Best Workplaces for Commuters

The City of Asheville has met the Standard of Excellence and is named a Best Workplaces for Commuters.  The City of Asheville provides a transit pass benefit and a significant compressed work week program for employees.  They provide rideshare matching, preferred parking for carpools, emergency ride home, secure bicycle parking and amenities, and a bikesharing program. 

The City of Asheville also promotes TDM programs through the “Way to Go! Commuter Club.  Blue Ridge Commuter Connections, a Western North Carolina commuter assistance program that is co-sponsored by the City of Asheville and the North Carolina Department of Transportation, has designed the “Way to Go! Commuter Club. The purpose of the club is to help promote healthier lifestyles and alternative commutes for employers and employees in downtown Asheville that in turn helps reduce traffic congestion and air pollution. Participants will be encouraged to walk or bicycle when taking lunch, breaks, or running errands. 

Commuters/employees who commute to downtown Asheville via bicycling, walking, transit, and car/vanpooling two or more days a week are eligible to register to receive a Commuter Club card and also win prizes. Discounts may be offered at participating downtown businesses.

Fairfax County Government has met the Standard of Excellence and is named a Best Workplace for Commuters.  Fairfax County offers a transit pass benefit, a significant telework program and compressed work week to employees.  They are active in a Transportation Management Association, local ozone awareness program, offer rideshare matching and preferred carpool parking, secure bicycle parking and actively promote healthy initiatives.  An emergency ride home program is provided by Commuter Connections. 

 The Fairfax County Employer Services Program helps businesses and employees find transportation solutions that will not only make a company more successful, but improve the economic vitality and quality of life for this entire region. The Employer Services Specialist works on-site with employers to help them realize the bottom-line benefits of commute alternatives.

We Energies has met the Standard of Excellence and is named a Best Workplaces for Commuters. 

We Energies offers a transit pass benefit for employees and an emergency ride home program. They maintain an active membership in a TMA and local ozone awareness program along with carpool matching, pretax subsidies, preferred carpool parking, bicycle parking, compressed work week schedules and actively participate in healthy initiatives.

We Energies provides electric service to customers in portions of Wisconsin and Michigan’s Upper Peninsula.  They also serve natural gas customers in Wisconsin and steam customers in downtown Milwaukee.

Lockheed Martin Space Systems Company has met the Standard of Excellence and is named one of the Best Workplaces for Commuters for worksites in Sunnyvale and Palo Alto.

Space Systems Company has had a robust Commute Alternatives Program in place at its Sunnyvale and Palo Alto campuses for over thirty years and continues to enhance the program to assist its employees in choosing commute options to get to work.  Space Systems Company offers Eco Pass, a universal transit pass for its local transit agency, StarShuttle, an intracampus shuttle service that also serves the Lockheed Martin Transit Center, an emergency ride home program and carpooling matching services.  Over the past few years Space Systems Company has expanded its Commute Alternatives program to include a campus bicycle program of 250 fleet bicycle for business-related errands and meetings and a transit reimbursement program.  

Headquartered in Bethesda, MD, Lockheed Martin is a global security company that employs about 146,000 people worldwide and is principally engaged in the research, design, development, manufacture, integration and sustainment of advanced technology systems, products and services. The corporation reported 2008 sales of $42.7 billion.

Pfizer, Inc.  – GreenWheels has met the Standard of Excellence and is designated a Best Workplaces for Commuters.  GreenWheels, the commuter assistance program, is dedicated to Pfizer’s sustainability mission to improve the environment. The following Pfizer, Inc. locations are listed:  Collegeville and Great Valley, PA; Madison and Princeton, NJ, Pearl River, NY; Research Triangle Park and Sanford, NC; Richmond, VA, Cambridge and Andover, MA.

The GreenWheels program offers options for employees to contribute toward Pfizer’s mission by participating in some form of ridesharing or commute mode ( i.e. carpool, vanpool, mass transit, biking or walking). Each of these alternative modes of transportation reduces the number of vehicles on our roadways, lowers the carbon footprint, and lessens the stress of commuting while cutting commute costs.

 In addition to maintaining a rideshare data base, GreenWheels produces several events and maintains relationships with local and state transportation organizations.  Over the past several years, Greenwheels has gained recognition for its efforts from the federal government, from CleanAir NY, the New York Metropolitan Transportation Council and the New Jersey Department of Transportation, among others.

The Research Triangle Foundation of NC has met the Standard of Excellence and is designated a Best Workplace for Commuters. 

