Chapter 4, Part 2, ACCS Strategic Plan

This text-only version is offered as a more accessible alternative to this PDF document: Arlington County Commuter Services Transportation Demand Management Plan (PDF, 2.6 MB).

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OUTREACH (FOCUS GROUPS)

In order to obtain perspectives on existing services as well as any perceived needs for future changes to programs and services from Arlington residents and existing ATP users, ACCS engaged these audiences to meet the “focus group” requirement for the TDMP utilizing the following methods:

• Public outreach at four workshops conducted in conjunction with efforts to solicit feedback on Arlington’s 10-year Transit Development Plan (TDP); and
• Survey of and feedback from ATP clients resulting in a report prepared jointly by ATP and the Mobility Lab entitled Enhancing ATP’s “Champions” Program: Research-Based Solutions for Arlington’s Commute Market. This report makes recommendations as to how ATP could better serve its client base.

Feedback collected via each method is summarized in the subsections below.

Public Engagement Workshops

To solicit feedback, ACCS participated in four public outreach events in October and November 2015:

• October 27, 2015 – Courthouse Plaza Building, 2100 Clarendon Boulevard;
• October 28, 2015 – Aurora Hills Community Center, 735 18th Street South;
• November 2, 2015 – Arlington Mill Community Center, 909 S. Dinwiddie Street; and
• November 4, 2015 – George Mason University, 3352 Fairfax Drive.

Sixty-nine total participants attended the events, which were primarily focused on the Arlington Transit Development Plan. At each event, ACCS had two outreach boards: one briefly explaining ACCS programs and services, and another encouraging participants to stick Post-It notes indicating their responses to two prompts:

1. Your Experience with ACCS. What has been your experience using ACCS services? How has ACCS impacted the way you travel in the region? Which ACCS programs have served you best?
2. Improving ACCS. What services or programs could ACCS implement to improve your commute and travel experience in, around, and through Arlington County?

Graphic showing sample from presentation board omitted from text-only version.

Responses (shown as presented) to each prompt are summarized in Table 17. On the “Experience with ACCS” side, participants seemed to appreciate ACCS’ bike-related programs as well as Arlington’s Car-Free Diet. Suggestions to improve ACCS spanned a number of innovative areas, including bike share for daycare, a Car-Free Diet smartphone application, and promotion of a reverse commute rideshare program.

Table 17: Responses to ACCS Prompts at Public Outreach Events

ATP Client Study - Enhancing ATP’s “Champions” Program

ATP’s Client Study examines its “Champions” program, its primary sales campaign, which appeals to employers’ public-recognition interests through its medal-based classifications of participants (bronze, silver, gold, and platinum), and its use of recognition events and marketing as rewards for program participation. This study had four stated project goals:

• Provide ATP staff with information that will allow for refinement of sales techniques and messaging to its employer clients;
• Identify the range of employer/developer/residential-management TDM offerings available across the United States and compare with those offered in Arlington, with examples of best practices for ATP to implement;
• Explore the barriers and incentives that employers face in offering TDM services around the United States and compare with those identified by Arlington employers; and
• Begin a concentrated effort of reporting back to clients that participate in Mobility Lab and ACCS surveys with research results; develop a plan for disseminating the results of this study.

In order to achieve these goals, the project team consulted a variety of sources and met regularly to discuss those sources and reflect on ATP’s experience. In addition to a survey of ATP clients conducted via an online questionnaire during May and June 2014, the team also consulted ATP focus groups completed in November 2013, a secondary source literature review, a review of prior ACCS surveys, interviews with other TDM professionals, and a previously-conducted survey of ATP clients.  

The client survey focused on the barriers employers face in implementing TDM services and incentives to their employees as well as the benefits of implementing them. In addition, the survey was designed to gather information about respondents’ familiarity with and use of ATP services, as well as a series of questions focused on clients’ attitudes towards having organizations like ATP carry out surveys of their employees. 192 individuals completed the survey for a response rate of 31 percent among valid contacts.

