Cousins Properties is pleased to have been named a Platinum Partner. To be one of only 130 metro Atlanta employers and property managers recognized for results achieved through its sustainable commute program is quite an honor. There are a few people that helped us achieve this accomplishment.
 
Downtown TMA has been an instrumental partner in helping Cousins educate its customers on the alternative commuting options available downtown. Joint program initiatives have included quarterly transportation fairs; Commuter Rewards programs, and also a spot on the Downtown TMA information kiosk rotation.
 
In addition, in 2009, Cousins introduced a Bike Share Program at its downtown properties - American Cancer Society Center and One Ninety One Peachtree Tower. The Downtown TMA was integral in assisting with the rollout and communicating the value proposition to our customers.  Cousins Properties remains committed and focused on its partnership with the Downtown TMA and is appreciative of the value that they bring to all downtown constituencies.  We look forward to collaboratively sharing new and innovative programs in the future.
 
Jessica McNamara is an administrative manager at Cousins Properties Incorporated

Today The Clean Air Campaign released its inaugural list of Platinum Partners, recognizing employers and property managers whose employees and tenants use alternatives to driving alone for at least 20 percent of their commute trips. The initial list consists of 130 metro Atlanta and Georgia employers and property managers, including Georgia Tech. The Clean Air Campaign salutes Tech and all of the Platinum Partners achieving success in reducing traffic congestion and improving the quality of the air we breathe. When it comes to less traffic and cleaner air, these organizations are “In Good Company”. To view the complete list, click here.

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Early last year our transportation planning staff realized it was difficult to gauge how effective we were being in providing commute alternatives for employees around the Georgia Tech campus.  We had great commute programs established, but we didn’t have the exact data needed to determine just how effective we were in encouraging campus members to use clean commutes.  The result was the University’s first annual commute mode survey in which staff and students that commute to campus were surveyed on their transportation patterns (campus residents were excluded).  The results were validating for our programs, and we found that over 41 percent of the Georgia Tech community was arriving to campus via alternatives to driving alone.   Here’s the breakdown:

Using this baseline that 59% of the Georgia Tech community was driving to campus alone, we also wanted to see how we could decrease single-occupancy trips and increase the number of clean commute trips.  Finding out what catalysts would change a person’s commute to Georgia Tech’s campus was just as important to us:

These survey results really sparked some substantial improvements in our commute programs, and we wanted to share some of our progress.

While the request for more car sharing vehicles like Zipcar was fairly small (5%), it was an easy, inexpensive win for us.  Today’s 18-34 year-olds are embracing the idea of collaborative consumption, and car-sharing use has been a great success story at Georgia Tech.  Because of increased demand, Zipcar-Atlanta was able to increase our fleet by 40% to 12 vehicles.

For carpooling we were a bit surprised at the number who deemed it difficult to find carpool matches (12%), as there are already many great resources to find rides in Atlanta.  What we found was that safety was a major concern in seeking a carpool partner, and so we established an exclusive carpool ride-matching service for Georgia Tech.  The feedback has been tremendous, with 1,600 new users in six months and over 450 ride posts.  With the new system we are now able to promote commuting to campus every day, as well as ride-sharing to away football games, spring break trips and weekend grocery store visits.

The biggest takeaway from the survey was the desire for more bicycle infrastructure on campus.  Increases in bicycle commuting have been well documented in Atlanta, and Georgia Tech is seeing a similar trend.  Georgia Tech wants to continue to promote this commuting option, and the Institute and Student Government have invested over $200,000 in new bicycle infrastructure, including bicycle racks, bike lanes, bike “sharrow” markings and an innovative bike-share system that is destined for mass-appeal.  Georgia Tech has also partnered with the Atlanta Bicycle Coalition, Midtown Alliance and the City of Atlanta to install the city’s first cycle track at the West Peachtree and 5th Street intersection in Technology Square.

We are proud of the progress we’ve made this past year in promoting commute options in Atlanta, and we look forward to seeing how the next commuter survey reflects these improvements.  This goes without saying, but Georgia Tech could not have accomplished these projects alone.  A big thanks to our community partners: Midtown Transportation Solutions @ Midtown Alliance, Lanier Parking Solutions, the Atlanta Bicycle Coalition, the City of Atlanta, Zipcar-Atlanta, viaCycle and The Clean Air Campaign.

Aaron Fowler is a Campus Transportation Planner at Georgia Tech.

The calendar says this is the time of year when many of us will look inward and reflect on life as we know it.  It’s the ideal time to look back on the year that was, take inventory of the pluses and minuses and chart a course for the year ahead.  The net result for many of us is that we find something we want to change about ourselves or our surroundings. 

