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.

Truly there is never a dull moment on the roads.  And now commuters in the Woodstock area can add another crazy challenge to the traffic congestion that befalls area roads: a wild turkey disrupting commute trips.

Wild Turkey Makes Home in Woodstock: MyFoxATLANTA.com

Doesn't this bird know what happens next week?  

With Thanksgiving fast approaching, The Clean Air Campaign offers this money savings tip: carpooling just a few times can free up enough money on gas and car expenses to help the typical Georgia commuter buy a delicious turkey. 

We're looking at you, Tom.

The ink is still drying on a new report that describes traffic congestion in the Atlanta region.  On paper, it appears that Atlanta’s reputation as a bumper-to-bumper bastion of gridlock is improving.  But a closer look reveals a tale of two regions:

It was the best of times …
The Texas Transportation Institute’s latest edition of the Urban Mobility Study for Atlanta indicates traffic sucks less in the region.  Atlanta improved its position in the overall rankings, moving from 11th worst traffic in the U.S. to 13th worst.  There is more open space on the roads and strategies to manage traffic are working.  But don’t throw the confetti just yet.

It was the worst of times …
Double-digit unemployment factors into the current conditions.  But the new data also show what the region is losing because of systemic traffic interference:
−    At the nexus of time and money, each peak commuter in the region loses $924 annually in opportunity costs because they can’t get out of traffic.  Hello, monthly mortgage payment.   

−    Further adding to the white-knuckled, vein-popping frustration, each peak commuter squanders 43 hours over the course of a year sitting in congestion delays above and beyond normal commute times.  That’s more time than many employees receive for vacation in a given year.

−    Employers in the region swallow a cumulative $2.5 billion in lost productivity because employees are stuck in traffic.  This becomes an integral part of conversations in corner offices around the region when business community leaders discuss the Transportation Investment Act.

−    Excess fuel consumption also hits commuters in the pocketbook.  The region burns up 53 million gallons of gas annually while peak commuters simmer in traffic, resulting in discretionary dollars diverted away from local retailers.

At the end of the day, much of what brings this tale of two regions together is the sense of urgency around stabilizing the economy.  It can be expected that as times of economic prosperity eventually find their way back to Atlanta, so, too, will more commuters.  How the region changes - in terms of embracing commute options and expanding the transportation network to bust out of traffic congestion - determines whether we can hold our position and not backslide into traffic oblivion.

Today's Atlanta Journal-Constitution reports a minor traffic accident involving a chicken truck had commuters clucking.  No fowl play is suspected, but commuters in the vicinity are advised to be careful.  Just reinforces what we've said all along: traffic is for the birds ;)

It’s hard to believe that 15 years have passed since the 1996 Olympic Games.  This two-week event fostered unprecedented growth in the region and recognition for years after the closing ceremonies, truly solidifying Atlanta as an international city.

As we commemorate the 15th anniversary of Atlanta's Olympics, it's understandable if many Georgians who were part of the experience are feeling a bit nostalgic.  Some of us may even be tempted to dust off our Izzy memorabilia.  But those involved with The Clean Air Campaign are excited to celebrate the occasion for a different reason: the Olympic experience shaped our mission for less traffic and cleaner air, providing a glimpse into what was possible.

As the 1996 Olympics approached, senior business and political leaders agreed that traffic congestion and poor air quality could have an adverse impact on the success of the Games.  Atlanta had cultivated an image as the City that would carry off the biggest, most successful Games in history. This required not merely facilitating the 10,000 athletes involved, 15,000 members of the international press and more than 2 million spectators on hand, but also ensuring that gridlock and poor air quality issues did not upstage the Games. All agreed this would require significant efforts to reduce normal traffic congestion in the region.  For their part, the business community agreed to take steps to encourage employees to significantly reduce commuting trips during the period of the Games. In preparation for this effort, The Clean Air Campaign was officially launched in the late-spring of 1996.

