Metro Atlanta commuters know what it’s like to be on the way to work when traffic suddenly comes to a crawl, or even worse, stops. It can be frustrating and cause workers to be late. Luckily, there are some innovative tools to help avoid traffic or find a new route once in it. You learned about Georgia NaviGAtor in my last blog entry, but did you know there’s a service you can call on your phone from anywhere in the state to get real-time traffic and other travel information? It takes intelligent transportation to a new level and is as simple as 1-2-3, or in this case, having your carpool partner dial 511.

This free phone service, run by the Georgia Department of Transportation, provides Georgians with real-time traffic and travel information and allows you to request roadside assistance 24 hours a day from HERO (in metro Atlanta) or other emergency services. Since its launch in 2007, Georgia’s 511 has been called 4.75 million times, at an average of about 4,500 calls each day. The all-time record occurred during the September 2009 floods in metro Atlanta when more than 39,000 calls came in from people trying to navigate around flooded roads.

The U.S. Department of Transportation came up with and petitioned for this three-digit dialing code back in 1999 because at the time, there were more than 300 travel information numbers across the country. With the creation of 511, states and local agencies are still responsible for their own systems, but now travelers only need to know one number for use anywhere in the U.S., like 911.

Georgia decided to make an extensive 511 system that provides residents across the state with not only traffic information, but also with the ability to easily connect with travel and tourism resources from MARTA and major airports to the Georgia Department of Economic Development and even The Clean Air Campaign. Unlike systems in many other states, Georgia’s 511 travel information system also provides access to live operators 24 hours a day and has the ability to offer estimated travel times in metro Atlanta. This system, which is one of the most utilized 511 services in the country, has proven so successful that it has received various awards, including recognition by the Intelligent Transportation Society of Georgia as the most significant transportation technology advancement of 2007. It also received an honorable mention by the Federal Highway Administration during the 2008 Excellence in Highway Design Awards.

With all of these resources and capabilities, Georgia’s 511 service can be helpful for any driver in the state and those passing through, but it serves as an especially handy resource for commuters, who on a daily basis look for faster and safer trips. For example, drivers can use 511 to find out about construction and traffic conditions en route and decide if they need extra time or want to take an alternative path. Also, when a major accident occurs, it’s better for drivers to avoid that area for safety reasons and regional mobility since a backup behind an incident increases the likelihood of a secondary crash.

Has calling 511 helped you? Tell us your story!

For more information about 511, visit www.511ga.org or try it yourself by calling 5-1-1 from any phone in Georgia. Save it in the contacts folder of your cell phone. Or, for those of you with an iPhone, get the 511 app when it’s released on November 29. Apps should be available soon after for Android and Blackberry. Look for the release announcement at georgia-navigator.com.

Seeing is believing. When commuters see how much they stand to gain from not driving alone, they’re reluctant to go back to old habits. When they’re shown that clean commuting can actually be made fun, they are likely to share the news with others. And when they can visually comprehend how transportation and air quality fit together like yin and yang, they hold the power to change the world. At least that’s the vision for this latest installment of Merging Lanes. So keep your eyes peeled, and take a quick glance at what’s happening.

All Aboard: New Vanpool Riders Can Now Earn $3 a Day, Too

Did you know there are more than 300 commuter vans rolling across Georgia? For some dedicated vanpoolers, there’s simply no other way they’d even contemplate getting to work. And now, an exciting new change to the financial incentives program is going to help bring even more new vanpoolers on board. The $3 a day program that pays solo drivers to make the switch from driving alone to alternatives has been expanded to include vanpooling as an eligible mode. For years, vanpool commuting was not included in the $3 a day program, in part because of the other financial support available to vanpoolers. But happily, the van is now part of the plan. There are resources to help you locate vanpool routes, find riders and sign up to earn $3 a day. Check it out.

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Ozone Update: Still Waiting to Exhale
The US Environmental Protection Agency has further extended the timeline for its review of the National Ambient Air Quality Standard for ground-level ozone. The new deadline is December 31, 2010. So, hang in there a little longer. And as soon as a ruling is communicated, The Clean Air Campaign will help make sense of it. The new standard – wherever it lands – holds the prospect of saving thousands of lives. There’s no doubt a ruling that makes this much difference to public health and welfare takes time.

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Carpool Cool: Rap Video Nets National Award Recognition
How do you make carpooling cool in the eyes of John and Jane Q. Public? Write a rap about the joys of carpooling and the resources to help people do it That’s exactly what one commuter did. And in 2009, The Clean Air Campaign worked with this talented individual, plus the three other members of his carpool, to produce a music video that calls out key components of the commute options incentive programs designed to get commuters to try alternatives.

