Every 2 years the getDowntown Program conducts a survey of downtown Ann Arbor Employers and Employees to

1. Get a snapshot of the commuting habits of downtown Ann Arbor employees
2. Gauge Employer and Employees attitudes, awareness and use of the getDowntown Program and of transportation options in general.

In 2011, the getDowntown Program worked with CJI Research to conduct a survey of downtown Ann Arbor employees and employers.  For the most part, employers and employees participated in the survey by taking the survey online.  A small handful of employees also took a paper version of the survey.

This survey was jointly funded by the Ann Arbor Transportation Authority (TheRide) and The Ann Arbor Downtown Development Authority.

A total of 260 employers completed the Employer Survey.  A total of 279 employees from 11 different downtown organizations complete the Employee Survey.  This response rate was high enough to create a representative sample of Employers and Employees.

Key Findings: Employer Survey and Employee Surveys

• 70% of employers surveyed believe that it’s either very or somewhat important to have a choice of transportation options (not just parking for cars) to attract high quality workers and customers.
• 57% of Employers who participate in the go!pass program rated getDowntown and the go!pass as highly beneficial to their employees.
•  More than 70% of employers and employees are aware of the getDowntown Program and the services we provide.
• Compared to the 2009 survey, more employees are using public transit and riding bikes and fewer employees are driving to work alone.
• At 4 miles or less from work, surveyed employees are much more likely to bus, bike or walk than drive alone to work.  At more than 4 miles from work, employees are much more likely to drive alone than use any other type of transportation.  4 miles is approximately the distance to the City of Ann Arbor borders from downtown Ann Arbor.
• Many employees with a go!pass report that the go!pass has caused them to take the bus for the first time, drive less, or use the bus more.
• For employees who switched from driving alone to using the bus in the past year, a major reason for this change is the availability of a go!pass.

For the complete report on the getDowntown survey, please click here.  For selected slides from the getDowntown survey, please click here.

Here’s your chance to check out the top content on the getDowntown blog from 2011.

Most Read getDowntown Blog Posts of 2011

• getDowntown’s Guide to Bike Commuting in Downtown Ann Arbor
• Apparently lots of folks decided to take up bike commuting in 2011.  This post gives you the rundown of all you need to know to get your downtown bike commute on.
• The Creative Class Bikes to Work: The Economic Case for Bike Commuting
• What did Richard Florida find when he looked at the bike commuting rates and economic indicators such as educational attainment, fitness and more?  Check out this post to see.
• getDowntown’s Guide to Using Transit/Busing in Downtown Ann Arbor
• Want to get downtown on the bus?  This post shows you how.
• getDowntown’s Guide to Winter Bike Commuting
• You can Conquer the Cold and do bike commutes in the winter!
• Downtown Ann Arbor employee ROAMs through the country by Velomobile
• Cool guy doing a cool event.
• Making Riding the Bus Look Sexy
• Yes, it’s possible.  Check out the picture in this post to see how.
• Winter Clothing – Ignoring Fashion In Favor of Practicality
• Downtown employee tells us what you need to wear to walk to work in the winter
• Studded, Skinny or Fat? Winter Bike Commuting Tire Talk
• Apparently lots of people want to know what kind of bike tire to use in the winter
• getDowntown’s Guide to Walking to Work in Downtown Ann Arbor
• Info an resources to make your walk to work more pleasant.

The U.S. Census recently released their 2010 American Community Survey, which has estimates for various 2010 Community characteristics.

Here’s what the new figures say about how Ann Arborites are commuting to work (as compared to the 2000 Census and a 2009 survey conducted by getDowntown):

As you can see, less Ann Arborites are driving alone compared to 2000.  At the same time, there was a large jump in the number of people taking public transportation.  the 2000 Census had a category for biking to work that I couldn’t find in the 2010 ACS so I grouped biking into other means in the 2000 data.  I am assuming biking to work is also in the 2010 data for other means.  And the slight increase might indicate more people are biking to work.  There was also a rather large decrease in carpooling to work, which is pretty interesting.  And the fact that the mean travel time hasn’t gone down much could point to the fact that people have not been able to sell their homes and move closer to work or that people just aren’t interested in doing this.

