FYI:

Dear Friends,

As you know, City Council requested that the Ann Arbor Downtown Development Authority (DDA) develop a public parking plan. We have begun a series of outreach methods to inform this plan, and as part of this, we will be holding several focus group meetings to hear from community representatives.

All are welcome to attend. We have scheduled two meetings at different times, in an effort to meet a variety of schedules.

When: Monday, March 8th

4:30pm – 6:00pm
7:00pm-8:30pm

Where: DDA Board Room, 150 S. Fifth Ave Suite 301, Ann Arbor MI, 48104

At these sessions, I will give a brief overview of our assignment and what we’ve done so far. Most of the meeting will be designed to hear your thoughts, ideas, concerns, and recommendations.

To give us a sense of how many we can expect, please RSVP by clicking this link: http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/ParkingPlanRSVP. We greatly appreciate you taking the time.

Many thanks,

Susan Pollay

Executive Director | Ann Arbor DDA

(734) 994-6697

Mike is the type of person you might not typically think of as a sustainable commuter. He’s the President and COO of a growing company. He’s a dad. And he has a free parking spot in the back of his building.

But don’t let those details fool you. From my interview with Mike it’s clear that commuting sustainably fits perfectly into his life and has some unexpected benefits. Mike Felkey works at Intersect Digital, a small web development firm with some big clients. Intersect has worked with such companies as Subaru and Saatchi & Saatchi. The company’s headquarters is in downtown Ann Arbor (on First Street) and they also have a location in New York (who doesn’t, really). Depending on the amount of work available, Intersect employs anywhere from 17 to 60 employees. Currently, business is on the upswing.

The first clue into Mike’s interest in sustainable commuting comes when we talk about the company’s culture. Intersect is very supportive of telecommuting for its employees. Since many of the company’s employees live in places like Southfield and Novi and since many of them are working mothers, this benefit really helps cut down on a stressful commute. As far as Mike’s concerned, as long as employees get the work done, it doesn’t matter where they do it. We then chatted a bit about Daniel Pink’s new book, Drive, which describes how the businesses of the future are finding ways to motivate their employees through giving them freedom rather than imposing tons of rules. And according to Mike, this philosophy really pays off.

So what about the employees who do commute to work? Since Intersect offers the go!pass to employees, some of them happily take the bus. Other employees walk or ride their bikes. As far as Mike goes, he likes to walk, bike or take the bus to work. His commute isn’t super short either. If he chooses to walk, it can take him about 40 minutes.

So what’s Mike’s motivation for walking, biking or busing to work? He’s got a free space out back, and could probably get to work by car in less than 40 minutes. A big benefit Mike sees in leaving his car at home is that walking, biking and busing are all great for his health. He gets to build some exercise into his day, which might otherwise be a challenge to find the time for. Now that there are Zipcars downtown (a couple just a block from him office), Mike can bike, walk or bus to work even when he needs to go to a meeting out of town.

As we start to chat a little about Mike’s kids (his son goes to Tappan and his daughter goes to Burn’s Park Elementary), I find out another great benefit of Mike’s commute. Both of his kids have grown up watching Mike walk to work and now they want to walk to school. With all of the current news about childhood obesity, the example that Mike is setting for his kids is really inspiring.

When I asked Mike what he might like to see improved about transportation in our community, he lists fixing the lights so they are more in sync, improving the parking downtown, and adding more bike lanes to make cycling safer. We also talked a little but about the possibility of light rail, which is a topic he’s really interested in. Mike even said he’d contemplate giving up his car if there were light rail, especially since there are Zipcars available.

Mike’s biking, walking and busing ways are not unique among leaders in downtown Ann Arbor. Rich Sheridan, CEO of Menlo Innovations, frequently bikes to work. Grace Singleton, Managing Partner at Zingerman’s Deli, is also a bike commuter. Bonnie Valentine of the Whole Brain Group often takes the bus to work. Curtis Sullivan and Liz DellaRocco, owners of Vault of Midnight walk and carpool to work.

Any downtown commuter can join this great list of leaders. All you have to do is hop on a bus, grab your bike, or strap on your walking shoes. If you work downtown and would like some help figuring out which commuting option is best for you, getDowntown can help! Simply give us a call, check out our website or send us an email for personal commuting assistance.