Findings from the 2014 ATP client study include:

• Facilities for biking have become more common over time, though office buildings predominately offer these services;
• Very few client organizations administer or sponsor vanpools;
• Employer contacts expressed little interest in offering preferential carpool or vanpool parking, financial benefits for carpooling and vanpooling, compressed work week schedules, and bicycle lockers or racks; and
• Sales for fleet vehicles, shuttles, or sponsored vanpools might be best directed at developers and property managers, given that the 2014 survey of ATP clients found that where such benefits are available, the building management is behind their provision, not the tenant employers.

Moreover, as a result of the study, ATP identified a need to make mode shift an explicit, underlying goal of the “Champions” program. As such, the study notes that ATP will begin tracking travel choices of clients’ employees over time to evaluate program progress. To assess these changes, ATP will rely on employee commute surveys.

As a result of the study ATP introduced a pledge program based on mode-split outcomes to “Champions.” Under this program, employer clients set targets for their employees’ overall mode split and worked toward those goals using whichever TDM measures are most appropriate. According to the study, mode split pledges fit with evidence from behavior change research stating that individuals are more likely to follow through on a change if they have committed to it publicly or in the presence of others. ATP is also using this approach in its TDM for Schools program as a mechanism through which to test out messaging and sales techniques that use mode-split goals and pledges.

Finally, as a result of the study ATP incorporated mode specific Achievement Awards as an add-on to “Champions.” Employers participating in Champions are able to earn Achievement Awards by offering sets of TDM services and benefits that complement each other in promoting certain modes. ATP is evaluating this new feature to determine if it helps keep clients engaged with the program by offering them new forms of recognition, and whether it has helped sales representatives talk about how TDM benefits and services in changing behavior when they are bundled together for specific modes.

Outreach Conclusions

ACCS’ outreach efforts, aimed both at commuters and employers, provided valuable insight into ACCS services and included a significant amount of positive feedback regarding ACCS services and programs. Resident interest in new technology offerings, including an app for Car-Free Diet as well as additional real time displays, point to the need to continue to integrate and advance technological innovation in ACCS’ work. The ATP Client Study’s finding that few client organizations administer or sponsor vanpools or offer bike amenities indicates the need to explore mechanisms through which to increase participation in and enthusiasm for such programs. ATP should also promote incentives for issuing TDM benefits in addition to the ability to keep up with industry competitors. Lastly, mode split pledges and badges for employers will likely serve as an effective initiative

PEER PROGRAM REVIEW

An organizational review of five peer TDM agencies – two within Virginia and three outside the Commonwealth – was conducted to compare the ACCS program to those of other jurisdictions and to gain insight on how the program could improve. Topics assessed for each peer included basic demographics, program organizational structure, services provided for commuters and employers, marketing, performance measurement practices, and each agency’s role in regional planning. The in-state peer review covered the following TDM programs, selected on the basis of their similarity in scale or range of services to ACCS:

• City of Alexandria – Local Motion and
• Hampton Roads Transit – TRAFFIX.

Out-of-state peers were selected in part based on similarity to Arlington County. The selection process took into account several factors, including regional population and proximity to a major metropolitan area. It was also designed to target programs that have innovative TDM practices that are not currently employed in Arlington County. Given the breadth of ACCS existing program, a premium was placed on uncovering new practices and better ways of providing services via the peer review. To collect information on out-of-state peers, hour-long phone interviews were conducted with representatives from each of the following three agencies:

• City of Seattle, Washington Transit & Mobility Division, Way to Go, Seattle!;
• Transportation Authority of Marin County, California (TAM); and
• Greater Valley Forge Transportation Management Association (GVFTMA).

Information on each peer, including the staff member interviewed or who reviewed the material and his or her title, can be found in Table 18.

Table 18: Peer Agency Review Overall Information

TDM Service Area Profiles

Table 19 summarizes the service areas of each of the five peer agencies; statistics on ACCS’ service area (Arlington County) are also reported for comparison.  Figures below, collected from recent U.S. Census data, describe the jurisdictions in which the programs operate rather than information on actual TDM program users.

With a service area covering 12 total jurisdictions and 1,785 square miles, TRAFFIX covers the largest ground of any agency, as well as the largest estimated service area population (1,634,104). TRAFFIX also caters to the most racially diverse constituency of any peer profiled. Marin County’s median income ($95,749) is the highest of any peer; however, this figure is still significantly lower than Arlington County’s reported median income ($109,266). In the City of Seattle, the lowest percentage of residents of any peer jurisdiction (50 percent) report driving alone to work. In Alexandria, the greatest relative percentage of residents of any peer agency (30 percent) report commuting via either carpool or public transit.

