The Clean Air Campaign and local transportation management associations offer financial incentives to both employers and commuters who live or work in Georgia. For employers, these incentives can help defray the costs of implementing commute options programs and encourage commitment from the top. For commuters, the financial incentives encourage trial use of various commute alternatives with the expectation that successful trial use will result in long-term adoption of that alternative. More than 85,000 Georgia commuters have participated in these programs since inception.
Commuter Rewards provides financial incentives to commuters who carpool, ride transit, vanpool, telework, bicycle or walk to work. Commuter Rewards includes three programs:
- Cash for Commuters – This program, started in 2002, offers commuters cash to change their commutes. Participants earn $3 for each day they use a qualified commute alternative within a consecutive 90-day period (up to $100). According to a survey of Cash for Commuters participants prepared by the Center for Transportation and the Environment on behalf of the Georgia Department of Transportation, 74 percent of participants continue to use their commute alternative 12-18 months after completing the program, when this incentive is no longer available to them.
- Commuter Prizes – Commuter Prizes, introduced in 2005, gives metro Atlantans the opportunity to win prizes for their clean commuting habits. Each month, participants are entered into a random drawing for $25 gift cards. Each clean commute earns an entry into the monthly drawing.
- Carpool Rewards – Registered participants who carpool 15 or more days each month receive a monthly gas card for up to 12 months. Three-person carpools receive a $40 gas card per month and carpools with four or more receive $60 per month. Carpool Rewards was introduced in 2005.
Vanpool Incentives – The Clean Air Campaign has offered incentives to offset the costs of vanpooling since 2002. In 2008, more than 100 new vans hit the road - nearly doubling the number established in 2007. There are now approximately 350 vanpools on the road in metro Atlanta.
Commuter Recognition Program – In 2009, The Clean Air Campaign launched a commuter recognition program to acknowledge long-term milestones reached by clean commuters. Clean Air Commuter Champions are recognized for logging 25,000 and 50,000 alternative commutes. All members of this elite group of commuters receive certificates to acknowledge their accomplishment and letters of congratulations – mailed directly to the commuters and their supervisors – highlighting their contributions to improving the region’s air quality, traffic and quality of life.