one knows about it,” she said.

Companies offer carpoolers T-shirts, parking spaces only feet from the front door, even Lotto tickets. Some give discounted bus passes and a guaranteed ride home in an emergency. Others raffle off bicycles.

Kaiser Aluminium-Trentwood negotiated with the United Steelworkers of America Union to allow employees to work three 12-hour days, rather than five, 8-hour days in 1994.

That was the biggest boost for reducing trips for the company, said Harry Lisk, employee relations manager and transportation coordinator.

“That really cut into single-occupancy vehicles coming into the gated area,” he said.

Kaiser also worked with Spokane Transit Authority to have a bus route run along Euclid, next to its plant.

And every year, the company raffles three bicycles.

“Now, we’ve got nine bicyclists,” he said.

In 1997, Kaiser workers traveled an average 8.45 miles to work, and 67.3 percent of workers drove to work alone.

Other Valley companies had similar statistics:

Key Tronic’s workers at the Spokane Business and Industrial Park drove an average of 7.7 miles to work and 54.4 percent drove alone.

Safeco workers drove an average of 7.9 miles to work, 70 percent drove alone.

Valley Hospital workers drove an average of 8.2 miles to work and 66 percent of all employees drove alone.

In Spokane County, total vehicle miles increased 12.2 percent from 1990 to 1995, Rose said.

“People are taking more trips and they are going a longer distance,” she said. “People are driving more. They are busier than they have been in past. A lot more parents are working. People are busier.”

But the companies Rose works with dropped 10.2 percent in total vehicle miles from 1993 to 1997, she said.

, DataTimes