Finally, comparing the 2010 and 2000 data to a study we conducted in 2009 (we are currently conducting a follow up study) reveals that even more people take the bus to work downtown, which makes sense because of the go!pass and because the Blake Transit Center is downtown.  I am surprised less people walk to work downtown than for all of the City but I am thinking that might be because we do not include UM data.    Overall though, our data is pretty similar.  Also, FYI all of the percentages do not add up to 100% because there were multiple categories that people could select in some cases.

The Washtenaw Bicycling and Walking Coalition (WBWC), City of Ann Arbor, Ann Arbor Downtown Development Authority and Thomson Reuters are working together to improve safety at crosswalks throughout the city.

Using an online survey, this group is gathering data on local behaviors and knowledge about crosswalks among those who regularly drive in Ann Arbor. Survey data will be used to assess the progress of a community-wide education campaign.

Please take a few minutes to complete the driver survey (even if you completed a similar one last spring), and please share this survey link with other local drivers: http://www.zoomerang.com/Survey/WEB22CL9SA9G8Z/

How many miles would you have to commute by bike in order to pay back its initial carbon footprint?

About 400 miles, according to this article from Slate: Two Wheels vs. Four

If you have a 5-mile round trip commute (like I do) that would mean you’d be carbon neutral after about about 4 months of daily biking commuting.  That sounds pretty doable to me.

What about other forms of transportation, such as driving a Prius or taking the bus?  The article does a great job of laying out the research and giving you a sense of how many “greener than thou” points you earn with your different commuting decisions.

I think it would also be interesting to see how the overall carbon footprint of someone who bikes to work compares with someone who walks, carpools, or buses to work.  I would bet that a person who bikes or walks probably lives closer to work and therefore does other errands on foot or by bike as well.  In addition, it is more likely that someone who can walk or bike to work probably lives in a more urban environment, which also has benefits when it comes to lowering a carbon footprint.

Walkscore is a great website that ranks the walkability of cities and towns all across the country.

According to Walkscore, the walkability of a community matters for several reasons:

Environment: . . . Your feet are zero-pollution transportation machines.

Health: The average resident of a walkable neighborhood weighs 6-10 pounds less than someone who lives in a sprawling neighborhood.

Finances: One point of Walk Score is worth up to $3,000 of value for your property.

Communities: Studies show that for every 10 minutes a person spends in a daily car commute, time spent in community activities falls by 10%.

So needless to say, a good Walkscore in a particular community has a lot of benefits.

Communities with a Walkscore of 90-100 are considered a Walker’s Paradise.  Walkscore’s between 70-89 are considered very walkable.  Click here for the entire range of scores.

So what about Ann Arbor?  Let’s see how our community compares to others:

Ann Arbor Walkability Fun Facts via Walkscore

• Ann Arbor’s average Walkscore is 59, which is considered Somewhat Walkable.
• Downtown Ann Arbor has a Walkscore of 94. I used the getDowntown Office Address for this point (518 E. Washington, Ann Arbor 48104).
• 32% of Ann Arbor residents have a Walkscore of 70 or above
• Ann Arbor’s most walkable ZIP codes are 48109. Ann Arbor’s least walkable ZIP codes are 48104. This is interesting because downtown is in the 48104 Zip Code.
• Ann Arbor has the best Walkscore in Michigan for a city its size
• Ann Arbor has the best Walkscore in the Midwest for a city its size
• Comparably sized cities with better Walkscores: El Monte, CA (61); Berkeley, CA (82), Lowell, MA (64)

So in many ways, Ann Arbor is doing great as far as walkability goes.  But it’s clear that there is a huge variation within Ann Arbor.

If you ever wondered what we do over here at the getDowntown Program and how successful we are at getting people to try green commutes, here’s a look at our accomplishments for the past year.

2010-2011 (July 2010-July 2011)
getDowntown Program Accomplishments

Increased downtown employer and employee awareness of green transportation options

Reaching out to large employers

• This year, getDowntown made a greater effort to reach out to the top 20 restaurant and top 20 office employers located downtown through creating customized commuting brochures, soliciting feedback about changes to the go!pass program, conducting commuting workshops, providing employers with kits filled with commuting information, promoting the Commuter Challenge and targeting an A2 Express promotion at these employers.

Commuting presentations and materials distribution

• This year, getDowntown conducted 23 snack breaks (presentations to employees on commuting information) and distributed 20 snack break kits (bags of commuting information for employees) to large employers in downtown Ann Arbor.

