Free parking for downtown workers – is it just a myth? Absolutely not! There is a brand new free parking lot that all Ann Arborites, especially those of us working downtown, will want to know about. This hotspot not only provides commuters with free parking, but also gives them a lift to their office door in warmth and comfort. It opened early opened up earlier this week, so you’ll want to get in on the action before it gets crowded with other commuters…so where is this new free parking location?

Plymouth Rd Park & Ride Lot

The Park & Ride Lot up at Plymouth Rd and US-23. Within a day of opening there were many commuters who knew about this lot and were using it. The new Route 2 connects to this Park & Ride Lot, as well as the Green Road Park & Ride Lot and commuters who work at the U of M Medical Center, U of M Central Campus or Downtown Ann Arbor will be served well by both of these locations. From the Plymouth Road Lot at peak commuting times, the ride takes between 15-25 minutes. Sure you could drive that distance in your car, but then you’d have to spend additional time driving up to the top of your parking structure to leave your car. Why not hop on the bus and take that last few minutes of your commute to enjoy the warmth of the bus while reading a magazine or listening to a podcast. You have to walk to your office anyway, why not be dropped off at a bus stop rested and ready to start your day.

Park & Ride Lots Save You Money

Commuting from Park & Ride lots can save you $1050 a year if you park in a DDA parking structure. If you have a go!pass, that savings is $1500 a year. Employers looking to cut down on their monthly expenses could ditch the parking pass and know that their employees – even those who don’t live in Ann Arbor – can get to work safely on the bus.

Which Park & Ride Lot works best for you?

If you live in Canton, Ypsilanti, or points east the Park & Ride Lots at Green and Plymouth are easily accessed by M-14 and US-23. If you live south of Ann Arbor, the Pioneer High Park & Ride or the State Street Park & Ride Lot are great options. And if you live in Chelsea, Dexter or points north of Ann Arbor, the Miller Road Park & Ride gives you quick and easy access to Downtown, Central Campus and the Medical Center. Check here for the routes to find which Park & Ride has the best service for where you need to go.

Emergency

What if you have to stay late at work, for a last-minute meeting with a client or a dinner out with your co-workers? Bus service to the Plymouth Rd. P&R as well as the Miller Rd P&R goes late.  If you have to stay until 10:00pm, you can still get a bus from Blake Transit Center that will take you up to your car. (This is done on request – call 996-4000, or ask your driver, for more details.) And if you have to stay later than that – between 11:00pm and 6:00am, the Night Ride can take you up to your car for $1 with your go!pass (or $5 without).

So now you’ll know why your fellow co-workers always show up at work more cheerful, and can afford an extra coffee or two during the week. So join them! Be a commuter who saves money, has a quick and easy ride to downtown (one that doesn’t include spending ten minutes in your parking structure circling up to your parking spot!) by hopping on the bus at the Park & Ride Lot.

You have probably heard about Toyota having some problems with some of its most popular cars.  Well one of those cars is the Matrix and currently the downtown Ann Arbor Zipcar fleet has 2 Toyota Matrix’s.  As of now, the be safe, Zipcar is removing those vehicles from the fleet.  No word yet about when they might return or what they will be replaced with.

If your day starts at 8:00am and ends at 5:00pm you have many commuting options available to you – taking the bus being one of them. That’s why a go!pass is so useful—if you work during the day, you can take the bus to work for free and never have to pay for parking.

But what if your workday starts at 5:00am? Or ends at 1:00am? If you commute when the buses aren’t running, what other options do you have?

Walk. If you live within a couple of miles of your job, walking is always an option. If the weather turns from pleasant to rainy (or snowy!) during your shift, you could be facing an unpleasant walk home. If you stay longer than planned and are uncomfortable walking at a late hour, what can you do?

Drive. Parking can be an expensive option if your employer doesn’t provide you with a parking space. Then there’s the additional cost of gas. There are more affordable permit options: the DDA sells a Limited Monthly Parking Permit to people who need to park between 3:00pm and 9:00am for $30/month.  (Contact the DDA for more details.)

If you are an evening employee who has been taking advantage of the free on-street parking after 6:00pm, you might have heard enforcement hours could be changing.  There is a service that can help those who can ride the bus to work (but not home), those who walk and those who might be losing their free on-street parking spots…Night Ride.

