Swedish Ballard Hospital Commute Profile

Representing Swedish Ballard Hospital (From left to right, back row): Ken Fortune, Allan Caudle; (front row) Vicki Dubendorf, Karen Lee Kimber.

Hospital takes bold step with parking charge
Swedish Ballard Hospital, a campus of Swedish Medical Center, is located in the heart of the Ballard neighborhood, northwest of downtown Seattle. With a day-shift staff of approximately 350 employees and 437 parking spaces, Swedish/Ballard does not have the kind of parking shortage many hospitals experience. “However,” says Ellie Fife, immediate past vice president of operations, “we want to ensure there is enough parking for our patients and their families.”

Management made the decision to charge day-shift employees a parking fee of $30 per month and evening-shift employees $15 per month. “We wanted to encourage employees who drive alone to work to try carpooling or vanpooling,” says Fife. As with all hospitals, parking remained free for the night-shift due to safety concerns.

For a small hospital, charging employees to park was a gutsy move. Qualified staff are in short supply and employees were not pleased with the decision. The hospital worked hard to appease the situation. Even though transit service to Swedish/Ballard is infrequent, and riding the bus is not an alternative for many staff members, all employees are given a fully subsidized FlexPass. “We made a point of giving the FlexPass to employees who usually drive alone to work,” explains Karen Lee Kimber, employee transportation coordinator. “We wanted them to have the option of taking the bus to work if the need arose.”

Ridesharing promoted as alternative
When the parking charge was implemented, it was balanced by the decision that carpools and vanpools would park for free. Kimber, realizing the difficulty of using transit, has worked hard to encourage employees to carpool. Several carpools have formed, despite the challenge of finding people who not only live near one another, but also work the same shifts.

Undaunted, Kimber's next goal is to form some vanpools. Because of the number of riders needed, this is more difficult than forming carpools. So, Kimber has joined forces with other ETCs through the Interbay Network Group. ETCs from nine organizations in the Ballard area have signed up with King County Metro's Rideshare Plus for assistance in forming carpools and vanpools. “We will subsidize the vanpools 100%,” says Kimber. “All we have to do is help our employees match up with other employees in the area.”

*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.