The premier grand dame of hotels in downtown Seattle offers outstanding transportation benefits to its staff of 500 employees to encourage bus riding to work. The Fairmont Olympic Hotel took advantage of the Metro Match program to further enhance their subsidy program. Results are good, about 30% of the employees utilize the incentive which reduces emissions in the crowded downtown Seattle core. The Metro Match program added a $5 match to the hotel subsidy therefore increasing the impact immediately. Management also added a pretax benefit for employees to pay their share of the bus pass. Hotel employees also took part in the “Green Bike” project that kicked off in 2008, and employees are still using the bikes provided to commute to work. All the programs resulted in providing an incentive for employees to choose alternatives to driving alone to work with the added advantage of saving money.

For more information about the Green Bike project: www.greenbikes.net.Washington State Department of Transportation provided funding through the TRPP grant program to public and private partners.

*Some definitions: An "ETC" is the staff-level employee transportation coordinator responsible for the daily administration of the transportation program. "SOV" stands for single-occupant vehicle, and "CTR" for commute trip reduction.