Polls indicate we seldom stray from the big four resolutions: exercise more, save more money, spend more time with family, enjoy life more.  But everyone knows it’s hard to do “more.”  According to a research project out of the UK, only 12% of us make good on our resolutions.  What if we have it all wrong?  Maybe some of our resolutions should actually be framed around doing less.

When it comes to sustainability, addition by subtraction sometimes yields better results.   The Clean Air Campaign suggests these ideas to make less mean more in 2012:

Drive less. 
Every mile you’re not driving alone keeps a pound of pollution out of the air we breathe, puts 47 cents back in your pocket and gives you the opportunity to use your travel time to do the things you enjoy.

Make fewer excuses about why you can’t do it.
One in four vehicle trips covers less than a mile in distance.  There’s a whole network of options out there if you look around.  Push outside your comfort zone.  Walk or bicycle, and prove to yourself that you can get there.  Take the bus, and prove to yourself that you can read the route map.  Leave your car at home and prove to yourself that you don’t need it as a crutch while you’re at your workplace.  If you need a ride home, we’ve got your back. 

Pay less attention to the conventional wisdom of transportation policy. 
The model for transportation funding, which relies heavily on the motor fuel tax, could use some updating.  Georgians will go to the polls in 2012 to vote on a different funding model (referred to as a T-SPLOST) that could yield tens of billions of dollars in infrastructure improvements over the next decade – money we would not otherwise get from the motor fuel tax – by leveraging an additional penny sales tax.  Worth reading about so you can form your opinion and make you voice heard.

We want to hear from you.
What is your clean commute resolution? Leave a comment on this blog for the chance to win a $20 Simon Mall gift card.

Brace yourselves.  The most anticipated shopping day of the year is almost upon us.  And while the Black Friday experience makes for some good bargains on holiday gifts, it can quickly become a bad deal for traffic and air quality at malls and stores all over Georgia.  That’s because half of the smog-forming emissions in the state come from tailpipes.   

While not a traditionally onerous day for commuters on the major roadways, Black Friday can cause pandemonium in the parking lots and painfully slow traffic heading into and out of shopping centers.  According to the National Retail Federation, up to 152 million people nationwide plan to shop during the 2011 Black Friday weekend (Friday, Saturday and Sunday).  This makes Black Friday a terrific time to use commute alternatives so you can focus on the doorbusters and discounts. 

After you make your list and check it twice, take advantage of carpooling, riding transit, special mall shuttle service and other options to save you money and time.  For ideas on how you can help The Clean Air Campaign turn Black Friday blue, click here.

As we head deeper into autumn, the landscape is treating us to a spectacular parade of orange, yellow and red hues.  Yes, turn signals and brake lights at rush hour are indeed a sight to behold.  But it’s more fun to wax poetic about the fall leaves.  So, frolic in the foliage and rake in this latest edition of Merging Lanes.

Smog-Eating Concrete

In the future green economy of America, the streets won’t be paved with gold.  They’ll be paved with titanium dioxide.  Demonstrating that innovation knows no boundaries in the shared space between transportation and air quality, engineers in Missouri recently laid down a 1,500-foot strip of asphalt that can break down ground-level ozone pollution.  Mixed into this special blend of concrete is a titanium dioxide additive that creates a photo-catalytic reaction, absorbing smog, using sunlight to break it down, and releasing it as nitrogen and carbon dioxide.  Neat.

Lane ends 2,000 feet.

The Morning Ritual That’s Ruining Your Car’s Engine

With the chill of autumn comes those frosty mornings that all commuters must endure.  But there’s one driveway ritual that Georgia commuters should stop practicing because it can ruin a car’s performance.  Warming up the engine in the mornings by allowing it to idle can actually wear down engine parts and create more air pollution.  The practice of unnecessary idling on cold mornings can produce up to six grams of carbon monoxide per minute.  That’s equal to the carbon monoxide content from three packs of cigarettes.  Turns out, it’s also an easy way to get your car stolen.  Simply put, the best way to warm up your engine and create less air pollution on your morning commute is to drive your vehicle instead of idling.

Lane ends 1,000 feet.

Where the Germs Are

If you need extra motivation to drive less, look no further.  From the Yuck Department, a new study found that gas pump handles may be among the dirtiest surfaces that we touch.  A team of hygienists conducted tests in six cities – including Atlanta – and determined that gas pump and mailbox handles, escalator rails and ATM buttons were more likely to harbor high concentrations of germs that can lead to illness.  In all, 71% of gas pump handles tested had high contamination levels.  Gross!