Table 19: Peer Agency Service Area Profiles

Organizational Structure

Information on the organizational structure of each peer – including staff, budget, and funding sources – can be found in Table 20. Three of the five peer agencies operate as part of a municipal government. Of the remaining two peers, TRAFFIX is managed and staffed by Hampton Roads Transit, a transit agency, and GVFTMA is a registered nonprofit and Transportation Management Association (TMA). Staff sizes vary across the peers: Alexandria has a relatively small full-time staff, and while TAM houses the largest staff (eleven), no team member’s job responsibilities are entirely devoted to TDM.

Local Motion and TRAFFIX’s budgets – each devoted entirely to operating – are fairly comparable. With the exception of GVFTMA, all programs currently use or have in the past used Congestion Mitigation and Air Quality (CMAQ) federal funding for projects.  As organizational budgets vary depending on grant and other funding available, budget estimates were not provided by the City of Seattle or the TAM programs. However, each of these programs offered a list of funding sources commonly utilized. Finally, as a nonprofit TMA, GVFTMA’s structure allows the organization the unique flexibility to perform fee-for-service work for various partners and organizations, which can include annual report production (including graphic design), social media tool setup, and shuttle administration and management, a cornerstone of GVFTMA’s services.

Table 20: Peer Agency Organizational Structures

Commuter Services and Programs

Brief profiles of the services provide by each of the peer agencies are provided below. Following the descriptions, Table 21 summarizes commuter service offerings by peer.

Local Motion

Local Motion encompasses residential outreach and compliance with residential building TDM conditions, employer outreach, and the promotion of active transportation through events and literature. The residential outreach component of Local Motion’s program includes new homeowner information packets and special events such as Bike to Work Day or Try Transit Week. Moreover, an annual commuter challenge held each April incentivizes employees to abandon single occupancy vehicles in favor of walking, biking, carpool, vanpool, or transit options. Employers with employees participating in the challenge compete for gold, silver, and bronze prizes; winning companies are recognized publicly at a City Council meeting.

The City of Alexandria’s Mobile Transit Store Kiosk sells fare media at various city locations, serving a wide range of residents and commuters. Although Local Motion does not coordinate its own ridematching service, the program links to and provides technical assistance using the MWCOG Commuter Connections ridematching and Guaranteed Ride Home programs. Local Motion also provides financial incentives for vanpool formation and maintenance through the Van Start and Van Save programs, as well as reimbursement for the first year of a carshare service membership and application fee (Zipcar or Enterprise currently operate in the City) through the Carshare Alexandria! program.

TRAFFIX

Like Local Motion, TRAFFIX does not coordinate its own carpool ridematching service, instead forwarding interested customers to the NuRide program, a ridesharing rewards initiative available at several locations nationally. TRAFFIX administers its own vanpool program, leasing vans from a private company. TRAFFIX provides services to employers seeking to promote non-drive alone commuting, coordinating with willing employers and military installations to promote benefits programs and incentives for commuters using transit or rideshare. In addition, the GoPass365 program, a hallmark of TRAFFIX’s services, allows businesses and educational institutions to purchase discounted transit passes to provide to their employees or students.

Way to Go, Seattle! (City of Seattle)

The City of Seattle’s TDM programs are housed under the Way to Go, Seattle! Transportation Options Program. Although the program is primarily focused on employer services, it does connect individual area residents to services including ridematching and vanpool programs not directly managed by the City. Seattle also provides detailed information on various transit services on its website, and recently partnered with several downtown buildings to install multimodal transit screens.

TAM

The Transportation Authority of Marin’s (TAM) TDM initiatives were authorized as part of a local vehicle registration fund in 2010 by Marin County Voters. The TDM Program is promoted as part of a Green Commute Alternatives program which provides outreach and assistance to employee and employers in Marin County. For carpool matching assistance, TAM directs interested parties to 511 Rideshare, a San Francisco Bay area organization. Participants can there sign up for a carpool database promoted by TAM. While vanpool matching is also coordinated via 511 Rideshare, TAM provides a $3,600 incentive to vanpools with an origin or destination within the County, provided over a two-year period. TAM manages a countywide Emergency Ride Home Program, and relatively recently participated in a tri-county dynamic rideshare pilot program using the Carma smartphone application. TAM also conducts successful Safe Routes to School and School Pool initiatives that incorporate TDM programs directed exclusively at school based trips.  