FYI from the DDA:

Dear Friend,

The Ann Arbor Downtown Development Authority (DDA) is undertaking a comprehensive public parking plan following a request from City Council. The DDA seeks to understand the parking needs, priorities and preferences of community members so it can shape this plan.

Would you please take five minutes to complete this survey? It will help the DDA planning team understand more about your parking patterns, values and priorities in order to inform the parking plan.

• Survey Link: http://www.zoomerang.com/Survey/WEB22A8683SDVB
• Survey link for the visually impaired: www.surveymonkey.com/s/ParkingPlan2010

We appreciate the time you will spend completing this survey and would like to express our thanks with the chance to win a $25 gift certificate for 2 respondents drawn from this survey. Please continue to check your local news source and our website www.a2dda.org for project updates. This survey is open to all members of the public and we welcome a variety of input – please feel free to forward it along.

Again, thank you for your time and thoughts.

Susan Pollay

Executive Director | Ann Arbor DDA
734-994-6697 | www.a2dda.org

Old way: Owning a car.
New way: Sharing 20 cars.

Old way: Driving to work, hunting for parking, paying for parking, whew. . .
New way: Relaxing on the bus, free parking, whoohoo!

Try something new: become a Zipcar Ann Arbor member today.

Special new member promotion: Free Water Bottle

Become a Zipcar Ann Arbor Member between now and March 2010 and you’ll get a free Zipcar water bottle! These are large metal water bottles that will have you sipping in style. Offer only valid if you become a member of Zipcar Ann Arbor at zipcar.com/annarbor.

To get your free water bottle, become a Zipcar member at www.zipcar.com/annarbor and email us at info@getdowntown.org to let us know why you signed up.

The beginning of a New Year is a great time to say goodbye to old ways of doing things and hello to new ideas and approaches.  For many people, owning one or even two cars just doesn’t make sense anymore, especially living in such a pedestrian-friendly place as Ann Arbor.

So why not look at the advantages of a new concept—carsharing?  Carsharing allows you to have a car when you need one without having to pay the expense when you don’t.  The most popular carsharing business in the country is Zipcar.  Currently,  Zipcar has more than 20 cars in Ann Arbor, with 6 in downtown Ann Arbor and the rest on the University of Michigan campus.  In addition, Zipcar has cars in cities all over the country.

What do people use Zipcars for?  Zipcar members use cars for going shopping, attending meetings, popping over to events in other towns and much more.  One couple even used a Zipcar to drive to their honeymoon after getting married!

To use a Zipcar, you just become a member at zipcar.com/annarbor (if you are affiliated with the UM, go to zipcar.com/umich).  When you become a member, you’ll get a special credit-card sized zipcard in the mail.  Then, all you have to do is go on the Zipcar website, reserve a car when you want to use it, go to the car and tap your zipcard on the windshield.

When the doors open, hop inside, grab the keys (they are already in the car) and go about your business.  Need gas?  Every Zipcar has a gascard inside that you can use at any gas station to fill up the tank.  Hourly rates for Zipcars are as low as $8 an hour, and that includes the gas and 180 free miles!

Here are just a few reasons to become a member of Zipcar Ann Arbor

If you’re ready to try something new, visit zipcar.com/annarbor and sign up to be a Zipcar member today!

Attention Current Zipcar Members:

Help us think up more Old Way/New Way concepts.  We’ll be tweeting Old Way/New Way ideas (and putting them on our getDowntown Facebook page) throughout the month of January.   Share your ideas by tweeting, commenting on our page and posting to our blog.

What motivates you to change your habits?  Carrots or sticks?

If I gave you $1,000 would you give up fried foods forever?  If fried foods were exceedingly expensive, would less people consume them?

Interesting questions.  And the types of questions I have to deal with everyday as I try to encourage people to change their commuting behavior.

I’ve been conducting a commuting audit for a local organization.  Currently, this organization offers free parking passes for all of their employees.  As a result, all of these employees park downtown.

Given the economic times, this organization is looking at ways to cut costs, and providing $130/month for each employee for a parking space is starting to look like a lot of money.

So that’s where I come in.  I’ve been chatting with each staff member and asking them what other options might work for them.  Pretty much every staff member knows what his/her options are, from using the Park & Ride Lots to biking to work to carpooling to telecommuting.  And it’s clear to me that if this organization stopped paying for parking, many of the staff would use one of those other options rather than pay for parking themselves.