The Transportation Research Board recently recognized this carpool rap video with an honorable mention in the organization’s 4th annual competition, “Communicating Concepts with John and Jane Q. Public: Sustainability and Livability.” It’s exciting to see fun projects like this recognized by TRB. Now, what should we do for an encore? Send us your ideas.

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More Carpool Fun: Mobile Web Game Rewards Carpoolers

What do you get when you cross FourSquare, the popular location-based social media game, with a ridematching concept that helps place people into carpools? Ridekicks, a game/rideshare tool from the UK (still in beta) that brings the potential to put more commuters into carpools. Carpoolers will ultimately earn points toward rewards, and frequent carpoolers can vie for elite status, akin to becoming “mayor” of an establishment in FourSquare. Sounds like fun. Hope a US version is on the way soon.

Merge.

The year 1996 was a big one for transforming metro Atlanta. Not only did the region host the Olympics, but it was also the year that traffic information in Georgia was revolutionized by the creation of NaviGAtor. Realizing the extent of traffic issues the region would encounter as employers, commuters and international visitors converged on Atlanta during the Olympic Games, the Georgia Department of Transportation (GDOT) worked with federal and local authorities to create an Intelligent Transportation System (ITS) to manage the situation.

After 14 years of development, NaviGAtor continues to expand its area of coverage and has led to easier travel, increased safety and saved time and money, all while keeping pollution out of the air. About 350,000 Georgians get traffic information from www.georgia-navigator.com each week, – in addition to the thousands who use the 511 service for such options as real-time traffic updates, reporting incidents and connecting to rideshare and transit information – and the HERO service has assisted motorists involved in a million traffic incidents since launch. Yet despite all that the NaviGAtor system does to help mobility in the state, and your commute, many citizens don’t realize the impact it’s had on them.

At www.georgia-navigator.com, you can check out color-coded maps that show real time incidents, congestion and active construction.

You may forget how bad gridlock was before GDOT’s NaviGAtor came along, so here’s a little reminder. Once in the summer of 1991, there were two accidents on I-285. Pretty typical, right? Well, because the accidents were blocking the highway and assistance was unable to get there in time, people were stuck in the 90-degree temperature for hours, getting overheated, running out of gas and experiencing heat exhaustion. By the time emergency vehicles heard about and were able to respond to this situation, they couldn’t get through to the accidents because of the overwhelming volume of backed up traffic. In those days, it didn’t take much to seriously back up traffic, because if your car or truck broke down in the middle of the interstate or you got in an accident, you sat there until you could get a tow truck to come move you out of the way. Today, NaviGAtor’s HERO trucks patrol 280 miles of metro Atlanta interstates, providing assistance to motorists and commuters in need. The trucks can also be dispatched instantly when motorists report an incident using 511. Unlike 10 years ago, the average clearing time for a car accident incident is now only 10 minutes thanks to HERO, thereby keeping traffic flowing and improving your commute to work.

To better understand NaviGAtor’s impact on the region, consider this. In one year, the NaviGAtor service saved 7 million vehicle-hours of incident delays and 5.2 million gallons of gasoline. It provided 49,000 motorist assists and prevented more than 340 crashes. By helping us avoid more gridlock, NaviGAtor has also protected Georgians from exposure to the extra air pollution that sitting in traffic creates. During a sample year, NaviGAtor helped keep 186 tons of hydrocarbons, more than 2,457 tons of carbon monoxide and more than 261 tons of nitrogen oxide out of the air we breathe. A big thank you to the dedicated team working behind the scenes at NaviGAtor, because even though metro Atlanta has traffic and air quality issues, it clearly would be a lot worse without the helping hands of the NaviGAtor intelligent transportation system.

For more information about NaviGAtor and to get real-time traffic information, visit www.georgia-navigator.com, or call 511.

The chill of autumn is in the air. And The Clean Air Campaign is glad to exchange all the Code Orange smog days over the past five months for orange pumpkins and fall leaves. Rake in all the Georgia transportation and air quality happenings in this latest edition of Merging Lanes.

BP After "Math": Not All's Well That Ends Well

We're approaching the six-month anniversary of the Gulf oil disaster that became one of the worst pollution events in our nation's history. Our water-cooler conversations all spring and summer included terms like "top kill" and "blowout preventer." We watched the live underwater camera feeds and debated whether the nation's dependence on oil had finally gone too far. And although the The Deepwater Horizon well was finally capped several weeks ago, the aftermath will be felt for a long time.