GVFTMA

GVFTMA provides useful and detailed information on all things TDM through its TDM-focused website, WeAreTDM.com (a different URL from the organization’s main page). For ridematching, GVFTMA primarily promotes the Delaware Valley Regional Planning Commission’s (DVRPC) carpool ridematching service, but also maintains an older, less utilized ridematching program of its own. The organization also works with interested passengers to coordinate vanpools through the Enterprise and vRide vanpool programs. In addition, GVFTMA has over two decades of shuttle management experience, and administers shuttles for various private and public entities in the region. Finally, the organization manages PhillyTraffic.com, a one-stop location for all traffic information in the Greater Philadelphia region.

Table 21: Peer Agency Commuter/Resident Program Offerings

Among effective strategies for engaging commuters, GVFTMA has found that an employer’s backing or support for a particular initiative can play a large role in its success. In Seattle, special events such as Bike Month as well as ongoing communication with employee transportation coordinators at businesses  often correlate with increased participation. Moreover, TAM has found that events geared specifically toward transportation (such as transportation fairs) have sometimes correlated with increased signups for particular programs.

Peer agencies have also made attempts to engage non-English-speaking or low income populations. For example, TAM has developed advertisements in both English and Spanish to be placed inside buses. In the Seattle region, transit organizations have offered discounted fare cards for low income transit riders.

Employer Services

Brief profiles of employer service offerings for each of the peer agencies are provided below. Following the descriptions, Table 22 summarizes peer agency employer services.

Local Motion

Local Motion provides specifically-tailored, complimentary assistance to businesses through its employer outreach program. Services include employee transportation surveys, transit benefit assistance, transportation brochures, seminars and workshops, bicycle friendly business assistance, and parking management plans. Local Motion also produces new employee TDM packets and offers telework support to both employers and employees.

TRAFFIX

The TRAFFIX program provides assistance to employers in several ways, including telework promotion and assistance through the Telework!VA program. TRAFFIX also promotes the NuRide program to regional employers, which include military installations, educational institutions, and Port of Virginia related businesses. Finally, TRAFFIX encourages and assists with the provision of transportation commuter benefits, benefits provided by employers for employees commuting by vanpool or transit to work on a regular basis.

Way to Go, Seattle! (City of Seattle)

The City of Seattle serves employers through programs such as NavSeattle, an initiative aimed at residential building managers and developers. Essentially, NavSeattle links the City’s multifamily residential sector with resources designed to improve upon and encourage a given building’s transportation amenities. The program includes property manager seminars, residential fairs, and various, periodic incentives for residents such as visiting bike mechanics, discounted bikeshare memberships, or discounted carshare memberships. On its website, NavSeattle urges property managers to take such actions as distributing neighborhood maps for walking, installing digital transit screens, provide bike parking, holding transportation events, and providing detailed information on non-single occupancy vehicle modes.

The City also works with large employers (100 employees or more) to help them comply with Washington State’s Commute Trip Reduction (CTR) program. With assistance from state and local government entities, the highly successful CTR program requires that large employers develop commute programs to reduce single occupancy vehicle usage. Seattle also assists owners and managers in creating, implementing, and assessing Transportation Management Programs, mandated building-wide transportation programs. Lastly, Seattle encourages employer participation in employer transit subsidy programs; for reference, the City currently pays 100 percent of its employees’ transit fares.

TAM

TAM in Marin County engages in unique employer-specific programs. TAM produces and promotes the GoTimeMarin Toolkit, an employer-focused resource booklet designed to educate newly relocated and existing places of business on setting up a sustainable transportation program. Additionally, the Marin Telework Initiative aims to promote telework as a highly viable commute option. TAM has also offered education to interested parties on a regional commuter benefits ordinance requiring employers with 50 or more employees to provide a transportation service subsidy, incentive, or similar option.  The Marin Emergency Ride Home program is also provided as a benefit to employers and employees.

