EOPB Fall 2002 Newsletter

The Eyes of Paint Branch - Fall 2002 Newsletter
Volume: 8 Issue: 2

If We Say NO to the ICC, Then What Are the Alternatives? Here Are Some Ideas That Work

Los Angeles, which is consistently rated the city with the worst traffic congestion in the nation, has a staggering 909 miles of freeways and highways. Even The Washington Post, a constant booster of the false ideology of road expansion as the solution to commuting woes, admitted in a 1999 article that "widened highways generate their own traffic," citing the fact that "less than eight years after [the widening of I-270] was finished, the highway has again been reduced to what one official called 'a rolling parking lot.'" ¹ The Maryland State Highway Administration's own Environmental Impact Statement projected that not only would the ICC not relieve Beltway traffic, it would actually increase local traffic congestion while fragmenting neighborhoods and destroying homes, forests, parks, streams, and floodplains.² Road building and road widening are an old-fashioned, discredited mid-20th century approach to the problems of the 21st century. Expensive and destructive, they compound the problem rather than alleviating it.

So what are the smart-growth-oriented alternatives? There are more of them than you may think, and they work. Here's a brief overview of just a few of the solutions that could be implemented in Montgomery County with the $1.5 billion we'd save by not constructing the ICC.

Wagon carrying equivalent of the pollution in the form of particulate matter that is generated by one eastern Montgomery County resident commuting to work in Tysons Corner for one year.

Over 10 percent of the U.S. workforce already telecommutes full- or part-time, and the numbers are growing. Recent cost-benefit analysis shows that employers can save up to $14,388 per year by allowing an individual employee to telecommute part-time.³ According to the 1999 Telework America National Telework Survey, employees who telecommute save their employers $10,000 each in reduced absenteeism and job retention. And the benefits to the environment are even greater: if an eastern Montgomery County resident whose company headquarters is in Tysons Corner, Virginia, telecommutes full-time instead of driving his Saturn to the office, he'll save 5,075 pounds of CO₂ pollution per year, and 220 pounds of particulate matter, a current suspect in the 100 percent increase in American asthma rates over the last 30 years. If she telecommuted instead of driving her Ford Expedition to Tysons Corner each day, she'd save 10,520 pounds of CO₂! Even if she worked from home only 2 days a week and drove that SUV the other 3 days, she would save 4,208 pounds of CO₂ per year.⁴ And obviously, every car off the road is one less car adding to our rush-hour traffic.

Contrary to popular belief, high-tech jobs are not the only occupations that lend themselves to telecommuting, though of course the D.C. metropolitan area has tech jobs in abundance. Researchers, writers, graphic artists, accountants, lawyers, consultants, administrators, and engineers; anyone who has a job that includes time spent independently preparing reports or proposals or compiling data and research, or making phone calls, is a potential telecommuter.

Telecommuting offers numerous benefits to both employers and employees including reduced absenteeism, increased productivity, lower overhead costs, a better work-family balance, reduced stress and of course, reduced commuting time and expense.⁵

The Maryland Department of Transportation, in collaboration with the Baltimore Metropolitan Council and the Metropolitan Washington Council of Governments, already sponsors a little-known Telework Partnership with Employers that offers free professional services to Maryland companies interested in setting up telecommuting programs, and more should be done to promote this program. Prince George's County has several Telework Centers that provide videoconferencing, faxing, copying, printing, and voicemail systems to workers who commute a short distance to the center instead of working in a distant office -- that Montgomery County has not yet established similar centers is astonishing. Furthermore, the county could look to D.C. and Northern Virginia, where a 2-year pilot program "eCommute," funded by a federal grant and run by the nonprofit, bipartisan National Environmental Policy Institute, encourages businesses to contribute to environmental quality by providing tax incentives for allowing employees to telecommute.⁶

Build the Inner Purple Line
This proposed 14-mile, suburb-to-suburb light rail line would not only save time for existing transit riders but also inevitably bring more commuters out of their cars and on-board Metro. The Sierra Club estimates that 160,000 to 200,000 riders would use the Purple Line every day -- that's equivalent to the carrying capacity of two to three highway traffic lanes.⁷ As William Miller, President of the American Public Transportation Association, explained in his May 23, 2001, testimony before the House Highways and Transit Subcommittee, modern mass transit solutions like the Purple Line are not a matter of "just talking about more buses or more trains, but rather about ways to improve the way we live. Transit rail lines … can provide a nucleus for high-density urban growth, giving workers the option to live near jobs, replacing congested highway miles with transit trips and easy walking distances."⁸

In addition to construction of the Purple Line, existing parking structures adjacent to popular suburban Metro stops should be expanded, and a portion of the gasoline or automotive sales tax could be used to expand the program of free bus rides on Code Red bad air days to include Metrorail itself.

Enhance Existing Mass Transit with Shuttle Bus Service and Provide Unlimited Alternate Rides Home to Car and Van Poolers
In cities across America, socially responsible businesses, in cooperation with local transit authorities, provide free shuttle buses from light and heavy rail stations directly to their employment centers. In San Jose, eleven shuttle routes take transit users to major business parks, downtown hotels, and San Jose State University. IBM's light rail shuttle, for example, combines fixed-route service during peak commuter hours with demand-response service in the off-rush hours, while Lockheed Martin operates its own network of employee shuttle buses.⁹ And in Mercer County, New Jersey, leading employers like Janssen Pharmaceutical, Merrill Lynch, and Educational Testing Service participate in a "Home Free Program" for employees who carpool, vanpool, take mass transit, bike, or walk to work. Anytime these workers have to work late or leave early due to illness or a family emergency, they can take a free private car service home -- drivers will even make intermediate stops at schools and daycare centers.¹⁰

Montgomery County, with our many empty HOV lanes begging to be filled by multiple-occupant cars, vans, and private buses, could encourage its existing employers to create similar programs through tax incentives, and could require them from any large businesses that wish to construct new office complexes outside of city centers.

Expand and Promote Carsharing Programs
Many residents who live in town and city centers in the Washington, D.C., metro area and already use mass transit feel compelled to own and maintain a car just for those rare trips to the mountains on the weekends or so they can run errands during the workday. Zipcar and Flexcar programs allow participants who pay an annual fee and security deposit to borrow from a fleet of cars kept at Metro stations and use them on an occasional, as-needed basis. Arlington County, Virginia, pays the $25 application fee for residents, and the City of Alexandria gives participants in carsharing programs $105 towards their first year's membership fee. Montgomery County should do the same.

Encourage Flex Time< BR> Companies could actively encourage their employees to adopt staggered work schedules. While not providing the antipollution benefits that telecommuting, mass transit, or ride sharing does, flex time would greatly ease the traffic congestion that surrounds the hours of 9 AM and 5 PM. More flexible work hours would also be helpful to households with two working parents.

Deciding to Live Where You Work/Work Where You Live
The most obvious solution to long and congested commutes is perhaps the most unexplored: incentives to help individuals chose to live near their places of employment, and its corollary, incentives to businesses who make it easier for their workers to do so. Companies could provide financial assistance through low interest loans or no-closing-cost mortgages to employees who live within a predefined radius. The county could offer property tax deductions to people who telecommute or who move closer to their offices. Large corporations with multiple offices in the area could make it possible for two employees who do the same or similar jobs to swap locations in order to cut down on their commute.

Notes