Commute Seattle aims to reduce drive alone commuters

Guest — Thu, 05 Mar 2009 21:37:11 +0000

Guest (not verified) Thu, 03/05/2009 - 1:37pm

Commute Seattle has launched a new campaign and Web site to alleviate downtown congestion and help commuters green-friendly transportation decisions.

One of the key goals of the Commute Seattle organization is to reduce drive-alone commuter trips and improve access to and mobility through downtown Seattle.

Just recently, they’ve shifted from talking to employers to directly speaking with commuters.

“Primarily we focus to work with businesses and commuters to find alternatives to driving alone,” said Jamie Cheney, director of Commute Seattle. “What we’ve been doing is going out and talking to businesses and providing them with transportation consultations.”

Transportation consultations is when they sit down with employers and discuss how they can create or improve an employee commute program so they can reduce commute trips to their businesses.

“We’ve been working with businesses for several months and show them different options of transportation.” she said. “Everything from bus passes, tele-work programs, rethinking how they buy or pay or subsidize parking and that’s been successful.”

Currently, Cheney said they have 81 businesses who have pledged to reduce commute trips to their place of employment.

“We recently completed a brand new Web site and launched it in conjunction to our launch of downtown commuters,” Cheney said.

Teaming up with the Downtown Seattle Association, King County Metro Transit and the city of Seattle, Commute Seattle helps commuters find alternatives to driving alone by providing information about a variety of commute options in one location, Cheney said.

Last Thursday, they began an ongoing campaign to ask commuters to pledge to reduce one commute trip a week.

At their event they involved three different buildings on Thursday morning and held a transportation fair, also known as Commuter Cafes, where they offered coffee, snacks and consultations, Cheney said.

After Thursday’s event they collected 464 pledges to reduce commute trips or those who already commute, helping a friend pledge.

“What we’ve done is keep track of pledges and we translate that with the number of trips and number of fewer cars that are coming into Seattle,” Cheney said. “What we’ll do is communicate with these folks and check in with them to see how its going and also provide information on how they can make commuting easier with tips or reminders on our Web site.”

Technically, the pledging has no enforcement, but Cheney said they intend to have an ongoing dialogue with those who have signed up.

“The biggest thing right now is we have a one stop resource (Web site) that is specifically designed for downtown commuters,” Cheney said. “If someone is thinking about taking the bus one day a week instead of driving they can track their bus and plan their commute online.”

The Web site also offers links to car sharing walking organizations and are relevant on a neighborhood basis.

“You don’t have to commute downtown to use our Web site,” Cheney said. “We have links to the bus tracker, metro or ferries. It’s essentially an online resource that has links to all major and minor commute information or assets in the city all in one place.

"Commute Seattle" campaign aims to curb congestion

Guest — Sat, 28 Feb 2009 00:23:57 +0000

Guest (not verified) Fri, 02/27/2009 - 4:23pm

There's a new effort underway to help commuters identify alternatives to driving to and from downtown

Commute Seattle, which works to reduce drive-alone commuter trips, has launched a campaign that kicks off by asking people to “pledge” four days a month to reduce their drive-alone trips and help keep downtown Seattle accessible, energy efficient, and economically competitive.

“Traffic congestion in the Pacific Northwest is a serious problem, costing residents and businesses between $1.5 and $2 billion each year in the central Puget Sound region,” said Jamie Cheney, director of Commute Seattle. “Every pledge contributes to make a big difference in our mission to keep downtown Seattle beautiful and accessible to everyone.”

The organization provides a variety of tools for employers, property owners and individual commuters. The organization’s Web site serves as a central resource for commuters to downtown Seattle—including real-time bus tracking, ferry and commuter rail information, carpool networking and vanshare participation.

Commute Seattle is an alliance of the Downtown Seattle Association, King County Metro Transit, and the City of Seattle. It strives to reduce the number of vehicles into downtown Seattle by 4,185 vehicles per day by 2011, building up to a total of 15,970 by 2015.

To take the commuter pledge and learn more about Commute Seattle by visiting their Web site, www.commuteseattle.com.

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