GVFTMA

GVFTMA has a robust employer services program, a hallmark of which is the organization’s shuttle management service, which has contracted with large companies, universities, national parks, and local governments to design, schedule, and manage shuttle services to and from area train stations or other designated landmarks. Each shuttle’s route and schedule is adapted to meet the commuting needs of riders, who may include company employees or a residential population.

The organization also subcontracts as one of several TMAs working with the Delaware Valley Regional Planning Commission’s (DVRPC) Mobility Alternatives Program, which assists employers with setting up transportation benefits and commute alternative initiatives. GVFTMA provides information to employers at employer expos, and offers direct TDM services to employers to improve non-drive alone commute rates, including: commute analysis reports, bicycle/pedestrian network analyses, parking analyses, travel shed analyses, and other studies. GVFTMA’s Sustainable Awards program recognizes employers with distinctive environmental accomplishments. Finally, GVFTMA provides transportation-related fee-for-service work, including website development and management, graphic design, and video production. Examples of fee-for-service work include:

• The development of a website for Communities in Motion, a GVFTMA foundation whose mission is to build awareness and support for efficient and sustainable transportation in southeastern Pennsylvania through education and community outreach;
• The creation of annual reports, brochures, flyers, and newsletters for various organizations; and
• On behalf of the Borough of Pottstown, Pennsylvania, a video entitled “Getting Around Pottstown – Bike Pottstown,” which explains a completely free bike share program located in the borough.

Table 22: Peer Agency Employer Service Offerings

Peer program strategies to increase employer participation and encourage enthusiasm for TDM are various. In Seattle, CTR employers are incentivized by a ranking and rating system involving rewards depending on performance. Marin County has targeted employers with specific programs depending on size; for example, the vanpool incentive program has generally been better received by larger employers. TAM has also successfully worked through the local Chamber of Commerce to reach businesses, and exchanges information with the North Bay Leadership Council, a local, employer-led policy advocacy organization. Additionally, GVFTMA has found that getting the word out to local chambers of commerce and other local organizations, along with basic networking, has greatly assisted in reaching employers and building credibility within the organization.

Marketing Efforts

Table 23 provides information on each peer agency’s formal marketing efforts. All agencies maintain a presence on social media, and several engage with print or electronic media, either through paid advertisements or free articles.

Table 23: Peer Agency Marketing Efforts

Performance Measurement

Essential to any TDM operation, performance measurement allows TDM agencies to track progress as well as effectively plan budgets and future operations. As shown in Table 24, all of the peer agencies engage in annual reporting as well as some form of ongoing data collection and reporting on their various initiatives.

Table 24: Peer Agency Performance Monitoring Efforts

Role in the Region

Each peer agency’s role in regional initiatives and planning is summarized in the paragraphs below as well as in Table 25, which follows.

Local Motion

Local Motion coordinates with a wide variety of partners in the region, including transit providers and Commuter Connections, the TDM component of MWCOG. The organization works closely with other Alexandria departments, regional governments, nonprofits, advocacy groups, and private transportation providers (such as Zipcar). Local Motion also assists with City site plan review regarding potential TDM impacts, and coordinates ongoing work with approved Transportation Management Plans in commercial and residential buildings across the City. Major organizational stakeholders include Alexandria residents and the City Council.

TRAFFIX

TRAFFIX maintains a strong partnership with VDOT, which allows TRAFFIX to use and promote its park and rides in the Hampton Roads region. Major stakeholders include TRAFFIX’s Oversight Subcommittee, to which it reports regularly, and the Hampton Roads Transportation Planning Organization, the region’s Metropolitan Planning Organization.

Way to Go, Seattle! (City of Seattle)

The City of Seattle coordinates often on programs and events with Commute Seattle, the City’s downtown area Transportation Management Association. Seattle also partners with the Puget Sound Regional Council, the region’s Metropolitan Planning Organization, on regional planning initiatives, as well as King County’s market development group on strategies for commuter programs. Major Seattle stakeholders include city residents, neighboring local governments, the Washington State government, and the City Council.