Here is a case where a stick would work to change behavior.  We saw the same thing with gas prices.   No one likes to lose something, especially when it feels like a pay-cut.  And for some staff it is just easier to park at a park and ride everyday and take the bus to work than others.  If that’s the case, should everyone get the same stick, or only some people?

At the same time, the getDowntown Program offers lots of carrots to try to get people to change their commuting behavior.  We have a huge carrot known as the go!pass, that gives employees unlimited rides on the buses, including to park and ride lots in addition to other incentives.   But those carrots only work if there isn’t also a chocolate cupcake (such as employer paid parking) on the plate.  In addition, our carrots are only as effective as the bus service, or the bike lanes.  If the buses don’t run frequently enough or the bike lanes are poorly maintained, our carrot becomes less and less appealing.

The reason I am troubled by all of this is that people see sticks as bad.  Our society sees restrictions as bad.  We are all about freedom of choice.  I think that’s why carrots are so appealing.  But my carrot will only work if there isn’t a better incentive out there.

It would be interesting to see if I could offer an incentive big enough to get people who have free parking to use the bus or bike instead.  Maybe that carrot has to come from the person themselves.

I do see this happen sometimes.  Sometimes someone is so health conscious, they’d rather bike to work than drive.  Sometimes the cost of having a car is enough of a disincentive that the go!pass can be a better carrot.  And sometimes, perhaps, people just don’t want to deal with parking downtown, even if it is free, so the other options are more appealing.

For the most part, I’ll continue to try to offer my carrots.  And when the sticks come, I only hope that after the pain wears off that there is some openness to what I have to offer.

Starting today there is now some on-street bike parking in three different locations in downtown Ann Arbor.  This is temporary parking that will be around during the warmer months.  Each on-street bike parking rack holds about a dozen bikes.  The racks are located in front of the People’s Food Co-Op on Fourth Ave, Arbor Brewing Company on Washington, and Bivouac on State Street.

Here are some pictures of the one at the People’s Food Co-op.  It already has some bikes in it!

A kind reader sent me the follow graphic that shows you just how much CO2 is emitted depending on how you commute and/or the type of transportation you use:

Makes sense that walking and biking would be the least emitting, but it is interesting to see how much capacity matters with the other modes.  The more you can pack people into a bus or railcar, the more environmentally sound it is.  It’s also interesting to see that the Prius is a pretty good option and would be even better if you decided to carpool in a Prius.

It would be interesting do to the same sort of graphic for cost or time, which people also think about when commuting or using a mode of transportation.

If I were to do the quick and dirty cost calculation, here’s what I would have for downtown Ann Arbor:

Most Expensive to Least Expensive Ways  Get to Work in Downtown A2 (note, car cost calculations based on this calc and a 20 mile commute)

• Car/SUV solo driver driving downtown (Around $950/ month or more with gas, parking, wear and tear, etc.)
• Car/SUV carpool driving downtown (There is preferential parking downtown at half price so around $870/month)
• Car/SUV driving to an AATA Park and Ride Lot without a go!pass (around $840/month)
• Car/SUV driving to an AATA Park and Ride Lot with a go!pass (around $800/month for gas, wear and tear, etc)
• Moped/Motorcycle driving downtown (not sure the other costs, but the parking would be free, I think it would fit here)
• Taking the bus to work without a go!pass ($40/month)
• Biking to work (about $5/month or more if you get a yearly tune-up, need to get tires, etc.
• Taking the bus to work with a go!pass ($0/month) or Walking to work ($0/month or more if you want nice shoes)

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!

This post is from Commuter Challenge Ambassador Andrew.  Andrew works at Survey Sciences Group in downtown Ann Arbor:

After our organization joined the Commuter Challenger last May I learned more about the value of a sustainable commute. I took the bus and rode my motorcycle to work; not only throughout May but for a lot of the summer. I didn’t fully commit to taking the bus until my parking pass was no longer subsidized.

I could foresee parking costs adding up and with the addition of the Go!Pass from my employer, I’ve been taking the bus to work for over 4 months straight and saving $150 a month in just parking, not including gas! Since the bus stop’s close to our building the commute is not much longer than parking in the structure. And with the recent nice weather, I’ve also been riding my motorcycle around town as well! I look forward to our organization being at the top of the Commuter Challenge again as almost everyone uses a sustainable commute!