Perhaps you are thinking about busing, carpooling or vanpooling and need another financial incentive to get you motivated.  Perhaps you are an employer looking for ways to encourage your employees to use sustainable transportation to get to work.

Either way, you should definitely check out the Commuter Choice Tax Benefit.

A little about the benefit:

“The law allows employers to give their workers up to $115 each month for transit or vanpool commuting costs as a tax-free benefit. It also allows employers to give employees the option to use payroll deductions to avoid paying taxes on up to $115 a month in commuting costs. Alternatively, employers can share these costs with their workers by paying part of their monthly commuting costs and letting workers pay the balance using pre-tax dollars. Either way, both employers and their employees can save money by participating in this simple plan.”

Check it all out here: http://www.apta.com/research/info/online/paystoride.cfm

Every once and awhile, getDowntown does a Commuter Profile. This month, our featured Commuter is Nicole Trinkle of the Whole Brain Group. Read all about her and the a2Chelsea Express below:

“It couldn’t be simpler. I get on at the end of the block. It feels like it takes 5 minutes. And it’s always on time.”

Nicole Trinkle (pronounced Trink-lee) has nothing but good things to say about the new a2Chelsea Express.

The Ann Arbor Transportation Authority (AATA) started the a2Chelsea Express on May 15, and Nicole was one of the first people to get on the bus. The a2Chelsea Express runs from Chelsea to downtown Ann Arbor twice in the morning and twice in the afternoon during peak commuting times. And it just takes about 20 minutes.

Nicole works for the Whole Brain Group, a software development and accreditation company in downtown Ann Arbor. She grew up in Chelsea, got her degree from Eastern, and now enjoys saving money, catching up on sleep and reading books on the a2Chelsea Express.

Nicole is one of the many people who get on the a2Chelsea Express every morning at the Arctic Coliseum in Chelsea. Some of the other bus riders include a lawyer, a landscape architect and UM employees. And the coolest part is the bus drops Nicole off a block from her work!

But Nicole doesn’t just ride the a2Chelsea Express for conveniences’ sake. It also saves her a huge amount of money. How much? If you include the cost for parking and gas, Nicole figures she’s saving well over $200 a month by taking the bus, even including the $125 a month she pays to ride the bus.

To make the cost of commuting even cheaper, the Whole Brain Group is looking to provide their employees with a sustainable transportation benefit, which other companies such as Inner Circle Media already provide. GetDowntown also let Nicole know about the Commuter Choice Tax Benefit, which allows employers to give their workers up to $115 each month for transit or vanpool commuting costs as a tax-free benefit. To find out more about the Commuter Choice Tax Benefit, go here: http://www.apta.com/research/info/online/paystoride.cfm

In addition to getting some sleep on the bus, Nicole has also read three books during her morning and afternoon trips. Right now, she’s in the middle of The Other Boleyn Girl. In her spare time, Nicole really enjoys painting, scrapbooking and being crafty.

When asked what advice she would give other people who are thinking about riding the bus, Nicole says she’s learned to plan ahead so that she can do things like coordinate rides once she’s at work. So when there’s a networking event, Nicole carpools with co-workers to that event, so she doesn’t have to worry about needing a car. Another cool feature of the a2Chelsea Express is that it offers a Guareented Ride Home, so if Nicole did need to get home or somewhere else in an emergency, she’d be able to get a free cab ride.

Nicole also reminds people that you can take a trial run on the a2Chelsea Express and ride free for a week. So there is no cost just to try it out and see if you like it.

Nicole is just one of the many people who are saving money and helping the environment by riding the a2Chelsea Express. If you live in the Chelsea area, why not join people like Nicole and get on the bus? You can find out more here: http://www.theride.org/A2chelsea.asp

Well the final results are in for the Commuter Challenge.  Here are the winners:

1 Employee Category Winner: Jeffrey J. Ellison, P.C. (24 points)
The winner gets $50 worth of Ann Arbor Gold

2-9 Employee Category Winners (all had 100% participation!): Above the Treeline, American Friends Service Committee-MI Criminal Justice Program, Ann Arbor Downtown Development Authority, Center for Simplified Strategic Planning, Dascola Barbers, Fair Housing Center of Southeastern Michigan, Fourth Ave. Birkenstock, Independent Thinkers, Inner Circle Media, Interfaith Council for Peace and Justice, Not An Employee, University of Michigan–Lee Lab, GoKnow! Inc., Richner & Richner and The Whole Brain Group.
The winning orgs will get a Tea Tasting from Arbor Teas.  We will probably have a couple of tastings to accommodate all of the winners

10-24 Employee Category: 3-way tie! ApplEcon LLC, Survey Sciences Group, LLC, EWRE PUORG
The winning orgs will each get a Pizza Party from Cottage Inn!

25-99 Employee Category: UM Center for the Child and the Family
The winning org gets Coffee from Espresso Royale and Donuts from the Washtenaw Dairy!