Lane ends 500 feet.

Families Trapped in Vehicles
The headline of a recent article in Time magazine points out the depth of America’s car culture: “We Pay More to Drive Than We Spend on Taxes.”  Citing a new study conducted by a Washington, D.C. think tank, the article describes how difficult it is for the average American family to scale back on driving costs, even in the face of higher energy prices that influence everything from the cost of a gallon of gasoline to a gallon of milk.  Over the past decade, The Clean Air Campaign and its partners have helped more than 85,000 Georgia commuters get relief from the high cost of commuting through a combination of financial incentives and support programs.  We’re ready to help more people make their dollars go further by using commute options.

Merge.

Remember to set your clocks back an hour this Sunday, November 6.  As we “fall back” and adjust to the time change, it’s also important to take into account how the evening rush hour commute changes with the earlier onset of dusk.  Studies show increased risk of evening traffic accidents in the days following the end of daylight saving time, primarily due to poorer visibility during the evening drive home. 

According to U.S. Census data, some 39% of Georgia commuters have one-way commute times of 30 minutes or longer, making it a sure bet that some of the ride home may be in darkness.  Get a carpool partner so you have an extra set of eyes to help you negotiate through traffic.  Or consider riding transit so you don’t have to do the driving.  Not only can these commute options be safer than going it alone, they can also help you save big bucks on commute costs.  And if you’re a bicycle commuter or a walker, be sure that you have the right gear to make yourself visible to other commuters.

I have a confession: I never thought that I would like teleworking. I am one of those people who likes in-person interaction with my co-workers. But as the employee transportation coordinator at my office, I’ve tried to utilize the commute alternatives that I encourage everyone else to use. I carpooled for a while, but once I had children the carpool fell apart and I shifted back to my ride alone commute. The guilt set in. To offset the impacts of all those single occupancy vehicle trips, three years ago I decided to start teleworking two days a week. Wow! I was amazed at how much I enjoyed it.

My mornings are so much less stressful with not having to check traffic conditions before I head out the door. On my telework days, I get the kids off to school and my workday starts about an hour and half earlier than on my days in the office. I’m less rushed, with no clothes to iron and only a 20-foot commute from the kitchen. I can work uninterrupted, and I am more productive on those days. Phone messages are delivered to my e-mail inbox, and instant messaging and video conferencing take the place of the in-person interactions. I still feel just as connected and responsive as when I was in the office full-time. I can also still work if we have extreme weather conditions like our occasional snow day (or snow week) that we see in Atlanta. 
 
My wallet and the environment have also benefitted from my teleworking. With gasoline around $3.50 a gallon, even my two days of teleworking a week has shifted my once weekly fill-up to almost once every two weeks. I know that my telecommute is helping to reduce the impact on our air quality and our environment and am proud to work for CH2M HILL, a company that strongly promotes full-time and part-time telworking as a method to reduce its environmental impact.

Last year teleworkers at CH2M HILL avoided 1,377 tons of CO2 emissions by eliminating their daily commute. Teleworking has worked out great for my family too. It allows me to be flexible to attend events at my children’s schools during the day and still make planned meetings and conference calls for work. No more rushing out of work early to make it to an afterschool event. I can still work a full day and make it to the children’s afterschool club meetings and lessons.

Melanie Wiggins is a biologist based out of CH2M HILL’s Atlanta office, where she has been the employee transportation coordinator for 10 years. She has been with CH2M HILL for 15 years. In that time, she’s gotten to work by single occupancy vehicle, carpool, train, and teleworked. She’s even had some boat rides to work when doing biology field work. Yes, they were great commutes! 

During Georgia Telework Week, watch this space for other guest blog posts from Clean Air Campaign employer partners and commuters who appreciate that sometimes the best commute is the one we don't have to make.

Here in Atlanta, 1.6 million people commute to work every day, and nearly 50 percent of those folks have commutes that take more than 30 minutes.

At Georgia Power and Southern Company, we have a program called SmartRide that promotes alternative commuting options and flexible work schedules. It's a great way for our employees to cut their driving expenses and time spent in traffic while improving the quality of our environment.

Georgia Telework Week is this week (Sept. 12-16), and telecommuting is one of the key aspects of our SmartRide program. Altogether, we have more than 800 employees who telework in one form or another. Some do it full-time, others do it part-time, and we have employees whose jobs are more suited for teleworking occasionally. It's a decision that involves each employee and his or her manager or supervisor.

