State of the Commute 2007 #4: Employer Provided Commuter Benefits Help Fight Congestion

Following up on our last report about plentiful free parking at the work site from MWCOG's State of the Commute 2007 (Free Parking Still Plentiful, July 22, 2007) comes companion information about the amount and kind of commuter benefits/services provided to employees by their employers. Says MWCOG:

• 54 percent of respondents said their employers offered one or more alternative mode incentives or support services at their worksite. The same percentage as in the 2004 survey.
• This is significantly higher than the 30 to 40 percent found in other metropolitan areas around the country.
• The most common service was Metrocheck (33%), commute information (20%), services for bikers and walkers (17%), preferential parking for car/vanpools (16%), guaranteed ride home for emergencies/unscheduled overtime (12%), and financial incentives/subsidies for carpooling (5%).
• 76 percent of Federal employees were offered the Metrocheck transit/vanpool benefit while only 18% of state/local government employees were. 37 percent of non-profit and 20% of private sector employees were offered the same.
• The larger the employer, the more likely they were to offer commuter services/benefits. This was the case in all categories of services offered. For example if the company was 1,000+ employees then 60% were offered Metrochek, 251-999 employees were 47%, 101-250 were 31% and 1-100 was 23%.
• In analyzing Commuter Incentives/Support and Parking by employer location, COG divided the region into three categories as follows: Core (D.C., Arlington, Alexandria); Middle Ring (Fairfax, Montgomery and Prince George's counties); Outer Ring (Calvert, Charles, Frederick, Loudoun and Prince William counties). The data is as follows:

Commuter Services Offered by Employer Location

                                      Core     Middle  Outer
Incentives/Support
Metrochek                        78%      50%      27%
Information                      36%      38%      32%
Preferential parking          27%      33%      27%
GRH                                18%       26%     36%
Bike/walk services           33%       34%     27%
Carpool Subsidy                 7%         7%       7%

Parking Services
Free parking                    41%       76%     80%
Employee pays some/all    48%      10%       7%
No parking, don't know     11%        4%       3%

More results:

• When asked if when their employer offers the service if they in fact use it 40% of commuters took advantage of Metrochek when it was offered, 46% used commute information, 20% preferential parking, 24% GRH, 12% bike/walk services and 15% carpool subsidies.

Bottom line results
Respondents whose employers provided alternative mode incentives and support services were less likely to drive alone (62%) than were respondents whose employers did not provide these services (78%). Rates of use for alternative modes was also higher at sites where these services were offered, especially train (Metrorail, MARC, VRE) use. The report points out that the differences are statistically significant but it is not possible to say that the availability of these services was the only or even primary reason for the difference in mode use. Location (core, inner and outer rings) is a factor. And so is parking. Taken all together this helps provide a better picture on the why.

Incentives/  Drive    CP/
Support       Alone     VP      Bus   Train    B/W
Yes               62%      9%      5%     19%      3%
No                 78%     5%      4%       6%      2%
Free
Parking                                                     _
Yes               83%       6%     3%       4%       2%
No                48%     10%     8%      26%      3%

What's it mean?
The survey helps provide a picture or snapshot of the state of the commute in our region and provides needed information for area transportation officials to help address congestion and mobility issues. We'll continue to bring you information from this 100+ page report. The data on employer provided commuter benefits and parking suggests that our toolbox for fighting congestion should include helping employers provide these kind of programs, because when they implement these programs it makes a significant difference. An excellent example of the kind of service provided to local employer's would be Arlington County Commuter Services' Arlington Transportation Partners program. Other local jurisdictions provide help to employers too and you can find links here. We hope to dive deeper into the stats and ask the consultants to help us do so. As we find out more we'll share it with you. For some other local research visit our TDM Research Center.

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Chris Hamilton is the Commuter Services Chief for Arlington County, manager of CommuterPageBlog and a biking/Metro commuter from Rosemont in Alexandria