100-499 Employee Category: University of Michigan - CoE - AOSS (43.0% Participation)
The winning org gets free 10 minute massage coupons from Relax Station for anyone in the winning organization that participated in the Commuter Challenge.

500+ Employee Category: Thomson Reuters (13.0% Participation)
The winning org gets a free coupon for a movie at the Michigan Theater for anyone in the winning organization that participated in the Commuter Challenge.

Here’s a Curb Your Car Month Post from Ann Arbor Googler Vicki Chan.

Here’s how Vicki describes herself:

As an AdWords associate for Google, I assist AdWords advertisers with their accounts and online marketing strategies. I graduated from Yale University with a degree in Sociology. I hail from Oakland, California and love to babysit, play Ultimate Frisbee and make bad jokes. (Mostly puns.)

Here’s Vicki’s Post:

Hybrid is the word of the day

This summer, yours truly will be playing with a club ultimate Frisbee team in Ann Arbor called Hybrid. To commute to those practices, I just bought a sweet Trek Multirack Women’s Hybrid bike in April. It’s no surprise that I’m also considering purchasing a Hybrid vehicle somewhere down the line. When I decide to have a kid, it’ll only be right to name her Hybridia, or Hybrid if he’s a boy.

I recently moved to Ann Arbor to start work with the Google office, and chose a friendly, family neighborhood apartment about 2 miles away from the office. During the winter and snow, I rode the Ann Arbor city bus downtown (go 9 and 9U!). Dragging myself out of bed in those below freezing temperatures was only made tolerable because of the bus drivers Ted and Dorien I met along the way. I just thought about how early they had to get up, and suddenly it didn’t seem so bad for me. Riding the bus with my fellow commuters in silent solidarity against the wind and sleet was actually a very unifying experience, but for the sake of sunshine, let’s fast forward to Spring and allow me to tell you why my commute is a hybrid commute, and not just a slushy snowy bus ride.

Last month at the start of Spring, I was ecstatic to finally wear short sleeves again and don my Wonderwoman helmet to break in my new bike. Riding west on Washington St. and seeing kids play roller hockey on the street and dogs chase obese squirrels up trees is downright blissful. After being indoors in an office building for most of the day, breathing fresh air and seeing playful creatures (both kids and squirrels alike) keeps me sane and grounded. I’m an outdoors person, and I’ve been known to chase a squirrel or two. Having that time before and after work to see and think about all things nature is really a necessary part of my day.

Commuting to work is all about choices, and I can’t ride to work every single day, but I can choose to diversify my sustainable commute options by using a hybrid strategy of self-powered commute options: riding my bike, using the bus system, and occasionally the nice long walk. An added incentive that pushes me to use sustainable commutes on rainy days is that Google supports the Self-Powered Commute program, which earns my nonprofit of choice $5 in donation for each day I walk, bike, or bus to work.

The short story is that I’m glad it’s Spring and I’m glad I get to bike again. I’m also glad for fat, but speedy squirrels, otherwise that Spring scene wouldn’t be quite as pleasant. Perhaps I can fit the chunky monkey squirrels with mini Hybrid bikes, so they can get some hybrid variety in their happy little lives too.

See you on those biking lanes!

Vicki

above: The elevators at the First National Building where Dunrie works.

Here’s another Curb Your Car Month post from a citizen. This one’s from Dunrie Greiling of Pure Visibility.

I curbed my (elevator) car in May

So, I’m loving Curb Your Car month. It makes me proud to live in a city where there are other folks who value walking, biking, busing, and carpooling to work enough to make a month-long-celebration of it!

I already walk to work. I’ve walked to work since I moved to Ann Arbor, in 1993. My first home here in Ann Arbor was a shared house on South Ashley, I walked from there to the Kraus Natural Science Building, where I was a graduate student in Biology. In 2000, I finished my doctorate and got a job at spatial analysis software company BioMedware on North State Street. I was living in a different apartment (this time on North First) by then, but still walking to work. Later that year, my husband and I bought a home on South First, and since then, I’ve used walkability as a criterion in my job hunts. Since BioMedware, I’ve had 3 jobs, I’m now working at the internet marketing company Pure Visibility, and I’m happy to report there are lots of great companies within walking distance of my home.

So, when it came time for Curb Your Car month, I wasn’t sure how to “up the ante”. I mean, giving up my car in May wasn’t really a commitment, as I hadn’t commuted by automobile since living in New Jersey in 1993!

Last August, Pure Visibility moved into the First National Building – into the 5th Floor, with spectacular views of Ann Arbor (come up and visit!). Since then, I’d been taking the elevator from the ground floor to our floor. I gained a few pounds, and I wanted them to come off. I also started measuring my daily footsteps with a pedometer, and tracking my walks on Ann Arbor’s WalkerTracker mini-site for pedometer enthusiasts. I began to covet those steps, and I wanted to up my daily exercise to work off the winter weight.

So, I decided to make this month curb my (elevator) car month.