The Feds have arrived at an official estimate for BP's Gulf oil spill - pegged at about five million barrels of oil. Since U.S. refineries produce around 20 gallons of gasoline from one barrel (42 gallons) of crude oil, the spill equates to around 100 million gallons of gasoline. But how connected can Georgians feel to this issue at this point? Figure in the Atlanta region there are about 2.37 million commuters. Of those, about 84% drive alone on their daily commute, averaging a 40 mile roundtrip to and from work. Assuming average fuel economy of about 20 miles to the gallon, that’s nearly 4 million gallons of gas burned every day on commute activity alone.

So commuters in metro Atlanta would burn through this oil spill in approximately 25 days of just normal commuting to and from work. When will more of us turn our discontent over this situation into something actionable?

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Survey Says: What's Different About Your Commute
The 2009 edition of the American Community Survey came out last week, with a section dedicated to commuting characteristics. A few highlights:

• 11% of Georgians carpool to work compared to 10% nationally
• Roughly two out of five of us statewide live in one county and work in another
• That number jumps to more than four out of five in the Atlanta region
• Mean travel time actually "improved" in Atlanta from 30.4 minutes each way to 30.1 minutes. For drive-alone commuters, that represents about a 30-second gain in free time each day. Please, contain your enthusiasm.

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Type II Diabetes Linked to Particle Pollution
A new study has been published demonstrating a correlation between type II diabetes in adults and exposure to particle pollution. According to the researchers, "For every 10 micrograms per cubic meter increase in PM2.5 exposure, there was a 1 percent increase in diabetes prevalence." Although the high season for ground-level ozone has just ended in Georgia, fine particulate matter is a year-round threat to public health. Learn how to limit your exposure and limit your contribution to the problem.

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"Mad" About Transit ...
How has AMC's "Mad Men" series - a sleek 1960s cable TV show about the golden age of advertising - garnered three consecutive Emmy awards for Best Drama? According to this New York Times article, clean commuting plays a lead role.

Merge.

Like a marathon runner digging deep on that last mile, many Atlantans are huffing and puffing through these last days of smog season 2010. The finish line is drawing ever closer (officially September 30), but recent air quality conditions are forcing us to limp along the final stretch.

Here are the facts for Metro Atlanta:

• The region has racked up 25 ground-level exceedances for the year.

• There have been nine in September alone -- that's more September exceedances than we’ve had since 1999 – when we had 14 to close out the last month of smog season.

• We're on a streak of seven violations in the past 9 days, with another forecasted for today.

And now, some big-picture perspective on air quality:

• Ozone concentrations in Georgia and much of the United States have improved over the past few decades, even with large population increases that put more demands on energy use and vehicle travel. This improvement has been the result of state and federal regulatory controls to reduce emissions from sources like power plants, industry and automobiles, not to mention voluntary programs like those of The Clean Air Campaign.

• This year, metro Atlanta has been simmering over an extended period with temperatures that have been hotter than normal. Hot weather is a key ingredient to the formation of ground-level ozone. On top of that, the AJC reports only .14 inch of rain has fallen this month. That’s 2.91 inches below normal for the first three weeks of September. But conditions change often. Last year was much more forgiving ... and next year may be, too.

• There has never been a better time to give your car the day off, as half of all smog-forming emissions in the Atlanta region come from the tailpipes of cars. Choosing to carpool, vanpool, ride transit, telework or even bicycle and walk can make all the difference for healthier air. Sooner or later, rethinking the drive-alone commute crosses the mind of every commuter who is fed up with traffic congestion and lost money/time. So, when will you reach your tipping point?

What's a parent to do on a Code Orange day?
The Clean Air Campaign received a call this week from a concerned parent looking for guidance on whether his children should participate in outdoor activities involving physical exercise. While the best advice for parents is to consult with their child's pediatrician, there is a great reference document prepared in collaboration between The Clean Air Campaign and Children's Healthcare of Atlanta with guidelines on protecting children from air pollution. Worth a look for any parent with active children.

Full recap on smog season coming soon ...
Watch this space for a full recap of smog season 2010. The Clean Air Campaign is crunching numbers and will deliver a summary in early-October, plus a look ahead to pending changes regarding the standards by which ground-level ozone is measured.

The 1970 Clean Air Act, which made the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) responsible for protecting our air, celebrated its 40th birthday on Tuesday. Thanks to the mix of regulatory and voluntary actions that resulted from this law, the air we breathe today is a lot cleaner than it used to be, but we still have a long way to go.

