Smart Commute helps keep the drive alive
Initiatives offer motorists sustainable alternatives to single-occupancy vehicles
Eric Ho and John Hu are big fans of their carpool, which transports them from their homes in the city’s east end to work at engine manufacturer Pratt & Whitney Canada’s Mississauga headquarters.
The journey, shared with three other colleagues — each of them serving a day as chauffeur — is typically filled with chats about work, family or shared hobbies. It can also be silent, as occupants snooze, read or gaze out the window.
“We just let everybody be quiet if they want,” Ho says.
The group’s happy carpool was facilitated by Smart Commute, a Metrolinx program that helps employers and commuters in the GTHA explore smart travel options, such as carpooling and ride sharing, in addition to transit, cycling and walking. Pratt & Whitney signed on as a partner in 2012.
“By carpooling we’re contributing to reducing CO2 emissions and the depletion of natural resources,” Hu says. “But there’s also cost savings for all partners for gas and maintenance, and (by taking HOV lanes and sharing toll costs to use Hwy. 407,) we’re saving time.”
Pratt & Whitney workers are making smarter decisions about car use, and like the many other commuters in the GTHA who have little choice but to travel by four wheels, they’re getting a big assist from a host of programs and initiatives aimed at making cars a more sustainable part of the region’s overall transportation mix. There needn’t be a war on the automobile, but with congestion costing the GTHA $6 billion a year in lost productivity, reducing car dependency and helping motorists find better options for getting from A to B are top priorities.
“Standing up on a pulpit and preaching to people that they shouldn’t drive is not realistic, as the reality is that a number of people actually don’t have a lot of other choices — or they think they may not have other choices,” says Chris Burke, director of service planning for Metrolinx. “So we’re trying to ensure people know what options there are for them, and to provide support and tools to enable them to try some of them out.”
The will is there. A Deloitte report on the changing nature of mobility notes that over 40 per cent of Gen Y’ers would use car-sharing or carpooling services if they were “readily available and convenient.”
And a Metrolinx survey of GTA commuters found that 55 per cent of respondents drove alone, but that 45 per cent of lone drivers said they do so because they have no one to carpool with; 22 per cent said they would carpool if they had assistance in finding a partner.
The financial argument alone should be compelling enough to spur change. CAA estimates operating a single occupant vehicle (fuel, maintenance, tires) costs 16.46 cents/km for a midsize sedan.
Annually it costs $7,500 to own and operate a car, factoring in insurance and registration, depreciation and financing expenses.
A 2012 report from the Pembina Institute — a not-for-profit environmental policy research and education organization — pegs the annual cost of owning a car at $10,500. In terms of alternatives, riding transit to and from work just one day a week saves $215 a year, according to the institute. Telecommuting two to three times a week reduces driving costs by roughly $480. Biking or walking one day a week saves $215. And biking five days a week but keeping a car saves $1,077.
It’s this array of options that Metrolinx is promoting through Smart Commute. Program co-ordinators at 13 Smart Commute offices across the GTHA are working with approximately 340 employers, performing site assessments and surveys to better understand employee commute behaviour. They will then develop customized action plans to encourage employees to try travel options. And tools are provided to facilitate changes, such as programs for carpooling or ride matching, discounted transit passes or support and tools for telework and flexible work arrangements. Smart Commute also co-ordinates with post-secondary institutions to encourage active and sustainable travel to schools. Complementing Smart Commute is car2go, a car-sharing service that lets users reserve a vehicle 30 minutes ahead and, later, leave it in any car2go-approved parking space. Zipcar, another car-sharing service, is available at 13 GO Transit stations. GO, which says 90 per cent of its customers are “within a five-minute drive of someone else catching the same train,” offers carpool parking at 48 stations, and is piloting designated electric vehicle parking/charging at 10 GO stations. It’s also expanding bike storage facilities, which could ease pressure on overflowing commuter parking lots.
Encouraging options such as ride sharing and carpooling indirectly supports the use of HOV lanes, in place along Hwys. 404, 403 and 417 and the QEW. The deployment of three-person HOV lanes across the region during the Pan Am Games showed the potential benefits of expanding the system.
“People were upset at first, but then they changed and adapted,” notes Matti Siemiatycki, a transportation planning expert and associate professor at University of Toronto’s geography department. “Drivers using HOV lanes saw trip-time reductions, and commuters on buses that used the HOV were experiencing 15-20 minute shorter journeys. So it made a huge difference.”
HOT (high-occupancy toll) lanes, allowing single-occupancy vehicles to pay to use carpool lanes, are another possibility being explored by the provincial government.
Or the GTHA could follow London’s lead and levy a congestion charge — or road toll — for vehicles coming into the city centre during peak hours. (Milan followed suit, as have Beijing and Sao Paulo.)
“Road tolls have the potential to be a game changer here in Toronto, where the cost of congestion is billions of dollars a year,” says Siemiatycki. “Tolls, if they’re part of a com- prehensive regional transportation plan that includes major expansions to the transit network, could encourage transit usage, carpooling and shifts in the time of day people travel.”
Schools can play a big role in promoting change. Research by the University of Toronto, commissioned by Metrolinx, found that 32 per cent of children are driven to school by car (versus fewer than 12 per cent in 1986). So Metrolinx is spearheading an active and sustainable school travel initiative, working with stakeholders such as education boards, municipalities, parent associations and provincial ministries to explore ways to encourage kids to walk, cycle and use other active ways of getting to school.
Employers could make an even bigger difference by being amenable to their workers telecommuting, helping to reduce traffic and stress levels and improving overall work/life balance for staff.
Better balance was the goal for Amanda and Kevin Bathe, who moved from Newcastle to Whitby to be closer to work and spend more time with their baby daughter, Emelyn.
Amanda, a project planner for the Region of Durham in Whitby, and Kevin, an accountant, also based in Whitby, previously both drove to work along the nightmarish 401. “Sometimes it took more than an hour to get home, and that was to travel only 25 kilometres,” says Amanda. “So we were really only seeing Emelyn on weekends, and that was unacceptable.”
Now they live across the road from Emelyn’s future school (which houses her daycare) and they got rid of one car. Amanda drops her daughter at daycare and then walks to the office — a 15-minute trip.
“I can’t even describe how much better it is, getting to spend so much time with our daughter,” she says. And with only one car, they’re reaping the financial benefits. “Now we have more discretionary income to spend on fun things.”
“Road tolls have the potential to be a game changer here in Toronto, where the cost of congestion is billions of dollars a year.” MATTI SIEMIATYCKI U OF T PROFESSOR