Customized commuting brochures

• getDowntown created customized commuting brochures for 5 major downtown employers and created customized commuting brochures for office and restaurant/retail employees that work in the 4 different parts of downtown.  GetDowntown distributed these brochures at snack breaks and presentations to employers and well as when handing out go!pass information.  The brochure for restaurant/retail employees has information on the evening commuting options for these employees.

Online e-newsletter to employers and employees

• getDowntown provided a monthly email newsletter (The Commuter Connection) with commuting information and resources to a list of almost 900 contacts, many of which are either downtown employees or employer participants in the go!pass program.

Visibility at public events

• Green Commute 2011: Organized a Green Commute section of Mayor’s Green Fair to showcase different Green Commute options to the public.  Exhibitors in the Green Commute Section included the City of Ann Arbor, MichiVan, the AATA, the Michigan Association of Railroad Passengers, and more.
• Townie Street Party 2010: Brought a Zipcar to the Townie Street Party and promoted getDowntown’s programs and services to local residents and employees.

getDowntown Commuter Club

• getDowntown had a successful pilot of the Commuter Club program in 2010-2011.  We had about 60 downtown Ann Arbor employees participate and log commutes from July 2010-March 2011.  In addition to having these individuals log commutes, we sent them emails with commuting information and resources and provided incentives to encourage them to continue their green commutes.  This Club represents another way for getDowntown to interface with employees and communicate with them about the different green commuting options available downtown.

Increased go!pass participation by employers and employees

More employers are participating in the go!pass program than ever before.

• As of June 2011 (the go!pass season ends Nov 1, 2011), 506 employers are participating in the go!pass program, up from 489 for the entire 2009-2010 season.
• At the same time, ridership for the go!pass is at an all time high, with 421,771 rides from Nov 2010-June 2011.  This is a 22% increase over the same period in the previous year.

Successfully transitioned to a swipe-able go!pass

• In 2010, the getDowntown Program worked with staff from the Ann Arbor Transportation Authority to make go!passes swipe-able.  These new swipe-able go!passes allow getDowntown to turn off passes that are lost or misplaced and allow the getDowntown Program to provide reports to its funding partners on how many passes are being used and by which industries.  This information will be used to increase the success of the go!pass program in the future.

Commuter Challenge accomplishments

• Most organizational participation ever: This year’s Commuter Challenge saw the best organizational participation level ever with 190 organizations participating in the Commuter Challenge.
• Doing a better job of attracting the target audience: Compared to 2010, more people who typically drive alone participated in the 2011 Commuter Challenge.
• The Challenge increases green commuting for downtown employees: Compared to 2010, more downtown employees surveyed said they increased their green commuting during the 2011 Commuter Challenge and that this increase was caused by the 2011 Commuter Challenge.  In 2011, 55% of downtown respondents said they increased their green commuting during the Challenge, and of those 75% said the increase was because of the Challenge.
• The Challenge increases green commuting for downtown employees who typically drive alone and/or sometimes, rarely or never do a green commute: Even more significant is that compared to all downtown employees, an even higher percentage of downtown employees who either typically drive alone or do a green commute 4 times a month or less said their green commuting increased during the Commuter Challenge and that it was the 2011 Commuter Challenge that caused this increase.  In 2011, 82% of respondents that typically drive alone and 85% of respondents who never, rarely or sometimes do a green commute said their green commuting increased during the Challenge.  Of those respondents, 82% of those who typically drive alone and 87% of those who sometimes, rarely or never do a green commute said the Challenge was the main reason their use of green commuting increased.
• The Commuter Challenge changes commuting behavior over time: 44% of all downtown respondents who participated in the 2010 Commuter Challenge said they made a change in how they got to work in the past year, with 93% saying they increased their use of green commuting.
• Of the factors that caused an increase in yearly green commuting use, getDowntown factors—the Commuter Challenge and the go!pass (an unlimited use transit pass sold to employers by getDowntown), were a top reason for this change.  Gas prices and the desire to be more environmentally friendly also rated highly.

Increased use of Bike Lockers

• Downtown employees are using Bike Lockers at a high rate.  Since last year, 80% of all bike lockers have been rented.  Since June 2011, the usage rate increased to 85%, which is the highest rate yet. In fact, use is so high that the getDowntown Program is looking at refurbishing some bike lockers that were removed for the Library Lot construction and placing them at a strategic downtown location.