As you sit there and breathe in the air around you, think about what could have happened to the quality of air in our country if this monumental piece of legislation hadn’t been protecting our health and the environment for the past four decades. For a taste of the past, let’s go back to the industrial town of Donora, Pennsylvania in October 1948. A cloud of air pollution stayed over Donora for five days, killing 20 people and sickening 6,000 of the town's 14,000 people.

In 1967, President Lyndon B. Johnson described the state of the air by saying “dirty water and black snow pour from the dismal air to ... the putrid slush that waits for them below." Fortunately, this was not a real weather report, though the President said it could have been. The line, which came from a 600-year old vision of damnation in Dante’s Inferno, made for a startling comparison to the present day environment.

That was before the Clean Air Act. According to an EPA analysis, the first 20 years of the Act programs prevented:

• 205,000 premature deaths
• 672,000 cases of chronic bronchitis
• 21,000 cases of heart disease
• 843,000 asthma attacks
• 10.4 million lost I.Q. points in children – mostly from reducing lead in gasoline
• 18 million child respiratory illnesses

Forty years later, you may be wondering, “Where do we go from here?” How do we get to a point where all the air we breathe is clean? First, air quality standards continue to get stricter based on EPA assessments that public health is adversely affected at lower concentrations of air pollution than previously understood. The EPA is currently preparing to tighten standards again and will announce the new ones soon. A New York Times blog foresees a tough road ahead for these regulations.

The next step involves you. Your actions can and will make a difference for the air we breathe. Try simple changes like carpooling, riding transit or bicycling to work instead of driving alone. If you’re waiting in your car, turn off the engine instead of idling. The next time you purchase a car, get one that’s not as bad for the environment. Or better yet, don’t use a car at all! All of these actions add up to cleaner air for everyone. That’s something we can really celebrate!

Here’s to the next 40 years of cleaner air for everyone!

The Clean Air Campaign and its partners worked with Governor Perdue to create the first-ever Georgia Telework Week from August 23-27, 2010. Our motivation was simple considering that telework represents a convincing workplace strategy for any employer seeking to increase both efficiency and worker satisfaction. And it goes without saying that in many job centers around the state choked by traffic congestion, the best commute is the one that employees don’t have to make.

To many, telework still sounds like a concept that looms in the distance. But more employees are already doing it than most of us realize. In fact, more than 300,000 employees in metro Atlanta and around the state are already teleworking at least once per week. That translates into:

• 600,000 fewer vehicles trips to and from work (that means each work day, telework reduces the equivalent of one-third of the daily traffic on the north- and southbound lanes of Atlanta’ downtown connector);

• 12 million miles of vehicle travel eliminated from Georgia roads;

• and 6,000 tons of pollution kept out of the air we breathe.

This is made possible by one of the most robust broadband Internet networks anywhere in the country … and a growing number of Georgia employers who understand the business case for telework means enhanced productivity by as much as 20%, lower overhead and stronger continuity of operations in case of natural or man-made disasters or emergencies.

More employees in metro Atlanta are working to make their case for telework, too. In fact, another 350,000 employees in the region do not currently telework but believe their job function would allow it.

Here are results from The Clean Air Campaign’s first-ever Georgia Telework Week:

• Some 150 employers across the state – including half of Georgia’s Fortune 500 companies – gave their support to Georgia Telework Week.

• One employer conveyed that “We have experienced a growth in individual responsibility to improve the environment and an increase in morale by implementing [a telework] program.”

• Nearly 900 Georgia teleworkers completed an online survey on their experiences with telework:

- When asked to rate the statement "I am more productive on days when I telework compared to when I work at my place of employment," more than 81% of respondents agreed or strongly agreed.

- When asked to rate the statement “Being able to telework increases my job satisfaction," 85.8% of respondents strongly agreed and 12.5% agreed.

• In showing their support for Georgia Telework Week, comments included:

- “When working out of my home office I have no distractions or disruptions. My favorite aspect is that my commute is now one flight of stairs.”

- “I cut out a commute which lasted 45 minutes in the morning and about an hour at night. I have more time with my family.”

• Teleworking employees also submitted 29 nominations to recognize the efforts of their supervisors as part of The Clean Air Campaign’s Telemanager of the Quarter program.

Georgia’s first-ever Telework Week helped start more conversations about a workplace strategy whose time has come … and how The Clean Air Campaign helps employers start or expand programs with nationally-acclaimed consulting services provided at no cost.

The week also served to raise this simple question for the modern workplace: in our ever-connected world, how much longer will the workforce be content to drive an average of 20 miles to get from one computer to another?

