Manny Demetre: Big Employers a Key

Manny Demetre, who runs the Caltrans Commuter Computer, believes large employers are a key part of the traffic solution, because they can use incentives to get workers out of their cars and into car pools, trolleys or buses:

“If major employers would subsidize bus passes, provide vans for van pools and provide preferential parking for car poolers, workers would turn to ride sharing, because they’d see the payoff. Otherwise, they’ll just keep pouring onto the freeways.”

The trouble is, unless companies have a particular problem, they have no reason to promote ride sharing to employees, Demetre said, adding that tax incentives for businesses providing transit subsidies for workers have been repealed. “We can’t seem to convince them to do it just because it’s a good thing to do.”

Once traffic problems do crop up, however, the private sector can be very effective in crafting solutions. El Segundo in Los Angeles County is a case in point: “There are a lot of aerospace companies with, like, 20,000 employees in the area, and at 5 o’clock, everybody floods onto the freeway at once. A few years ago, the companies went to the city and Caltrans and asked what improvements they planned. They said none.”

So the businesses formed a coalition, called a Transportation Management Assn. and assessed themselves $1 per worker to finance road improvements.

“Through TMAs, companies can juggle work hours, solve road and access problems and do just about anything,” Demetre said. “We could use them in San Diego.”