Mobility Options

If your employment site is close to transit, you may already have many employees using this convenient and low-stress commute option. Buses, trains, subways, and trolleys all move over 300,000 people a day in the Delaware Valley. If you'd like to encourage greater use of the option, visit Employee Incentives.

Even if your worksite is convenient to SEPTA or other transit services, your employees may not be aware of when or where the bus or train operates, or how to use the service. This is not an uncommon problem, and one that is easily remedied. First, employers should be familiar with the services available to them and the schedules of those services; then, they must pass that information on to employees.

Your TripSmart PA contact and the transportation provider can work with you and your employees in overcoming these obstacles. Information fairs and trial rides can be arranged to orient your employees to transit. In some cases, transit schedules can be adjusted slightly to better meet the work hours of your employees if you're with a very large company, or for a group of employers in one area, like an office park.

Further from Transit?

If your company is just outside reasonable walking distance from a transit stop, or if walking from a stop involves crossing heavy traffic or using inadequate sidewalks or narrow shoulders, you may want to consider a shuttle service to move employees from nearby stops to your worksite. This can be arranged with informal, in-house carpools or vanpools. Depending on the number of employees or other interested employers in the same area, shuttles can be arranged through an independent shuttle service. 

Also, your company—or a group of companies—may want to contact the appropriate transit provider about extending or altering existing routes to accommodate this extra travel. Their planners will evaluate the effectiveness of an extension and, if approved, will work with you to implement a change. Participating companies may have to allocate funds for the service at the outset, but once it's in place, and if it's used as expected, the service may end up paying for itself. See your TMA contact for more direction on this option.

Park and Ride (P&R) lots are areas specifically dedicated for use by commuters to park vehicles while using public transit or participating in carpools or vanpools. Used as a common meeting spot, they provide adequate space and a safe, convenient location for drivers to leave their cars while sharing the ride to work. They also alleviate community opposition to on-street parking problems in areas most suited for shared commutes.

Official P&R lots include:

• Clearly marked paved lots or gravel areas specifically designed or designated by state or local transportation officials; maintained by state or local government
• Lots or areas with alternate uses at non-peak commute times, upon official agreement with owner (e.g. church lot or extra, "fringe" parking at shopping areas)
• Lots associated with transit stops, often maintained by the transit company and for use by transit riders only.

Unofficial lots may include:

• unused, fringe parking at shopping areas not approved by owners
• on-street parking where not specifically prohibited by law.

Preliminary plans for additional, official P&R lots have been initiated in many high-traffic areas, but until these projects are approved and completed, a little creativity in working with local officials and businesses can go a long way to establish short-term P&R arrangements.

A list and map of P&R lots in the Delaware Valley is available from your TMA contact.

Alternative work schedules can come in the form of flextime or a compressed workweek. 

Flextime

Research has shown employees are more likely to consider shared commutes when a flexible work schedule is instituted. Flextime allows employees to alter their arrival and departure times slightly to better accommodate commute schedules. For example, although official office hours may be 8:30 a.m. to 5 p.m., employees may be allowed to arrive between 7:30 to 9 a.m. and leave between 4 and 5:30 p.m. That doesn't mean employees get to set their own hours! In most cases employees cannot flex their schedule on a daily basis, but must make a long-term commitment to a regular schedule. Some companies do allow daily flexibility as long as regular hours are achieved.

The ultimate goal of a flextime policy is to allow employees to arrange a commute schedule convenient to transit schedules or to accommodate vanpool and carpool options. Flextime can be employed in a variety of ways:

• The employer may permit employees to pick one of three schedules starting and ending an hour or half hour apart, staggering arrival times, but requiring all employees to be present during specified core hours of the day
• Employees may be able to modify slightly the established hours of operations through a formal pre-determined schedule on a permanent basis, or on an informal, variable basis.
• Employees may be allowed a general, non-monitored 15- to 30-minute window of arrival time, provided they allow for the changes at the end of the day.

The type of program selected will have a lot to do with the size of your company or worksite and the atmosphere of your workplace. Note: flextime or "staggered hours" work best when companies coordinate efforts through their TMA contact to optimize start/stop times, spreading out peak hour travel in a given employment center.

Alternative scheduling allows employees to feel they are supported in their attempts to share the ride to work, not worried that they'll be reprimanded for arriving late or leaving early.

Compressed Workweek

Compressed workweeks help reduce the number of single occupancy vehicles (SOVs) arriving to the worksite during the week in a way that is different from flextime. This option allows employees not affected by collective bargaining to condense the hours they work into fewer days, thus increasing the length of the work day, but decreasing the number of days spent at the worksite.

The most common condensed work week combinations are:

• 4/40: 4 days/10 hours per day
• 3/36: 3 days/12 hours per day
• 9/80: 9 nine-hour days in a two-week, 40-hour period (work 5, off 2, work 4, off 3)

Employers can choose to either close their offices on the day(s) off, or keep offices open every day but have fewer people arriving each day. This option can be implemented year-round, or seasonally (great for summer). The days employees work are usually selected ahead of time and don't change, although in rare instances, employees choose their days on a per week basis. Time accounting systems must be analyzed to accommodate this type of program.

