Beginning in 2001, Commuter Challenge began what would become a three-year, $1.2 million Employer Services Grant (ESG) program that has proven to be a good example of how much change can be effected through public/private partnerships. The ESG program was based on a simple concept: invest public grant money and employer-provided matching funds in worksite-based commute trip reduction (CTR) programs to develop or enhance unique programs that expand employees’ options for leaving their cars at home.

Twenty-five project proposals were selected to receive funding. Projects awarded grants were to be completed by May 29, 2004, giving employers 12 to 17 months, depending on when the contracts were finalized. Each employer was required to provide a 13.5% cash or in-kind match in order to receive grant funds.

The ESG program met its fundamental goal set out in August 2002, which was to reduce overall commute trips in King County. Ten projects exceeded their original trip reduction estimates—some rather significantly. It was estimated that 36,989 trips would be reduced during each month of the grant program. Based on the figures provided by the employers in their final reports, the actual number of trips reduced was 49,571 per month. Over the course of the grant program, this translates into a total of 842,705 trips reduced.

Additional key results from the ESG program include:

• Fuel savings of 644,083 gallons over the 17 months of the program.
• The prevention of 5,387 tons of air pollution per month.1
• An additional $0.39 employer investment leveraged for every CMAQ dollar invested in employer programs—nearly two-and-a-half times the amount required by the employer match.
• The 25 Employer Services Grants provide new or enhanced services and incentives to nearly 102,000 employees throughout King County through efforts such as: formation of new vanshare and vanpool groups; carpool subsidies; FlexPass expansions; development of bicycle commuting resources; as well as marketing and outreach at each worksite.

The results of the Employer Services Grant Program indicate that reducing commute trips through voluntary partnerships and direct grants for employer use is a cost-effective approach that leverages public funds, generates significant employer investment, and builds good will with employers.

The popularity of the ESG program with area employers was very high. Because CTR programs are commonly thought of more as an employee benefit than a business benefit, funding for pilot projects that develop new and creative solutions to meet employee transportation needs is often hard to come by. Having a program that invests public dollars in these unique solutions creates a public/private partnership that not only gets employees to really think about and change the way they get to work and feel good about making that change, it also fosters good will between government and businesses. Rather than feeling as though government is simply handing down mandates to businesses, it gives businesses a sense that government is “sharing the financial burden” of changing employee commute patterns all the while giving employee transportation coordinators the opportunity to develop the business case for investing in CTR. The ESG program successfully demonstrated that by investing in employer-based commute options programs, businesses will in turn invest significant amounts of their own money in developing new programs and continue funding the program long after the public money goes away.

For more information or to get a copy of this report, go to www.commuterchallenge.org/grants/report2004.htm.

1Figure includes emissions of the following pollutants: CO2, CH4, N2O, VOC, CO and NOX.