As ridership on bus and rail line in Connecticut is leveling off, the state Department of Transportation is turning to businesses to get more single-rider cars off the road.
CTrides wants to partner with hundreds of employers to cut down on employee commutes by offering telecommuting, carpooling, and transit subsidies.
By the end of 2013, CTrides partnered with 225 companies and government agencies across the state, but signing up more will be key to reducing the stress and congestion on Connecticut’s road and bridge infrastructure, said Jody Santoro, spokeswoman for CTrides.
The push toward greater business participation comes as bus and rail ridership had its lowest increase in the three-year history of CTrides, a DOT division overseeing vendors and programs like the CTTransit buses, carpooling, commuter rail, Telecommute Connecticut, and the CTfastrak Hartford-to-New Britain rapid bus transit when that system starts next year.
Bus ridership in the state increased only 0.01 percent in fiscal year 2013; rides on the Shore Line East rail increased 1.2 percent; and rides on Metro-North’s New Haven Line increased 0.5 percent. Those were all the smallest increases in the past four years.
CTrides is focusing on employers because commuting to and from work constitutes a significant portion of traveling in the state, Santoro said. Employers are asked for various levels of commitment: the lowest level asks companies to make information on transit available to employees; the highest level asks firms to offer teleworking, mass transit subsidies, carpooling, and access to showers, lockers, and bike racks for cyclists.
“The leadership of the company plays a key role in how well it works,” said Patrice DeFilippo, telecommuting specialist for CTrides.
Among the 225 employers already committed to the program are Pratt & Whitney, St. Francis Hospital and Medical Center, Electric Boat, Webster Bank, and Travelers, which is downtown Hartford’s largest employer.
Hartford insurer Aetna offers three incentive programs to its employees for public transportation: a $50 monthly mass transit subsidy; a $50 monthly payment not to park on Aetna’s campus, which is meant to encourage carpooling; and a national commuter benefits program that allows participants to pay for their transit fares on a pre-tax basis.
“Those are three of the commuter programs we have in place to encourage employees to use public transit whenever possible,” said Aetna spokeswoman Susan Millerick.
Roughly 600 of the 4,574 employees at Aetna’s Hartford campus take advantage of one of those three transit incentive programs, Millerick said.
Aetna also has 26 percent of its 6,515 Connecticut employees telecommute from home, said Millerick, who herself telecommutes.
By having so many telecommuters, Aetna estimates it saves more than 89 million miles of driving per year, saving employees 3.7 million gallons of gas and the environment 33,000 metric tons of carbon dioxide emissions, Millerick said.
Teleworking is a major part of the CTrides employer push, as working remotely benefits the business by giving employees flexibility and relieves congestion on the transportation infrastructure by keeping commuters off the road, Santoro said.
Tracking the amount of telecommuting in the state is difficult because plenty of employers do it informally. No one is required to report telecommuting numbers, and employees can do it on a part-time or full-time basis.
DeFilippo said she believes the number of employers offering telecommuting to workers was growing, as was the level of participation in such programs. Telecommute Connecticut assists employers by developing programs and setting up technology.
Clinton utility Connecticut Water reached out to CTrides originally to set up a carpooling network. When that didn’t work, the utility partnered with Telecommute Connecticut to make 30-40 percent of its 200 employees eligible for teleworking, said David Radka, the utility’s director of water resources and planning.
“We are enthusiastic telecommuters, but we are a small, core group,” Radka said.
The physical nature of the utility’s work means not every employee can telecommute. Also, in order to maintain a cooperative culture where employees get face time together, Connecticut Water doesn’t want employees telecommuting five days a week, Radka said.
Still, the benefit helps with the attraction/retention of employees and business continuity, Radka said. Eligible employees can strike a suitable work-life balance with telecommuting.
Better still, the utility can keep its call center functioning even during major weather events, Radka said. Work-from-home employees can answer customer questions and address concerns without having to travel down snowy and icy roads.
“That was a big driver for us to do this, and it works very well,” Radka said. “It has been very seamless, in fact.”
Telecommute Connecticut has worked with multiple industries including utilities, manufacturing, publishing, and health care. Any employee who does any kind of portable task makes sense as a teleworker, DeFilippo said.
“Technology has allowed working from home to be even more flexible,” DeFilippo said. “Any job that is not really hands-on like manufacturing can do work-from-home.”
CTrides wants to spread awareness of these opportunities, Santoro said. By making options available, that will open up the idea that cars aren’t the only way to get to work.
“We just want to make people aware that these programs are out there,” Santoro said. “We are not trying to bully anybody.”
