Mary Sell, Best Workplaces for Commuters Coordinator with the Triangle J Council of Governments (TJCOG), has polled Triangle J residents about their daily commute. While most use their personal vehicles to get to-and-from work, others opted for walking, riding their bike, or public transit. “As job growth surges, so does the traffic and stress associated with a long, congestion filled commute,” says Sell. “Many [triangle] area commuters are looking for alternatives.”

The Best Workplaces for Commuters (BWC) Program is a resource, offered by TJCOG, that workplaces can depend on for best practices, education opportunities, and national workplace recognition.

The following is a post by Mary Sell:

Best Workplaces for Commuters recognizes the essential nature of good transportation resources in our growing region and the comprehensive strategic planning, education and outreach programming needed to support it. This approach has helped to create a holistic strategy to mitigate the impact of increasingly congested roadways and provide alternatives for commuters that decide a bike or bus may be more their style. BWC provides recognition to workplaces that have taken great steps to encourage modal shifts, serves as a regional resource, and ultimately works to expand upon individual actions to create a triangle-wide impact.

Currently, the Triangle Best Workplaces for Commuters program has over 30 participating organizations, with over 100,000 employees combined. As the program grows, so do the opportunities to strategically advance alternative transportation modes in our region. Take BWC members Citrix or Red Hat for example; each has onsite bike sharing and secure parking for those that commute in via 2-wheels. Or member American Tobacco Campus and their forward thinking decision to provide transit amenities to tenants to decrease the need for costly parking deck installations. Each BWC employer has unique transportation benefits that helped qualify them for national designation and continues to add to the regional conversation about how to attract and retain the best possible talent. Our role here at the COG is to recognize this activity and act as a facilitator and convener to help spread these good ideas as quickly as we can to provide the most impact that we can. Through working groups, regional events, and networking opportunities, BWC provides an embedded network of employers that value what their employees value – a better commute and a better way of life.

We all have ideas that we can learn from each other. Why not approach these challenges with collaborative partnerships to help our entire region? After all, one less car on the road benefits not only the alternative commuter enjoying their newly minted bike ride to work, but also the driver that has one less car beside them as they set in for their daily trek into the office. As the Triangle J region grows, so too does our need for innovative solutions. Best Workplaces for Commuters is just one of the many regional tools helping us to advance alternative transportation modes and decrease the dependence regionally on a car-centric way of life.

Learn more about our Best Workplaces for Commuter program here: http://www.trianglebwc.org/