By Karen Worminghaus and Jonathan Singer
Writing for the Daily Camera Editorial Board on Sunday, April 14, Gary Garrison noted that a cash reward of $2.50/day offered through the city’s new Boulder Clean Commute pilot program might not motivate people to stop driving alone to work. We’re not sure, either, but that’s the point of a pilot program.
Boulder Chamber Transportation Connections (Boulder’s designated transportation management organization, or TMO) recognizes that we need a full-court press on all sustainable transportation options — including creative experiments — to reduce greenhouse gases and make commutes to Boulder more convenient, affordable and reliable.
With many Boulder workers priced out of the local housing market and commuting further distances to work, traffic conditions are increasing to pre-pandemic levels. Congested roads are an aggravation for those who drive to work and residents alike. As Mr. Garrison notes, it’s also our greatest single source of greenhouse gas emissions. The social and environmental costs of these commute patterns are grave.
So, yes, the City of Boulder has teamed up with Transportation Connections to experiment with price incentives for Boulder’s workforce to use alternatives to the single-occupant vehicle in their commute to work. The Boulder Clean Commute program will actually reward commuters who work downtown and in Boulder Junction up to $5/day, with employer contributions of $2.50/day ($1.25/trip) matched dollar-for-dollar by the city. That’s a potential bonus of $25 per work week, or about $100 per month.
For most working people, that is a significant amount of money. And thanks to a sector partnership grant the Boulder Chamber secured through the Colorado Workforce Development Council, Transportation Connections is underwriting the employer-sponsored matching funds for local businesses in the food, beverage and hospitality sector.
We’re optimistic that putting extra money in the pockets of local employees will inspire many to carpool with a coworker, ride a bike, take the bus or travel in any way other than driving alone. And there is evidence that similar “Parking Cash-Out” programs, like Boulder’s Clean Commute pilot program, do work. The Boulder Valley School District has demonstrated this with its Trip Tracker program which motivates students to use sustainable commute modes to school with Trip Tracker dollars, saving more than 596,000 pounds of CO2 from car trips not taken every school year.
At Transportation Connections, we know monetary incentives alone are not enough to compel everyone who commutes in Boulder to do so sustainably and help reduce traffic. That’s why we’re working hard with our state, regional and local partners to advocate for both more affordable and transit-connected housing in Boulder and more convenient, accessible and affordable transportation options.
Take for example mobility improvements for the Diagonal Highway (CO119). Transportation Connections and our Boulder Chamber team have been a consistent voice of business and community support that helped secure millions in funding for that critical commute corridor. We’re also coordinating with RTD, along with our city and county, to develop a high-frequency shuttle service for Gunbarrel, making it much more convenient for workers to connect directly from regional transit routes to their place of work.
Looking for that train between Denver, Boulder and on to Longmont? Transportation Connections has been working on creative solutions to realize that vision. There is a long way to go, but our businesses and residents deserve our commuter train and we’re working in partnership with the governor and other regional policy leaders to secure that service for Boulder.
Transportation Connections also recognizes, as Mr. Garrison states, “We must be willing to imagine a different community,” that embraces an environment where it isn’t necessary to navigate by car. At the local and state level, our Boulder Chamber team has been an effective advocate — often as the only business voice at the table — for development that works in concert with sustainable mobility options.
It also was Transportation Connections that helped negotiate for a 50% employer state tax credit which businesses and non-profits now receive for sustainable employee commute investments. That’s right, consider it the mirror image of the Boulder Clean Commute pilot program, subsidizing employers to promote sustainable commute options.
And that full circle effort is in keeping with our point: We need to try every reasonable approach to improving mobility options for our workforce and community, making their commute more convenient and less environmentally impactful. That is why Transportation Connections works alongside our city and county partners to advance all effective solutions — and even some that we aren’t absolutely sure will be effective but are worth a try. As Mr. Garrison suggests, we must be ambitious because “catastrophe is looming.”
Karen Worminghaus is the senior manager of transportation for Transportation Connections at the Boulder Chamber. Jonathan Singer is the senior director of policy programs for the Boulder Chamber.