TAM

TAM’s main partners include the North Bay Leadership Council, area employers and property managers, business coalitions, and neighboring municipal governments. In addition to its TDM-specific responsibilities TAM manages transportation projects within Marin County. The TAM Board, which operates under several committees, includes representatives from cities and towns within the County. Regarding regional TDM initiatives, the California Environmental Quality Act includes mandates TDM elements for particularly large developments, which are reviewed on a project-by-project basis. Additionally, a State law requires commuter benefits be provided by employers with 50 or more employees.

GVFTMA

Of the five peer agencies reviewed in this report, GVFTMA’s role in regional initiatives is perhaps the largest. Its partners include municipal governments, metropolitan planning organizations, private firms and companies, and local and state associations. GVFTMA manages several coalitions and traffic incident management task forces. It is highly active as an advocate for transportation and infrastructure needs in the region, working regularly with local, state, and federal lawmakers on policy and projects. While there are no specific local or state policy directives regarding development and TDM in GVFTMA’s jurisdiction, GVFTMA is currently working with a few local municipalities to adopt guiding TDM principles through which developers would contribute to TDM elements. As a membership organization, GVFTMA’s major stakeholders are its members, which include individuals, municipalities, and private firms.

Table 25: Peer Agency Role in the Region

Major Findings

The Peer Review participants provided valuable insight into the variety of TDM programs and services offered across the country. The review of peers elicited several main takeaways for ACCS to consider in its future initiatives. Particularly innovative or appealing peer TDM programs from this review are described below.

The City of Seattle’s NavSeattle program offers a unique and exciting way in which to involve residential building managers in TDM. In particular, seminars for property managers as well as residential fairs appear to be effective at garnering long-term interest.

The employer recognition systems instituted by the City of Seattle, which incentivizes its CTR program employers through a ranking and rating scheme that corresponds with rewards, and Alexandria’s Local Motion program, whose yearly commuter challenge presents employers whose employees utilize non-SOV modes with an opportunity for public recognition, are each models for emulation. In enhancing its existing ATP “Champions” program, which incentivizes employers, multi-family residential buildings, property and development services, and schools, ACCS can continue to draw influence from similar programs such as those described in this assessment.

As ACCS seeks to expand its usage of technology in order to promote and enhance TDM programming, the organization can learn from TAM’s involvement in a Dynamic Rideshare Pilot Program using the Carma application. Through the initiative, TAM successfully piloted the app for the Bay Area and the regional transportation planning agency subsequently expanded the pilot to include additional rideshare opportunities throughout the region. TAM reports that the app, which pairs parties interested in instantly finding a carpool match, provides an excellent service. Following the pilot, TAM worked with the app creators to develop features which resulted in enhanced profiles to provide parties a better sense of whom their match would be. Should ACCS choose to promote technologies through its work, it might consider implementing similar strategies to help inform which additions or enhancements to technology may help increase the success of its marketing efforts. Having a vendor that is willing and able to adapt technology to support local goals can be particularly valuable.  

Technological solutions like Carma and the NuRide platform that TRAFFIX utilizes also offer valuable sources of verifiable, quantifiable performance-measurement data. Platforms such as these offer reports of carpool trips taken with their related VMT and emissions-reductions. ACCS could incorporate these tools into its programs and gain access to data that could augment or replace its existing procedures for estimating trip reductions. For instance, the TRAFFIX program not only tracks NuRide customers, but also VMT and emissions reduced as a result of NuRide. The result of this approach is a paradigm in which a program can track how trips deferred from automobiles were replaced with other modes. Although ACCS currently tracks VMT and trips reduced in general, it does not track what modes replaced those trips. To begin to do so would be particularly advanced and helpful for future program planning.

TAM’s approach of targeting different-sized employers depending on the program is also notable. For example, while TAM has registered users for their Emergency Ride Home Program from virtually all office sizes and types, the countywide vanpool incentive program is primarily used by larger employers, sometimes with groups of employees traveling longer distances. As such, marketing campaigns have been conducted targeting employers most willing to participate.

Lastly, GVFTMA’s versatility as an organization and its true ability to “wear many different hats” through its shuttle management, advocacy, and fee-for-service work make it a unique program. The fee-for-service work provides the organization with a private revenue streams that support’s the organization’s TDM mission.

This text-only version is offered as a more accessible alternative to this PDF document: Arlington County Commuter Services Transportation Demand Management Plan (PDF, 2.6 MB).

Text-Only Table of Contents