Employee Trip Reduction Without Government Mandates: Cost and Effectiveness Estimates from Chicago

Abstract

Employee trip reduction demonstration projects were organized by the Chicago Area Transportation Study, the metropolitan planning organization in the Chicago area. This paper is based on an independent evaluation of the demonstration projects. The primary source of data for this evaluation was a series of interviews conducted with program administrators and employee trip coordinators at each organization that participated in the demonstration. Voluntary costs, which are costs incurred to implement an employee trip reduction program without the necessity to comply with government regulation, are estimated. The average demonstration organization was able to reduce solo driving rates by 5.5 percentage points. This reduction was attained at an average annual voluntary cost per employee of $34.38. The average voluntary cost per car removed for organizations that actually reduced the solo driving rate was $473. Each $10 expenditure per employee is associated with a 1 percent reduction in the solo driving rate. Every $ 10 increase in annual incentive costs per employee was found to be associated with a 1.3 percent decrease in the solo driving rate. It also was found that elimination of government mandates has reduced the cost of implementing an employee trip reduction program by one-half. Tax incentives should be established to encourage organizations to begin voluntary programs. Such a tax-incentive scheme, combined with an aggressive education program, may be able to achieve substantial reductions in pollution and congestion in urban areas.

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