Alternative commuting promoted

The university will use a $33,200 state grant to help entice more campus employees to ride the bus, carpool, bike or walk to work.

Transportation Services will contribute $8,300 to the marketing campaign that begins this month. Planned activities include identifying UW employees who live within a quarter-mile of bus stops with direct service to the university, using Madison Metro’s geographic information systems technology. Those workers will be mailed free bus tickets and bus schedules.

“This campaign will raise awareness about alternative transportation options available to UW employees, as well as educate the campus community about Transportation Demand Management and its importance to the university and the city of Madison,” says the university’s grant application to the Wisconsin Department of Transportation.

Transportation Demand Management is a university program that encourages faculty and staff to use alternative forms of transportation – busing, carpool or vanpool, bicycling, walking – to commute to campus.

The university offers many incentives to increase the use of alternative transportation. These include pre-tax savings on city bus passes for employees, park and ride programs, flex parking, an emergency ride home program and bus passes for students.

Yet there is room for improvement, according to Rachel Martin, the campus’s transportation demand management coordinator. Figures show that more than 60 percent of university faculty and staff do not use an alternative form of transportation to get to work. Campus employees driving alone to work significantly contribute to traffic congestion in downtown Madison, as UW–Madison is the largest employer in Dane County.

She stresses that alternative commuting has many benefits, including improved air quality, reduced traffic congestion and cost savings for commuters, the city and state.

Other planned activities from the grant to raise awareness of alternative transportation include:

• Placing a “bus wrap” on a campus bus to highlight the benefits of alternative commuting.
• Updating the transportation demand management logo and slogan, creating ads to be placed in the campus newspapers, placing transportation demand management banners and flags, and developing alternative commuter campus kiosks.
• Publishing a “Commuter Alternatives” newsletter for insert in Wisconsin Week, and developing a commuter recognition program as part of the planned newsletter.
• Printing a university bicycle brochure that lists campus bike routes, locations of tire inflators and safe riding tips.

The university will promote alternative commuting during Transportation Demand Management Week, Sept. 25-29. Transportation Services will highlight a different form of commuting each day during the week.

Booths will be located at Library Mall (Monday), E.B. Fred Hall (Tuesday), Union South (Wednesday), WARF building (Thursday) and Bascom Hall (Friday). Free bicycle adjustments, refreshments and T-shirts will be given away each day.