One of the oldest and largest science parks in North America, The Research Triangle Park (RTP) is a 7,000 acre development that is home to more than 170 companies employing over 42,000 full-time knowledge workers and an estimated 10,000 contract employees. Located at the core of the Raleigh-Durham-Cary CSA (Combined Statistical Area), RTP is a globally prominent high-technology research and development center that serves as an economic driver for the region.

The University of California, Davis (UC Davis) has met the Standard of Excellence and is designated a Best Workplaces for Commuters.  UC Davis offers a significant telework program along with other high level benefits.  At UC Davis, goClub is the Alternative Transportation program.  With goClub, members receive benefits from goCarpool, goTrain, goBike, goBus, goVanpool and goWalk.  Carsharing, rideshare matching, bicycle parking, incentives and an emergency ride home are all components of the UC Davis high level program.

The Division of Transportation and Parking Services (TAPS) at UC Davis facilitates the access and mobility needs of the campus community through the coordination of efforts among TAPS units and with other campus departments and non-university entities, and ensures that services are provided in a professional, efficient, and service-oriented manner.

UC Davis is one of the nation’s top public research universities. As one of 10 campuses of the world’s pre-eminent public university system, the University of California, is located in the heart of the Central Valley, close to the state capital and San Francisco Bay Area. UC Davis lays claim to being one of the few remaining college towns where they cherish their close relationships on campus and within the Davis community.

Northern Westchester Hospital (NWH) has met the Standard of Excellence and is designated a Best Workplace for Commuters.  Northern Westchester Hospital is a 233-bed facility serving northern Westchester, Putnam and southern Dutchess Counties in New York and parts of Fairfield, Connecticut since 1916, and has long been recognized as on of the region’s premier health care providers. 

NWH has developed and implemented a multi-faceted program to meet the needs of its employees given very limited parking capacity on-site on the hospital grounds.  The NWH program balances the needs of a dynamic and unpredictable hospital environment with the work-life needs of employees, while limiting impact on the environment.  Services are provided to employees that enable them to remain on site, thereby eliminating unnecessary trips during the business day.  Ridesharing public transit, shuttle service from off-site parking areas, clean -air awareness, and teleworking  are key components of NWH’s program.  In partnership with MetroPool, NWH has deployed NuRide, an internet based rideshare network, and created the “Perfect 20/20 Commute” Campaign to increase awareness and participation.  NWH also participates in Clean Air NY programs, offers free shuttle service and created a “Trains, Planes and Automobiles” program which encouraged employees to use the train and public bus system through use of monetary incentive.

Bishop Ranch has met the Standard of Excellence and is designated a Best Workplace for Commuters.  The Association represents 33,000 employees and is a charter member of the Commuter Choice Program.  High level benefits include transit pass subsidies, a significant telework program, and compressed work week.  An emergency ride home program is provided through 511 Contra Costa.  Bishop Ranch is a 2009 recipient of a Gold Race to Excellence award.

Bishop Ranch is ideally located in San Ramon to enable easy transit from San Francisco, Berkeley, Fremont, and other Bay Area locations.  Bishop Ranch offers a well-educated labor pool, accessible housing options to suit a range of income levels, and top-notch educational institutions—all in a scenic, natural setting. More than 550 of the world’s leading companies, innovative start ups, and medical and dental practitioners make their home in the thriving professional business community of Bishop Ranch.

The Regional Transportation Commission located in Reno has met the Standard of Excellence and is designated a Best Workplace for Commuters.  Offering not only a transit and vanpool pass subsidy to employees, they provide a bus pass and vanpool subsidy program to the community and will match an employer’s subsidy of their employee passes up to 20 percent.  They provide an emergency ride home program to employees and offer this regionally to carpoolers and vanpoolers.  RTC offers free TDM consulting for all area employers. 

The Regional Transportation Commission (RTC) of Washoe County, Nevada (RTC) serves the citizens of Reno and Sparks along with unincorporated areas of Washoe County. The RTC was formed in July 1979 as a result of legislation approved by the Nevada Legislature, which consolidated the Regional Street and Highway Commission, the Regional Transit Commission and the Washoe County Area Transportation Study Policy Committee. This consolidation has increased the effectiveness and efficiency in planning and implementation of the surface transportation program in Washoe County.

Their mission is to provide leadership, vision, public policy development, and quality transportation systems through a commitment to excellence and pursuit of goals and objectives that meet the community’s present and future needs.