Each morning, I walk past the waiting elevators and into the stairwell. I walk up the 82 steps from the first to the fifth floor, and I arrive, slightly winded and proud, at the 5th Floor to start my workday. Each evening ends going down the same way, and on a good day I get another round trip or two during the day.

What are you going to curb for curb your car month?

Dunrie Greiling
Carless posts on my blog, Scientific Ink

In this Sunday’s Ann Arbor News, Menlo Innovations CEO Richard Sheridan shares his thoughts on biking to work. Among his many observations:

• Biking to work helps him get in shape for the summer.
• Biking to work is a great way to take in all of the summer sights, like the Art Fair.
• Biking to work is cheaper than driving ($4 a gallon gas anyone?)

But he says it much better that I do. Read his Other Voices Piece in the News here.

Ann Arbor Googler Ashley Schubert, 24, is an AdWords Account Coordinator who works on supporting  Google’s growing base of advertisers. After graduating from Wake Forest University in May 2007, she moved to Ann Arbor and has been working for Google since December.

Ashley is an avid supporter of sustainable transportation. She shares her thoughts below.

Why should you walk, bike or bus to work instead of driving?

There are so many answers to that question- it’s hard to know where to begin. As a young 24 year old that has just started her first job at Google after many years of schooling, it is a simple answer: money. Don’t get me wrong- I’m a hippy at heart and I try my best to help the environment, but I also need to be fiscally responsible right now. And have you seen the price of gas lately?? Taking the bus or biking to work everyday for two weeks will save me over 40 dollars in gas. And that’s not even adding on the cost of car maintenance and insurance.

I take the bus most days to and from my office in downtown Ann Arbor. If it is a particularly beautiful day, I’ll bike or walk. In addition to money, it actually saves me time by taking the bus because then I don’t have to walk to and from the parking garage, the bus picks me up right outside my office door! And in the winter you quickly realize after spending 10 minutes scraping snow off the car and defrosting it, that if you’d just taken the bus, you’d be in transit by now- and be significantly warmer. I also hate driving in the rain. And who wouldn’t want to walk to the bus stop on a beautiful day?

My favorite days are the ones when I can bike downtown and complete all my errands without ever having to park. I especially like being able to get places faster, like Kerrytown, because I don’t have to follow all the one-way streets on my bike. The Farmer’s Market, my Pilates class above Café Zola, and the Dawn Treader bookstore are my three most common places to commute to-… but it would be a shame to miss all the stuff in between. Ann Arbor is full of great people, but you can’t appreciate its diversity and how unique it is from inside your car.

So just to recap why YOU should bike, bus, or walk:

- Save MONEY (and we love to do that)

- Feel good about curbing CO2 emissions

- Save time and worry over driving in snow and rain (which we have a lot of)

- And connect with the city- really appreciate all the great people and opportunities we have in Ann Arbor. You miss so many great restaurants and little unique shops when you are cruising past them at 30 mph.

I hope to see you on the bus or sidewalk soon!

–Ashley

The Michigan Healthy Community Newsletter encourages UM staff to Take the Commuter Challenge.

Given that the UM has almost 4 times as many employees as downtown Ann Arbor, it’s great to see them helping make our community a cleaner, greener place to live.  And the prizes don’t hurt, either!

A recent article on Entrepreneur.com discusses the increasing trend of businesses encouraging their employees to use sustainable transportation to get to work.

The article cites increasing gas prices and awareness of the realities of global warming as the top reasons behind this trend.

And the things businesses are doing to encourage sustainable transportation can be done right here in Downtown Ann Arbor:

• Pay for transit use. Many downtown businesses already do this with the go!pass
• Pay for carpool and vanpool use. Now that getDowntown is offering preferential parking for carpools and vanpools, this idea makes even more financial sense.
• Give out Bikes to employees. Not sure if any downtown business is doing this yet, but if you do, let me know.
• Offer showers and lockers for cyclists. At the very least, businesses can demonstrate they want to encourage cycling by offering free memberships to the Y, or even just learning more about resources for cyclists in our community.
• Encourage employees to live close enough to walk. Ann Arbor was recently rated the 3rd best city for walking in the whole nation. What can your business do to encourage employees to live close enough to walk to work?
• Offer employees incentives to try a sustainable commute. It’s easy to do that in downtown Ann Arbor, all you have to do is sign up your business for the Commuter Challenge. getDowntown does the rest! But if you really want to offer your own prizes and incentives, that would also be good.

So join the trend. All the other cool businesses are doing it!

In case you haven’t heard, getDowntown does a fabulous series of events in May called Curb Your Car Month. During this month, we encourage employees to use alternative transportation to get to work.

The theme of this year’s Curb Your Car Month is “Get More Out of Your Commute” because we know that downtown employees who walk, bike, bus, carpool, etc. have more fun, more time, and more exercise in their lives.

Here’s your chance to associate your organization with an event that reaches over 1,000 downtown employees.

Learn more about Curb Your Car Month and the sponsorship and prize donation opportunites by clicking here:

Curb Your Car Month information and opportunities