Transportation demand management is "the art of modifying travel behavior through policies, programs, and actions implemented to increase the use of high occupancy vehicles, cycling and walking; to encourage commuting outside congested time periods; and to encourage telework and other techniques as alternatives to driving." TDM is one method of increasing highway capacity.
Quotable
"Transportation demand management really happens at the employer/employee level."
From the 1880s through the early 1900s, transportation in the Puget Sound region was privately built and financed. By the early 1970s, King County voters had completed the transfer of responsibility for transportation from private entities to governmentto build and maintain roadways and to provide public transit and ridesharing options. This transfer marked the advent of Metro Transit. In the late 1970s came the realization that employers' benefit policies, parking arrangements and work schedules can impact commuting choices and, therefore, highway capacity and air quality.
Boeing knew some of this in 1942 when it began a tradition of providing commuting assistance to employees during the fuel and staff shortages of World War II, offering private bus service, ridematching, and later vans for use by groups of commuters. In 1977, SAFECO Insurance Companies offered their employees the first subsidized bus passes in King County. The desire to offer low-cost employee benefits and the introduction of land use requirements for major institutions such as hospitals and high-rise buildings motivated further actions. A number of employers voluntarily appointed employee transportation coordinators (ETCs) and followed suit with bus subsidies and parking charges.
The City of Seattle's Commuter Pool began providing vanpool formation assistance, 21 public vans, and flex-time consultations in 1979. When Commuter Pool was transferred to Metro in 1983, the program had grown to 130 vans and had hired the first employer transportation representativeMaggi Lubovwhose responsibility was to personally contact 100 employers and offer them help with parking management and transportation benefits.
Lubov aided employers to provide commuting information to employees, address corporate relocation and residential parking issues, and set up parking management and ridesharing programs. Recognizing the demand for and value of this type of outreach to employers, Metro hired four more staff to provide face-to-face customer service to employers.
"We knew we had something," said Lubov, now with the City of Tukwila as the city's CTR Coordinator. "Transportation demand management (TDM) really happens at the employer/employee level."
In 1984, TDM efforts in King County went a step beyond outreach to employersemployers began working together on similar transportation issues. The First Hill ETC Network of hospitals was born. That same year, Harborview Medical Center held the first employee transportation fair, with popcorn and prizes, to draw attention to commuting options.
In 1986, a more formal employer networka transportation management association (TMA)was conceived in Bellevue, as a partnership between the city, the Downtown Association and Metro to provide more direct products and services to the tenants of a number of new high-rises and to cope with a growing demand for parking.
In 1987, Boeing transferred 65 vanpool groups and its fleet of 100 vans to the Metro Rideshare Program.
The state CTR Law passed in 1991. Its implementation in 1993 was the catalyst for a whole new level of employer assistance from Metro, jurisdictions, TMAs and consultants. Employer-based commuting programs were created by companies that had never heard of TDM before but were affected by the CTR Law, and existing commuting programs were enhanced.
Today, more than 20 employer networks meet monthly in King County, along with four TMAs in varying stages of development. King County Metro employs a number of employer transportation representatives and rideshare specialists. Each jurisdiction in King County has an appointed CTR representative, and more than 300 King County employers have ETCs and commuting programs in place.
A spirit of cooperation characterizes the public/private venture that is TDM in King Countya remarkable endeavor that continues evolving in order to meet the intertwined needs and demands of employers and local government.
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