Vehicle travel is reduced in one of two ways: either there are no vehicles arriving on the day(s) the office is not operating, or there are fewer vehicles overall arriving on a daily basis. When this option is implemented on a staggered schedule, employers need fewer parking spaces overall and, when initiated on a fixed schedule (all employees work the same days), employers often see lower utility bills; both work to improve employee attendance. Employees also appreciate longer weekends and adjusted vacation schedules.

Most employees who receive free parking don't think of it as a perk. The challenge with parking is to alter employee thinking so that it is viewed as an added benefit, not a guarantee. Parking management encourages employees to use shared commute methods by making single-occupancy vehicle (SOV) travel less convenient and/or more expensive. This tactic is most effective in the suburbs, where parking is viewed as plentiful and inexpensive, and where parking is seen as a privilege.

Proven methods of parking management include:

• Charge a fee for parking if it is currently free. This is best done as a daily charge, since many employees are still working from home; but aggregate costs could be collected weekly or monthly.
• Establish a "cash out" program whereby all employees are given a transportation "subsidy" provided by their employer. Those commuters who choose to drive alone must pay a fee for parking equal to that of the subsidy; those who use transit or vanpools can use the subsidy in addition to pre-tax dollars toward payment of their transit or vanpool fares through a compliant commuter benefit provider. (Tax laws should be reviewed before instituting any subsidies.)
• Since carpools are not covered by the transportation or commuter benefit, those who carpool could be entered into a regular raffle to win gas cards, coffee or food gift cards, or other rewards.
• Offer prime, preferential, specially-marked spaces to those who carpool and vanpool regularly.
• Rent spaces for use by other businesses or for park-and-ride commuters who want to carpool together and are going from the location of the employer to another location in the region.

These programs can also be beneficial to employers by eliminating the need for additional lot construction and reducing insurance and maintenance costs. With a cash-out system, employees who currently drive do not suffer detrimental consequences, and those who don't drive now receive a reward for their efforts. Consultation on designing preferred parking accommodations and procedures or establishing a cash-out program may be arranged through your TMA contact.

An alternative to physical commuting, telecommuting allows employees to work from home or from another remote location via technology. Also called "teleworking," this option took precedence during the COVID-19 pandemic and has continued to be implemented by many employers, often through a hybrid in-office/telework policy. Employers have come to recognize offering some type of telework option has become a very useful tool to attract and retain employees.

By instituting or continuing a telecommuting policy, companies not only help reduce single occupancy vehicle (SOV) travel to the work site, they can also save on office space and overhead. And employers can gain in productivity: studies have shown that employees who telecommute even a few days a week are more likely to fulfill their workday time commitments and take fewer sick days.

As you probably already know, even if your business is open and conducive to telecommuting, not every employee may be able to take advantage of this option. Companies must determine which positions and which employees are eligible, as well as how frequently each employee can exercise this option (e.g. one or more full days a week or a few days a month).

In order to encourage pedestrian or bicycle alternatives—whether at an employment site, on a campus, or within a municipality—install essential features such as bicycle parking/storage and shower/locker facilities. Standard bike racks can be installed with little effort and at low cost; higher quality storage may require greater investment. Shower or changing facilities at an employment site or via an agreement with a nearby athletic facility may also benefit employees who would like to work out over lunch, and this supplementary function may help justify installation of or payment for these accommodations.

Some employers are also involved in planning and funding bicycle and walking trails on or near their work sites, or enabling connections to existing trails without building new ones. Employee prizes like discounts on sneakers or bike tires may add to the appeal of these programs for those who participate.

Sometimes transit services or potential park-and-ride lots are nearby but not very convenient, or the walk from the transit stop to the worksite is not safe. There is a way an employer, office park management, or a municipality can still make use of existing transit options: Operate or subsidize shuttle services to and from the nearest transit stop(s) or lots. By offering a safe and reliable alternative to walking from the stop, you might encourage more employees to use transit.

This service can be established by using rented shuttles, a ride-hailing service like Lyft or Uber, or through informal carpools or vanpools. To keep costs down, your company can provide rush-hour service only, at no cost or at a small fee to employees. This option becomes most cost-effective when several companies in the same vicinity pool their efforts and funds to serve more employees. If there is a large market for this type of service, it may be beneficial to speak with your TMA contact or a representative from the local transit provider about extending regular service or offering an official shuttle service.

Daycare is an increasingly important issue with working parents, and it is often the main reason given for not sharing the commute to work. Accommodating working parents with children is one way to attract and retain high-caliber employees. While most employers cannot justify an on-site care facility, offering Emergency Ride Home services, and instituting flextime, compressed work weeks, or telecommuting policies allows parents to consider alternate commute methods while arranging their schedules to better care for their children. This "peace of mind" results in more focused, dedicated employees, too.