Expert gives Columbus ideas on traffic
A Columbus program to provide free bus passes to downtown workers is an aggressive first step, the executive director of Seattle’s commuter partnership said, but there are more ways to lure jobs downtown without adding traffic.
Jonathan Hopkins of Commute Seattle visited Columbus recently to speak at the annual meeting of the Capital Crossroads and Discovery special improvement districts. The Capital Crossroads Special Improvement District is teaming up with the Central Ohio Transit Authority to provide free bus passes for 43,000 eligible downtown workers, a program set to begin next year. Just 5 percent of those 43,000 take the bus now.
The program, the special improvement district estimates, would free up the equivalent of four parking garages, or 2,400 spaces, allowing another 2,900 people to work downtown. The $4.5 million program over 2 1/2 years would be paid for by downtown property owners ($1.3 million), employers buying bus passes ($750,000), local businesses ($1 million) and grants ($1.5 million).
In a recent interview, Hopkins said that’s all well and good, but Columbus can follow up and do more.
“The first step for us is to encourage people to ride transit,” Hopkins said. “Incentivizing transit is an amazing first step for a city.”
That’s what Seattle did starting in 1990, including employer-purchased transit passes that now account for more than half of all transit boardings in Seattle’s King County.
Other things that can work: subsidized vanpool programs, ride-matching programs, bicycle parking, access to shared cars and guaranteed rides home for employees who need it. How does it pay off ? In Seattle, programs reduced the percentage of commuters driving Downtown from 50 percent in 2000 to 30 percent today. The city and its partners have put together more policies to encourage workers to take other means of transportation besides cars.
Downtown Seattle now has 247,000 workers, up from 202,000 in 2010. That includes 40,000 Amazon employees, a number that has grown from 5,000 in 2010. But 95 percent of those new employees are taking public transit or getting to work without driving. The number of Seattle commuters using public transit to go to and from downtown has risen from 86,448 to 116,831. Seattle expanded its light-rail system by 116 miles during the past 25 years.
And Seattle’s downtown office vacancy rate dropped from 17.8 percent in 2009 to 4.7 percent today.
“That could not have been done without these policies,” he said. “These are job-friendly policies.”
Weyerhaeuser, the wood-products company, moved its 800 employees from Federal Way, a city between Seattle and Tacoma, to downtown Seattle. But the offices there have just 64 parking spots, and a number remain open, Hopkins said.
That’s because 82 percent of Weyerhaeuser’s employees used to drive. Now that percentage is down to 9 percent. And the percentage of Delta Dental employees who drove dropped from 75 percent to 15 percent after moving from a Seattle neighborhood to a new north downtown Seattle location.
The populations of Columbus and Seattle have each grown 36 percent since 1990; Columbus’ is now estimated at 860,090, Seattle’s is 704,352. Downtown Columbus now has 84,000 workers. And now Columbus has many more people living downtown.
Cleve Ricksecker, the executive director of the Capital Crossroads Special Improvement District, said what he found out from Hopkins is that Columbus is on the right path.