Ride, don’t drive, to less stress
For the AJC
Sunday, September 07, 2008
Alan Geraldi, an attorney and marathoner in San Francisco, recently made news by running 23 miles to work two mornings a week. The three-hour, 45-minute trip saves gas and helps him train for his favorite sport. Despite the high cost of gas and the recent inspiration of the Olympics, foot power isn’t likely to catch on as a viable commuting option for most workers.
Fortunately, many Atlanta employers and organizations such as the Clean Air Campaign have some ideas that aren’t as extreme. They’ve touted mass transit, car pooling, van pooling, biking and walking for years as a means of reducing traffic congestion and pollution. When gas prices hit more than $4 a gallon, more people started listening.
Leita Cowart / Special
Chuck Swatek, who works at Emory Crawford Long Hospital, used to drive 54 miles a day in a gas guzzler. Now he rides a bus, often watching movies on his iPod, and his employer pays for his ticket.
Chuck Swatek has worked in facilities management at Emory Crawford Long Hospital in Midtown for 21 years. For the past three months he’s been taking a bus to work. His 54-mile, round-trip commute from Snellville in a Chevy Tahoe (16 miles to the gallon) was taking too large a bite out of the family budget.
“My wife, Vanessa, ‘she who must be obeyed,’ said we needed to do something,” he said, with a chuckle. “One of the other guys took the bus and was talking about it, so I looked into it.”
Swatek was pleasantly surprised to learn that his employer (Emory Healthcare, as part of Emory University) would pay the $4 ticket each way. Now he drives 1.2 miles to a free parking lot and catches a Georgia Regional Transportation Authority bus that drops him off half a block from his workplace.
“I love it. I really do,” Swatek said. “The bus drivers are wonderful, and friendships have sprung up on the bus. We all kinda look out for each other.”
The ride takes about an hour each way, and Swatek likes to watch movies on his iPod. Other riders sleep, read, talk or listen to music.
“I watch half of the movie on the way in and half on the way home,” he said. “By the time I get back to the house, my feet have stopped hurting and I’m not tense or yelling at anybody because I’m stressed out from dealing with traffic.”
In order to make the bus schedule work, Emory Crawford Long allowed Swatek to come in and leave a half-hour earlier. He’s seeing a better cash flow and more people on the bus.
“Emory Crawford Long is doing all they can to help us do this. They didn’t have to pay for the ticket, and they didn’t have to let me change my hours,” he said. “They just did it, and I really appreciate it.”
Emory was a founding member of the Clifton Corridor Transportation Management System in 1998, which addresses common transportation concerns in Decatur and provides services for members’ employees, said Adele Clements, director of transportation for Emory University and executive director of the CCTMA. From her parking-deck office, she runs Emory’s shuttle bus system, which has been in place since the early 1990s, and she directs its other alternative-commuting options.
Emory offers decreased parking costs and other incentives for car poolers, van poolers, MARTA and GRTA riders, bikers and walkers. It operates a shuttle service around campus and from the Decatur
MARTA station and a Park ‘N Ride service from three outlying locations, Northlake Mall, North DeKalb Mall and South DeKalb Mall. Those who opt for the alternatives get some free parking passes for inclement weather or days they need to drive. They also get a guaranteed ride home for emergencies through the Atlanta Regional Commission’s RideSmart program.
The university has more than 700 people enrolled in car pools, 100 people in van pools and 233 registered to bike or walk. About 1,200 take advantage of their MARTA subsidy program.
“We view transportation assistance as a retention and recruitment tool and work closely with our employees to help them meet their needs,” Clements said. “If they get to work and are not stressed out from their commute, they are going to be happier and more productive. By taking cars off the road in this highly congested area, the whole community benefits.”
Emory has always sought to be a “green” leader, said David Pugh, associate administrator of Emory Hospitals.
“As fuel prices started climbing, [Emory Healthcare President and CEO] John Fox asked me what we could do to lessen the blow on employees,” Pugh said. “Although we had all these options in place, we were stunned to find out that employees didn’t know about them.”
Emory held a series of transportation fairs at all its facilities in July and August, and it drew 800 to 900 participants overall. “We talked with people one on one, asking ‘where do you live?’ and helped them connect the dots on the best way to get to work,” Pugh said. “We encouraged people to just try car pooling or van pooling for a week. People are afraid to be without a car, but we told them we get people home in case of an emergency. We put them in a taxi if nothing else is available.”
Pugh, who car pools part time with his wife, has seen a 70 percent increase in employees requesting
MARTA passes and good satisfaction ratings from employee surveys.
“Better commutes help with work/life balance,” Pugh said. “The job is stressful enough; getting to work shouldn’t have to be.”
UPS, a global shipping company headquartered in Atlanta, has used every communications means at its disposal — company intranet, internal TV system, posters in the elevators and parking garages, and alternative transportation meetings — to get the message out about alternative commuting.
“We’ve been training our drivers for years on route efficiency and fuel conservation — we’re the subject-matter experts on that score,” said Jaye Sanford, communications supervisor at UPS. “We’ve been able to leverage our best practices with our general employee population, and our employees appreciate the help.”
Helping each other is part of the company culture, as evidenced by the hundreds of responses to a ‘How has your life changed?’ (in light of rising fuel, food and other costs) article on the company intranet. Employees responded with their own adjustments and tips for saving money. “Fuel costs and the current state of the economy has affected all of our employees,” Sanford said. “As a company, we want to address the issues that touch everyone.”
Working with the Clean Air Campaign and the Perimeter Transportation Coalition, UPS offers Atlanta employees commuter rewards for switching to car pools and van pools and assistance in finding partners. The company also offers discounts for MARTA passes.
“We had all been talking around the office about how we had to do something about commuting costs, and after the Perimeter Transportation Coalition came to meet with us, we decided to start a car pool,” said Nikki Lee, vendor management administrative assistant at the UPS financial service center in Roswell. She knew one woman who lived nearby, and they found two others who came from the Snellville/Lithonia area and drove I-285 and Ga. 400 to work. Lee, Opal Platt, Gail Davis and Adrienne Vereen have been car pooling since June 23.
They meet at one of two places (depending on who is driving) where it’s safe to leave their cars and take turns driving one week a month. “One of us drives, but the other three get to wind down in the car,” Lee said.
“My commute is 32 miles one way, and it took $60 twice a week to fill my gas tank, so the savings have been incredible,” she said.
They log in their commute with the Clean Air Campaign online to be eligible for drawings for free $25 gift cards.
The four have enjoyed the camaraderie, but they have had to make some adjustments in their schedules. They all have to be disciplined about meeting on time, and they have to forgo errands on the way home. Lee was used to going to the gym after work. “Now I work out in the park near my home in the evenings and don’t have gym fees,” she said. For doctor appointment days, they switch drivers.
Other employees have asked how it’s going.
“I tell them it’s the best thing since sliced bread. We should have started this long ago,” Lee said. “Even if gas prices go down, I wouldn’t change our arrangement.”
She says the stress relief of not driving to work three weeks out of the month is worth it alone.
“What we tell people is if they want to save money and live close enough together, they should just have a meeting and do it. If you set the ground rules in the beginning, it will work,” Lee said. “You can try it out for a week, but once you start, the savings and the benefits will keep you doing it.”
Alternative transportation resources
Georgia Regional Transportation Authority