Working out a way
A car culture pervades in Spokane Valley, where commuters navigate wide open spaces and plentiful parking.
Look closer, though, and you’ll find many Valley workers getting to jobs with transportation modes that subtract from the one-car, one-driver equation. They rely on bikes, buses, vans or car pools that work.
Jean Flowers and Karen Beeman, kitchen cooks at Valley Hospital and Medical Center, have shared a ride for about three years. Flowers lives in the East Farms area and Beeman in Otis Orchards, so they also coordinate errands on the way home.
“It does save on gas,” said Flowers. “Our schedule is pretty much the same, so we take turns driving. Usually, every other time is the other person’s time to drive.”
Beeman likes only filling the gas tank once a week at the most. “Before car-pooling, it was twice a week, easy.”
“If you choose to car-pool, go with people you have things in common with,” Beeman added. “Both of us like to get errands done on the way home and not come back out. She’s even helped me pick up my grandkids.”
Both described flexibility. If Beeman’s shift runs a half an hour later, Flowers waits.
“If one of us needs to go to the store or pay a bill, the other one will go along,” added Flowers. “If one of us gets sick, we’ve always found ways. A husband or co-worker gives us a ride.”
About 30 Spokane Valley workplaces participate in the Spokane County Commute Trip Reduction program, said director Aurora Crooks. The program offers information, training, incentives and a guaranteed ride home in a taxi for emergencies. Many larger employers, and all public entities, need to make “a good faith effort” toward worker commute reduction under a state CTR law.
“The challenge in the Valley is wide open spaces,” Crooks said.
“The Valley doesn’t have the problems with tight parking as you would with the downtown area. That can be a disincentive to CTR.”
However, Crooks said Valley workplaces are finding solutions as employees also seek alternatives to high gas prices.
Safeco offices in Liberty Lake have set up 13 van pools through Spokane Transit Authority, said Crooks. STA has seven- or 15-passenger vans for commuters traveling at least 10 miles one way. A Safeco coordinator also explores commuter options with nearby businesses, Crooks added.
Several Valley job sites were recognized this year for CTR participation. They include Huntwood Industries, the city of Spokane Valley, Appleway Automotive, Honeywell, Spokane Industries, West Business Services, Machine Tools, Itron, KeyTronic and Wagstaff.
Workplaces participating in CTR often have employee transportation coordinators who, along with their daily jobs, assist workers with information on alternative transportation.
The city of Spokane Valley, with around 60 employees, has 18 to 20 percent of its workers finding alternative commutes. The figure had reached 35 percent before recent turnover, said Morgan Koudelka, an administrative analyst who also coordinates the city’s CTR participation.
“Car pools are by far the most popular commute alternative used,” said Koudelka. He matches car-pool members or assists co-workers in finding the best bus routes.
“We have a bulletin board in our break area that has information and examples,” he added. “We also have a map with dots representing where employees live around the county, and people can look at that and come to me. I’m the intermediary. If the other person is interested, I get the two of them together.”
Another Valley city employee, Mike Basinger, commutes to work from the Audubon Park area on Spokane’s North Side.
In the winter, he meets co-workers near a downtown freeway onramp to car pool. In better weather, he bicycles to the downtown STA bus plaza, puts his bike on a bus bicycle rack, and rides to Argonne and Mission. From there, he bicycles to City Hall on Sprague Avenue near Bowdish Road.
“I think the total stretch is about 12 miles, and I do about five miles of that on a bike,” he said. “It’s relaxing because you don’t have to drive every day.
“Once you start, it’s not a big sacrifice.”
Most car pools have two to three people, and spouses driving together count, Crooks said. Car-pool members sometimes meet at a central parking spot.
“There’s time involved when you have to stop quite a few times to pick up folks, so they will meet at a park-and-ride lot, or a grocery store, or a church parking lot with permission,” Crooks added.
Melinda Long, Huntwood’s employee transportation coordinator, said her company has about 25 to 30 percent of its 800 employees using alternative commutes.
“With the gas prices, it saves them money buying the bus passes, or they split the cost if they car pool,” Long said. “Our employees come from all over. We have several from the North Side, quite a few from the Valley and Post Falls.”
With Huntwood’s move last December from the Spokane Valley Industrial Park to Liberty Lake, Long said she’s seen bus ridership jump.
“I know we have a lot more bus riders because I see them. On the bus, people like to relax and read and let someone else do the driving. I’ve heard that a lot.”