CH2M HILL Commute Profile

Parking key to Diamond Award
CH2M HILL is a professional services firm comprised of consultants, planners, economists, engineers and scientists. A two-time Diamond Award winner, in 1995 for its exemplary program and in 1997 for progress, CH2M HILL is being recognized in 1999 for its parking management program.

Representing CH2M HILL (From left to right): Todd Slind, Kathy Lombardo.

The company's location in downtown Bellevue, within a block of the transit center, provides employees with the option to commute to work via transit. But management realized it needed to put together a more comprehensive transportation management plan and decided to put the process into the hands of an employee-led committee. “We wanted the plan to be developed by employees, for employees,” explains Kathy Lombardo, regional manager. “We wanted to empower our employees by providing them with several transportation choices.” The hope of the committee was to encourage more employees to leave their cars at home and use alternative commute modes. A plan was established to maximize the attractiveness of transit, carpools, and other alternatives.

The plan is simple but effective. CH2M HILL provides a monthly transportation allowance of $40 to all full-time employees and a discounted FlexPass that now includes Sound Transit as well as King County Metro transit service. Community and Intercity Transit riders receive a $20 per month subsidy to help offset the disparity in costs between King County Metro and those transit services. Metro vanpool riders receive a subsidy of up to $60 per month as part of the FlexPass program, and registered carpoolers get a $10 per month parking discount from TransManage, downtown Bellevue's Transportation Management Association.

As part of its lease, CH2M HILL is allotted 156 parking spaces at a rate of $98 each per month. Twelve of these spaces are occupied by company-owned vehicles, which employees can use for work related trips. The remaining parking spaces are available to employees who drive to work alone and pay the parking fee. However, the success of the parking management program at CH2M HILL has allowed the company to significantly reduce its employee parking needs at an annual savings of almost $73,000. Rounding out the commute program are covered bicycle racks, showers, lockers, and a guaranteed ride home in case of emergency or illness for employees who use alternative commute modes.

Employees change commute habits
The combination of this complete commute program in conjunction with no free parking, changed employees' commuting habits. The plan, which provides reasonably priced alternatives, reduces administrative handling of parking and transit monies, and minimizes negative morale associated with the cost of parking, made it possible for CH2M HILL to reach its CTR goal for reducing SOV trips. Furthermore, the company's 35% SOV rate for 1999 has exceeded the City of Bellevue's goals by 26%.

CH2M HILL is committed to being an ecologically sound company,” says Todd Slind, employee transportation coordinator. “Encouraging our employees to leave their cars at home, thus reducing the amount of pollutants being emitted into the air, is one of the ways we can accomplish that. We are very proud of our low SOV rate.”

*Some definitions: An “ETC” is the staff-level employee transportation coordinator responsible for the daily administration of the transportation program; “PM” is the transportation program manager; and “CEO” refers to the top management-level person at the worksite. “SOV” stands for single-occupant vehicle, and “CTR” for commute trip reduction.