Sometimes when you want to get your point across about social change, satire works best. That's the thinking behind a campaign in Hong Kong to improve air quality. This mock infomercial was created by the Hong Kong Clean Air Network. Check it out:

Humor works to command attention. So does a good visual demonstration. Watch The Clean Air Campaign's more straight-forward pitch on smog awareness here.

Labor Day is almost upon us. And just in time, because The Clean Air Campaign and its partners have been toiling away on innumerable projects for less traffic and cleaner air across Georgia. So, roll up your sleeves and work your way through this latest edition of Merging Lanes.

New Ozone Standard Up in the Air

We circled today's date on our calendars months ago, when the US Environmental Protection Agency announced changes were coming to the standards by which air quality is measured. Why the changes? Because more scientific evidence points to greater public health risks at even lower levels of exposure. In its present review, the EPA set a range for the new standard to fall somewhere between 60 and 70 parts per billion, which is the first time we can recall being given a range instead of an exact number. What will the EPA ultimately decide for the new standard? Looks like we'll have to wait just a little longer to find out.

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Recapping Telework Week

Many thanks to the Governor's office, the 150 Georgia employers and the thousands of commuters who showed their support for the first-ever Georgia Telework Week last week. Also, thank you to our guest bloggers, including telework expert Kate Lister, for sharing insight into telework as a business strategy who's time has come, and to the San Diego Clean Fuels Coalition and Greater Lansing Area Clean Cities for cheering us on from afar. What was accomplished? An important conversation was started with many employers - and reinvigorated with many others - about redefining how work gets done. One employer noted "We have found this strategy to fundamentally support productivity and quality of life at our firm." A teleworking commuter offered this testimonial: "Telework means one less day having to deal with traffic and I find myself more productive working from home." Consider that some 300,000 employees in the Atlanta region telework at least once a week, eliminating 12 million miles of vehicle travel from the roads and keeping 6,000 tons of pollution out of the air we breathe. There's an awful lot of room to build on that success, both in Atlanta and in other employment centers around Georgia.

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Worst Traffic Jam EVER?

This recent story puts Georgia's traffic congestion problems into perspective. A stretch of road between Beijing and Tibet has endured a 60-mile traffic jam that took a week and a half to clear ... only to get mired in gridlock again just a few days later. One expert tries to make sense of it all here. Metro Atlantans already lose 60 hours a year above and beyond their normal commute times to traffic snarls, according to the Texas Transportation Institute's 2009 Urban Mobility Report. Imagine losing 216 hours in the traffic oblivion lurking outside Beijing.

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Walk On

What's your Walk Score? That's the question a website asks in the context of promoting more walkable neighborhoods and more access to alternative transportation. Just plug in your address to find out your walk score and see what's near you, what you're likely to spend on housing and transportation costs and your commute distance. I was disappointed to see that my measly walk score of 37 (out of a possible 100 points) indicates I am "car-dependent." Boo, hiss. What I wouldn't give for better "last-mile" connectivity between my home and the Indian Creek MARTA station a few miles away! My boss fared much better on his walk score with an impressive tally of 94, which qualified as "walker's paradise."

Merge.

More and more, employers are looking for ways to help their associates enjoy greater quality of life and a more productive work/life balance by offering flexible work hours or telework programs. And in turn, new associates and recent college graduates are looking for companies that provide such options.

We introduced a telework program at Shaw in 2007 for this very reason – to offer our own associates more flexibility and a better work/life balance. What began as a pilot program within our IT department has now become a growing – and valuable – part of the way we work: we now have between 150 and 170 associates participating in the telework program, including associates in our information services, legal, enterprise excellence, talent acquisition and marketing groups.

Reducing gas consumption, saving energy and decreasing carbon emissions associated with car commuting are some of the many environmental benefits our telework program has helped generate. But the program also offers myriad additional benefits, both for the qualified associates who participate, and for our organization as a whole.

In fact, beyond the environmental benefits of teleworking, one of the biggest advantages is the flexibility it allows. While some people prefer more time in the office, some people work better the other way round – coming to the office for meetings and collaboration, then working from home to organize, prioritize and focus on projects without distraction. Having a telework program in place means many of our associates have that option – and for people who are already productive and contributing at a high level, this option very often makes them even better. In other words, teleworking is something we’ve found works all the way around for us.

Paul Richard is Vice President of Human Resources for Shaw Industries Group, Inc. in Dalton, Georgia. Shaw is the largest manufacturing employer in the state of Georgia. For more information about Shaw Industries' commitment to Sustainability through Innovation -- The Shaw Green Edge, visit www.shawgreenedge.com.