In addition to telecommuting, SmartRide encourages employees to use alternative transportation. The company provides subsidies for employees who carpool, vanpool or use public transportation. Not only that:

• We provide a corporate shuttle between our two downtown Atlanta locations and the closest transit station. The shuttle runs continuously every workday between 6 a.m. and 8 p.m.
• We make fuel-efficient loaner vehicles available for SmartRiders to use during the day for business and personal reasons.
• We provide employees a guaranteed ride home in emergency or unscheduled overtime situations.

Our SmartRide program also asks employees to consider whether a compressed schedule might work for them (for example, working four 10-hour days each week) or whether they can stagger their work hours so they're not commuting downtown during peak times.

The driving force behind SmartRide is improving the quality of the air we breathe. That’s why our company has joined many others around Atlanta in support of The Clean Air Campaign. We’re encouraging employee participation in SmartRide, we're tightening power plant emissions, and we’re increasing our fleet of alternative-fuel vehicles.

Already, our employees in the SmartRide program avoid driving 1.3 million miles each month, which equates to more than 62 tons of emissions not being released into the atmosphere every year.

I could go on and on about the environmental benefits of SmartRide. But think about how it would be less stressful to eliminate all, most or some of the time you spend behind the wheel.

Think about how much money you could save on gas and wear and tear on your car if you weren't always driving solo to work.

Think about how productive you could be working from home and how much easier it would be to balance your work and personal time if you could negotiate a telework schedule with your supervisor.

We think SmartRide is a pretty smart choice.

Kirby Stough is manager of facilities planning and projects at Georgia Power.

During Georgia Telework Week, watch this space for other guest blog posts from Clean Air Campaign employer partners and commuters who appreciate that sometimes the best commute is the one we don't have to make.

When it comes to having a more productive workday and saving money, the best commute is the one that employees don't have to make.  That's the idea behind the second-annual Georgia Telework Week, which takes place September 12-16, 2011. 

Governor signs 2011 Georgia Telework Week proclamation. 

From L-R: Mark Telling, The Clean Air Campaign; Mini Smith, Delta Air Lines; Melissa Levine, Vocalocity; Governor Nathan Deal; Jennifer Kennington, State Personnel Administration; Angie Ballard, State Personnel Administration; Allison Tanner, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention; Mike Williams, The Clean Air Campaign.

The week is a celebration of the success of the Georgia employers who embrace telework as a business strategy.  It's also a call to action for those employers who remain on the fence about establishing a telework program. 

There are lots of ways employers can take part in Georgia Telework Week, but here are the three biggest opportunities:

1.  Simply show support for the concept of telework as a strategy that makes business sense.  Last year, some 150 Georgia employers indicated their support.  Organizations that sign up will be recognized on The Clean Air Campaign website and in a special print ad to be published later in September in the Atlanta Business Chronicle.  Want to become an employer of choice?  Get on the list of organizations supporting Georgia Telework Week.

2.  RSVP to attend the first-ever Georgia Telework Summit on Thursday, September 15, 2011, featuring panelists and presenters from Coca-Cola Refreshments, UPS, Assurant, Vocalocity, U.S. Dept. of Labor, Georgia Department of Corrections and other organizations that are finding success with telework.  There is no cost to attend.  Whether you have a program in place or are seeking to establish a new program, you'll walk away with ideas you can fold into your operational strategy.

3.  Request a meeting with The Clean Air Campaign's nationally-acclaimed telework team to help start or expand telework at your organization.  The Clean Air Campaign has worked at no cost with more than 250 Georgia employers, providing consulting support, assessment, policy templates, training and evaluation services.  

Commuters can get in on the act, too. 
If you are a teleworker, tell us what telework has done to improve your commute.  Commuter Rewards participants can also log their telework days the week of September 12-16 for the chance to win additional $25 prizes.  And if you're one of the 245,000 Atlanta commuters who believes your job function would be appropriate for telework but hasn't yet received the green light from your boss, we can help you make the case. 

Across the state, the lines continue to blur between work and home, thanks to abundant broadband access and the realization that it's not about where work gets done ... it's about getting work done.  More than 600,000 Georgia commuters are teleworking at least occasionally, up 20% since 2007.  How much longer will others be content to hop in the car and drive from their home computer to their work computer?

Some of the best work being done anywhere for less traffic and cleaner air is happening right here in Georgia.  That was the message at the PACE Awards, which drew more than 200 guests to celebrate the good news about transportation and air quality.

The ceremony, held this morning at the Georgia-Pacific building in downtown Atlanta, recognized a total of 15 employers, property managers, individuals and schools for their work on programs that encourage the use of commute options and yield demonstrable results.  Get more details on winners and finalists here.