"Paying for Performance: Cash for Commuters" Netconference

On November 4, 2004,  the National Center for Transit Research’s National TDM and Telework Clearinghouse at the University of South Florida and the Association for Commuter Transportation held a net conference entitled Paying for Performance: Cash for Commuters”   

View the streaming media netconference  (You need Windows Media Player™  to view)

Overview:

Transportation demand management programs at the employer and regional levels use a variety of incentives to encourage changes in travel behavior. But what if commuters were paid to change behavior? What happens if TDM programs are rewarded based on their performance, not simply activities? Will TDM programs become more entrepreneurial? Would commuters continue their travel alternatives? These questions and more were addressed in “Paying for Performance: Cash for Commuters” Net conference. Hear what two different communities are doing to push the envelope. Learn how the State of Washington designed a program to reward TDM programs for removing vehicles from the road. Discover what happened to participant’s travel behavior after Atlanta’s “Cash for Commuters” incentive payments stopped coming.

This 80-minute session, moderated by Donna Smallwood, MassRIDES/URS Corporation, featured the following presentations:

Is There a Market for Avoided Vehicle Trips?

Brian Lagerberg, Washington State Department of Transportation (WSDOT)

Discussed how WSDOT developed a program to entice and reward organizations that reduce commute trips. Listen to Mr. Lagerberg discuss the newly introduced Commute Trip Reduction (CTR) performance grants. The Washington State Legislature created CTR Performance Grants in 2003 to encourage and test innovation in reducing drive-alone commute trips. Any Washington business or public agency willing to provide a financial benefit to employees for reducing drive-alone commuting may compete for the grants. Examples of financial benefits include cash incentives, free transit passes, membership fees for a car-sharing program, or parking charges for those who drive alone. Approximately, $1,500,000 in funding was awarded to 33 projects under the state’s first year of CTR Performance Grants. The winning projects will collectively reduce more than 4,400 drive-alone commute trips per day and 120,000 commuting miles per day. Grantees will be paid for the total number of daily vehicle trips they reduce during the year.  For more information, contact Brian Lagerberg at Lagerbb@wsdot.wa.gov

• Copy of Brian Lagerberg's slides (pdf) (593k)

Cash for Commuters

Ellen Macht, Clean Air Campaign (Atlanta, GA) and Jennifer Gregory, Center for Transportation and the Environment, discussed how to successfully market and operate incentives that get people into alternative modes and keep them there. Hear Ms. Macht and Ms. Gregory highlight the achievements of the Atlanta-area’s “Cash for Commuters” program. Atlantans who agree to change their commutes from driving alone to any of a number of alternative commuting habits can earn up to $180 over a three-month period. Qualified alternatives include carpooling, transit use, teleworking, cycling or walking. In follow-up research, 74 % of Cash for Commuters participants continue to use a commute alternative three to six months later, when no incentive is available to them. In addition, among Cash for Commuters participants who had completed the program nine months to one year earlier, 64 percent continue to use a commute alternative.

For more information, please contact Ellen Macht at emacht@cleanaircampaign.com and Jennifer Gregory at jennifer@cte.tv

• Copy of Ellen Macht and Jennifer Gregory's slides (pdf) (657k)

In this netconference, "attendees" heard the audio portion of the live presentation via a toll-free telephone call and simultaneously viewed the PowerPoint presentation via Internet. This session included a ~30 minute question and answer session between the panelists and the audience (estimated at 150 people hosted by ACT chapters in 24 cities across the country).

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Links

Washington State Commuter Trip Reduction Performance Grants

Washington State Commuter Trip Reduction Program

Cash for Commuters Overview  

Cash for Commuters Fact Sheet