Increased Visibility in the Media and Social Media

• Media Coverage: Received media coverage on WEMU, Concentrate and AnnArbor.Com for the Commuter Challenge and on WEMU for go!passes.
• getDowntown Facebook Page: 335 Likes (up from195 in 2010)
• getDowntown Twitter: 668 Followers (up from 341 in 2010)

Continued success of the Zipcar program

• Added 2 more Zipcars to downtown fleet in November 2010 for a total of 8 downtown Zipcars.
• Downtown Ann Arbor membership and utilization continues to demonstrate the success of the program.

Cultivation of partnerships with affiliated organizations

• Continue to foster relationships, provide feedback, and work with area merchant associations, the Ann Arbor Transportation Authority, The Downtown Development Authority, The City of Ann Arbor, Ann Arbor Ypsi Chamber of Commerce, U or M, Washtenaw Area Transportation Study and the Washtenaw Biking and Walking Coalition to further the mission of the getDowntown Program.

So here at getDowntown we talk a lot about promoting green commuting as a way to save money, get fit, have fun, and help the environment.

What we should be talking about a lot more is why green commuting is such a positive thing from an economic and business perspective.

Well lucky me, the king of the Creative Class himself, Richard Florida made my job a little easier.

In a recent post for the Atlantic, Mr. Florida looks at bike commuting and how it correlates with other important economic development indicators.  Here’s some of what he found:

Compared to metros with lower bike commuting levels, metros with high levels of bike commuting . . .

• Are more affluent
• Have higher levels of education or human capital
• Have more knowledge-based economies (with more creative-class jobs)
• Are more diverse (with higher levels of immigrants and gays and lesbians)
• Are happier
• Are fitter

If even one of these items was true, wouldn’t that make a economic case for supporting bike commuting?  In my work at the getDowntown Program, I definitely notice that bike commuters can be found at the types of jobs we want to attract, keep, and grow in Ann Arbor.

Statistics from our last survey of commuters found that 2.3% of downtown employees bike to work.  This is on par with many of the metros highlighted in Florida’s post.

What I hope this article also shows is that cycling is clearly not just for recreation any more.  Enough people have found that biking to work works for them at least some of the time that it’s a viable way to commute.

What can we do to encourage more bike commuting?  Well, besides doing something about Michigan winters, there’s a lot that can be done.  The City of Ann Arbor continues to add bike lanes, sharrows, share the road signs and other visual cues that let people see that our community supports bike commuting.  I hope that organizing events like Bike to Work Day helps make biking to work fun and more common place.

Call it telework, telecommuting, or simply working from home.

Whatever you call it, with all of the snow we’re experiencing in the Ann Arbor area right now, I’m glad I have the flexibility (and tools) to work remotely.

Clearly, I’m not alone.  Techsoup recently posted an article on their Greentech blog outlining some of the current trends in telework.

While it may not be practical for all of us to work from home (or from a coffee shop) all of the time, it does make sense for employers to give employees to tools they need to get work done at another location.  This is especially important on days when commuting to work is a dangerous proposition.

Which leads to the question Is the Office Really Necessary?

This question was posed by a recent Cisco study (as mentioned in Techsoup):

The study surveyed 2,600 workers in 13 countries. It found that three of every five employees believed it was unnecessary to be in the office to be productive. This was especially the case in Asia and Latin America. More than 9 out of 10 employees in India (93 percent) said they did not need to be in the office to be productive. This was also the case in China (81 percent) and Brazil (76 percent). Most respondents are fine with using their own personal or company-owned IT devices to access corporate networks, applications, and information anywhere they work.

So what does this all mean for office culture?  And does this apply to your organization?  I find that while working from home is nice, I really appreciate the camaraderie of a co-worker.  I suppose that’s why places like the Workatile Exchange exist.

In many ways, telework is a tool just like walking, biking or busing to work are tools.  If it makes more sense to work from home on any given day, it’s great to be able to do that, just like it’s great to have the option to bus, walk or bike when it makes sense.

Want more advice or guidance on how to set up teleworking at your office?  If you work in downtown Ann Arbor, feel free to contact us at getDowntown and we’d be happy to assist!

Here’s some good news for all of you bike commuters (and drivers!).  A recent study out of Minneapolis found that as bike commuting increases, the number of vehicle-bike crashes decreases.

I wonder if we would find the same data for Ann Arbor?

Check out the story here.