Night Ride. Night Ride is a shared-ride taxi service run by the AATA and it costs just $1 (with a go!pass or $5 without). How does it work?

• If you get out of work at midnight, or at 5:00am, the buses won’t be running, but Night Ride will be. Night Ride runs: 11:00pm – 6:00am (M-F), 7:00pm – 7:30am (S&S).
• Call 734-528-5432 and within an average of 20 minutes (range is between 15-40 minutes) you can be in a cab. Don’t worry about being out in the cold; you can wait indoors for the cab as long as you are in a spot where you can see it when it arrives.
• Trips must stay within the Ann Arbor city limits. If you don’t live in Ann Arbor, can use Night Ride to get you to and from the conveniently located Park & Ride lots.
• Its safe, reliable and just $1. It is a shared service, meaning you may share your ride home with another night-owl or you may have the cab to yourself.

Keep this in mind: Night Ride is a bargain. Even if you found a free parking spot on the street, gas for your trip to and home from work will be more than $1.

Downtown restaurants that I’ve talked to love this service, and each month the ridership has increased. In August 2009 the number of rides from go!passes holders was 70; by November 2009 it was up to 310!

If you are a downtown business owner, manager or employee and you want more information, getDowntown can provide you with some Night Ride cards. These cards are available in both English and Spanish. They’re the perfect size for your wallet and detail the hours of operation and the number to call. If your company is interested in go!passes, give us a call at 214-0100.

FYI:

AATA THANKSGIVING SERVICE HOURS ANNOUNCED

The Ann Arbor Transportation Authority will not operate regular fixed-route bus service, A-Ride, or senior shared-ride services on Thursday, November 26, 2009 in observance of the Thanksgiving holiday.

Most regular bus, A-Ride and senior services will resume on Friday, November 27, with the following exceptions:

• There will be no service on Routes 1U, 2X, or the Route 33 EMU Shuttle.
• Service will not operate on Routes 4C or 4D trips. Routes 4A and 4B will pull into U-M Hospital and the Medford/Manchester stop.
• On Routes 4A and 4B, the only trips that will operate are those leaving the Blake Transit Center at 18 and 48 minutes past the hour and the Ypsilanti Transit Center on the hour and half hour.
• Route 36 bus service from Wolverine Tower will be reduced to service every 30 minutes at 15 and 45 past the hour.

The AATA main office and the Blake and Ypsilanti Transit Centers will be closed on Thanksgiving Day and will reopen on Friday, November 27.

Passengers may take advantage of AATA’s Holiday Ride shared-ride service on November 26 for just $5 a person.  Seniors and persons with disabilities with an AATA Senior or ADA identification card may ride for $2.50. Individuals with a go!pass may ride for $1.00.

Holiday Ride service operates only within the city limits of Ann Arbor. To schedule a Holiday Ride trip, call 734.528.5432.

Bus route and schedule information is available on AATA’s Web Site at www.TheRide.org and at 734.996.0400.

[A post from Citizen Blogger Sarah S.]

I recently purchased new tubes for my 14-year-old bike. The technician hoisted my purple, sticker-covered mount onto a brace and set about dismantling the tires, sanding the rims and oiling the brakes. I wandered around the shop, pricing air pumps and wheel racks, trying on helmets, mentally rearranging my budget to facilitate a tricked-out ride.

When my bike was finished, I rode it exactly thirty yards back to my apartment.

I am not at all hardcore. I bike for the same reason I drive: to get somewhere. I curse up hills and shake my fist at buses in the bike lane. I don’t fly down hills at 200 mph and I always obey traffic lights when I ride in the road. When I lived on the South side, the commute to work took about forty minutes and was four miles away. Now that I live on the West side, it is three miles to work and still takes forty minutes—without the added bonus of downhill all the way home. Ann Arbor may not look much like Rome, but it feels different at ground level; the topography often dips and pitches along the same road, especially around the hospital grounds. It doesn’t take much alternating between screeching brakes and grunting inclines to realize they should have pluralized “Hill” street.