The arrival of the "Games of the 100th Olympiad" brought unparalleled excitement for many, but employers and commuters were concerned about the impact of millions of visitors on Atlanta's transportation network.  How would the business community be able to conduct business as usual during the Olympics if employees couldn't get downtown?  And so, a business strategy came into focus, albeit years ahead of its time.  Allowing employees to work from home or from remote locations (telework) would help keep them out of traffic and be productive.  Ask anyone who traveled the roads at rush hour during this time and they'll tell you it was surprisingly empty. A vision for less traffic was achieved in part through the proactive, business-driven decisions of Atlanta employers.

At this same time, Atlanta's environmental and health communities observed a remarkable trend.  Air quality in the region actually improved during the Olympics.  No Code Red or Code Orange exceedences for ground-level ozone or particle pollution were observed.  A study even found area visits to emergency rooms for respiratory illness declined 40% during this timeframe.  With half of all smog-forming emissions in the region coming from tailpipes, this unexpected and positive news on air quality validated the notion that voluntary actions could move the needle toward cleaner air.

Fifteen years after the Olympic cauldron went dark, there is still much to celebrate.  The Clean Air Campaign and its partners currently work with more than 1,600 Georgia employers across the state on commute options programs that improve employee productivity and morale.  Tens of thousands of Georgia commuters have also changed their commute activity with assistance and resources from The Clean Air Campaign and more than 330 Georgia schools are involved in the Clean Air Schools program, educating future leaders about the importance of air quality.  Nearly a decade has passed since the region last experienced a Code Purple exceedence for ozone, and the number of Code Red exceedences has declined significantly. 

The transformational impact of the Summer Games on this region will always be a point of pride.  So, too, is the mission for less traffic and cleaner air.

Whoever declared "getting there is half the fun" must have been a carpool, vanpool, transit, telework or bike/ped commuter.  Plucked from recent headlines, here are three reasons more of us should try alternatives to driving alone ... because our well-being could literally depend on it:  

Changing your commute could save your marriage. 
Can the hassle of a lengthy commute douse the flames of matrimony?  According to a dissertation from a Swedish institution of higher learning, those with longer commutes have more earning potential and career opportunities ... but they are 40% more likely to get divorced.  Daily roundtrip commute times for one in ten lovelorn Swedes stands at around 45 minutes.  Georgia commuters can top that: in metro Atlanta, the average roundtrip commute clocks in at precisely one hour.  Think of all those honey-drenched text messages you could be sending discreetly to your significant other ("u complete me <3") from the comfort of an Xpress bus or the backseat of a vanpool.

Changing your commute could save you big bucks.
Why can't you afford to dine out on a juicy ribeye or strap on a new pair of shoes?  Because more of your discretionary dollars are going toward gasoline.  Of course you know this, but has it really sunk in?  From Huffington Post, this mathematical moment of clarity:

"For every $10 the typical household earns before taxes, almost a full dollar now goes toward gas, a 40 percent bigger bite than normal.  Families now spend more filling up than they spend on cars, clothes or recreation. Last year, they spent less on gasoline than each of those things." 

The quickest way to shore up your household budget - and free up money to do the things you enjoy - is to keep your car's mileage down.

Changing your commute could save a life.
A new study from the Harvard School of Public health finds that motor vehicle emissions have a public health cost.  Researchers looked at premature deaths in 83 urban areas that were the result of exposure to particle pollution, using models to correlate how much of that pollution was the result of vehicle emissions.  The modeling found that in Atlanta, 70 premature deaths occurred in 2010 that were the result of particle pollution from tailpipes.  The silver lining in this black cloud?  The study notes that premature deaths and related social costs from traffic congestion are declining over the long run, as technology advances, control strategies and voluntary actions have all helped curb particle pollution emissions that come from cars and trucks.  But there's more work to do.  And it starts with the daily commute.

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.

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?

Lane ends 2,000 feet.

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.

Lane ends 1,000 feet.

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.

Lane ends 500 feet.

"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.

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?