And still I do it. I am one of those crazy bikers making drivers slow on the right, making them hit their brakes when they exit a parking structure, practically daring them to run me off the road. Because when I walk into work and take off my oversized (soon-to-be-replaced) helmet, my brain is awake like I had an espresso shooter. I can wait until noon before I need a cup of coffee. When I dismount on the ride home, it’s 5:00 and my daily workout is already over. I have the whole night to explore the height and breadth of my laziness; after all, how athletic can I be if I only bike to avoid the gym?

Top Three Reasons to Bust Out Your Bike:

1. It’s sustainable. Yeah, that might have gone without saying, but it’s a pure form of transport. Much like pedaling the Flintstone car, you’re getting where you’re going under your own physical power (the same is true of running, or even walking, but this one will get you there in half the time). Plus, all the carbon emissions you’re saving stay out of the air—and the gas money stays in your wallet.

2. You will look so totally hot. Depending on the distance you live from work, you could easily drop a few pounds biking in. You’ll burn far more calories than sitting on the bus, and your legs will tone at the first sight of an incline.

3. Art Fair. When the Deuce plays host to that wonderful and overwhelming living entity that is The Street Art Fair, your buses will be rerouted, your car will sit idling in the sun for hours, and out-of-towners flooding the sidewalks will make it impossible for you to navigate home. The only reasonable alternative is a two-wheeled one; bike lanes are clear even when traffic is stopped, and skirting the fair means no danger of getting waylaid by cars and pedestrians alike. Added bonus: normally, when you’re stuck in traffic, you have no choice but to sit and wait—on a bike, your only impediment is your own body. Trust me, you’ll be early.

This post is from guest blogger Al McWilliams.

Other than having just figured out that I was supposed to keep writing in this blog even after the commuter challenge started (sorry, I thought I was just the opening act), today I had a great idea!

I’m watching them put in the new fancy solar-powered parking meter stations around downtown and I thought, “Wow! This is so great, and renewable! However, it does seem a little complicated and expensive, not to mention having big, bored-teen-tempting solar panels… there might be a better way…”

Then, like in a dream, it came to me! What if there was a way to have parking meters that functioned mechanically!? You’d just pull up to them, drop in some sort of weighted currency, and turn a crank!! Get on in engineers! The future is now!

Week 2 of the Commuter Challenge ended with a bang as we celebrated National Bike to Work Day.  More on Bike to Work Day here.

The Numbers

So far, 140 Organizations and 1,802 participants have signed up for the Challenge.  This is by far the most we’ve ever had!  Of those participants, 1,319 have logged at least 1 sustainable commute.  Collectively, we’ve logged 95,607 miles and avoided 81,829 lbs of CO2!

The Winners

Here’s who’s winning the Challenge so far.  View updated stats here.

1 Person Orgs: Keystone Media has pulled out ahead with Gardener Communications close behind.

2-9 Person Orgs: Ghostly International and Friends still has a commanding lead with the Greenway Collaborative and Mike Green and Associates still going strong.

10-24 Person Orgs: This has been a bitter fight with ApplEcon currently in the lead.  Above the Treeline and UM’s EWRE PUORG are still within spitting distance.

25-99 Person Orgs: Apparently there is a bit of spousal rivalry going on in this category.  She works for Menlo Innovations.  He works for Quinn Evans Architects.  Currently, Menlo is in first place and Quinn Evans is in 2nd.  The UM Center for the Child and the Family (which has won every year of the Challenge) is a very close 3rd.

100-499 Person Orgs: JSTOR continues to dominate this category, with the UM’s CoE-AOSS and Zingerman’s Deli in 2nd and 3rd place.

So what will these Orgs win if they win the Challenge?  Click here to find out.

Prizes, We Got Your Prizes!

We’ve been giving out 4 prizes every day during the Commuter Challenge.  These week, we gave out prizes to people who logged a bus commute.  Next week, we’ll be giving out prizes to those who log a bike commute.  Check out who’s winning our prizes here.

We also have our Ambassadors out there as part of the Commuter Challenge Prize Patrol.  Maybe they’ll give you a prize.

Know someone who’s been a Super Commuter during the Commuter Challenge?  Why not nominate them for a Super Commuter Prize?

Awards

Is your organization showing a real commitment to being green during the Commuter Challenge?  Nominate them for a Green Hero Award.

Looking Ahead

Next week is Walking is Wondering Week. The Week after that is Let’s Share Week.  Click here to check out all of the Commuter Challenge events

Another great Commuter Challenge Ambassador Blog Post from Sarah over at the UM Dermatology Administration.

In a strange way, I thought being a Commuter Ambassador would give me power. I’d get a flashy badge, bragging rights, some vague form of authority. I would get to drill the troops, give pep talks and rallying speeches, eventually have my likeness bronzed and placed at the top of a public building’s steps. And of course, I would have what any cubicle-dwelling daydreamer wants: I would have street cred.

Sadly, our ‘troops’ aren’t even enough to warrant a group. Actually, we’re more of an ‘us.’ The number of participants is down mainly due to extenuating circumstances—two walkers have sought greener pastures outside the department, and our star biker is out this year due to an otherwise wonderful and happy pregnancy. I’ve discovered it’s hard to wield authority over one person without feeling like a babysitter, and the fact that that person is your superior is just plain awkward. I was about to hang up my hat (no, I didn’t make a hat. Well, I don’t wear it) when I got the news that I would be in charge of handing out prizes.

I thought, “hey, some stickers, a button, no big whoop”–and then I opened the envelope and let out a very big whoop indeed. Not only buttons, but a flashing LED tag for biking, a UM keychain and a mini-flashlight. These weren’t just promotional products. This was SWAG. I felt like I did the very first year I was allowed to hand out Halloween candy. Sometimes there are half-hours between kids, and nobody’s watching…

Thankfully, the little note attached to the prizes kept me straight: “Please do not keep these.” Well, sure; easy for you to say. But the second I give away this keychain flashlight I’m going to drop my keys behind the couch. Then where will I be?

I decided I couldn’t be trusted with such treasures. The temptation was too great. If I had been Frodo, the Shire would be burned and we would all have been enslaved by orcs.

The note went on to say that prizes could be given to any person using ‘green’ transport, which increased the number of victims to take this precious loot off my hands. The keychain went to my fellow teammate; that was easy. The buttons and stickers, I reasoned, could get the word out, and I used them to expound on the challenge at length to carbon-impaired coworkers. One of them begged for a button, citing her use of the campus shuttle. I wasn’t the only one seeing these things as candy. (It helps that the little bird buttons are cute.)

Almost rid of my booty, I reminded our pouting biker that her busing from the parking lot counts. If you see her walking her dog with a flashing LED on its leash, tell her she’s already setting a great example.

And now, empty-handed, I suppose I do have a little power after all.

This Commuter Challenge Blog Post is from Jonathan over at Inner Circle Media.

One thing that I feel is often under-appreciated about bike commuting is how personal it is. You experience (for better or worse —) the road, the breeze, the sun, and the people around you. The last few weeks, I’ve had a number of conversations with fellow commuters, all of which have made my morning that much brighter:

• Ann Arbor Chronicle reporter extraordinaire Dave Askins on northbound Fourth at Huron. I first met Dave when he covered the Ann Arbor Track Club workout. Simple “hellos” and “hey, I remember yous” were all we had time for before the light changed and we were on our respective ways.
• The fellow I passed near Wells on north-ishbound Packard, who caught up to me at the insanity that passes for an intersection at Packard & Hill. “Thanks for the draft!” was all we covered before traffic started moving again.
• A gentleman from Swedish Engineering on a fixie who followed me through the harrowing left onto Independence from Packard. Turned out he lived only a few blocks from me, and we had time to discuss the finer points of frame selection, single-speed v. fixed, disc brakes v. skid-braking, and what constitutes “fun” when riding in the snow.
• The cycle-garbed woman who watched a truck back out of a driveway on Packard *all the way across* the road and into our bike lane in front of me, who suggested as we approached Packard & Hill “You should have given him a little tap on the cab!” When I found out she rides in from Ypsi every morning, I asked her opinion on the Border 2 Border trail. “It’s much prettier, but Packard is way faster.” And with that, the light turned and we parted.

Nothing Earth-shattering, just brief moments to remind me that there actually are other people out there, and not just giant honking rollcages. I kind of wish I’d signed up to be a Commuter Challenge Ambassador, so I could track these people down and give them prizes.

Check out all the info here: http://www.getdowntown.org/ride/A2zipcar.html