Smart Commute

 

Smart Commute helps local employers and commuters to explore different commuter choices like carpooling, teleworking, transit, cycling, walking or flexible work hours. Its goal is to help make commuting easier, healthier and more enjoyable.

 

Smart Commute offers a wide array of services to make commuting easier in the GTHA.

• CarpoolZone.ca: a ride matching site that identifies potential carpooling partners based on travel route and work hours.
• Site assessments and surveys to understand employee commute behaviour and recommend a trip reduction strategy best-suited to each work site
• Shuttle programs
• Emergency Ride Home programs
• Employee Work Arrangement Solutions: telework, compressed work weeks and flex hours, workshops, lunch and learns and seminars
• Incentives and promotions
• Clean Air Commute and other fun events

The contributing partners of Smart Commute include:

Region of York Region of Peel Region of Halton Region of Durham City of Toronto City of Hamilton Town of Markham

Town of Richmond Hill City of Mississauga City of Vaughan Town of Newmarket City of Brampton City of Burlington

The Smart Commute Initiative provides an opportunity to increase options for commuters while:

• Reducing Single Occupant Vehicle trips
• Reducing greenhouse gas emissions
• Reducing congestion and delay for people and goods
• Improving public safety
• Enhancing accessibility and mobility options
• Supporting efficient land use through reduced infrastructure costs and space requirements
• Reducing parking facility costs for participating business, and improving employee recruitment, retention and productivity.

Transportation Management Associations (TMAs)

Smart Commute is implemented primarily through local Transportation Management Associations, or TMAs. TMAs are non-profit organizations aimed at providing sustainable transportation solutions as well as improved mobility and accessibility. TMAs can be defined by municipal or physical boundaries, or they can also encompass a smaller employment area.

Transportation Management Associations partner with businesses within their boundaries to design, implement and promote travel demand management (TDM) programs. The central objective of TDM programs is to change travel behaviour by reducing single-occupant vehicle (SOV) trips by promoting a variety of transportation services that encourage more efficient use of existing transportation infrastructure and services, including:

• Transit service improvements and discount transit pass programs
• Rideshare matching (carpool) and vanpool programs
• Guaranteed-ride-home program
• Pedestrian and bicycle network and facility planning
• Shuttle services
• Shared parking arrangements
• Marketing and promotion of alternative transportation modes and services

The programs provided by each TMA are unique to its service area but involve some combination of the full range of TDM measures identified above. A TMA will identify which services are best suited to an employer, given their location and commuting patterns of their staff.

Smart Commute in York Region

York Region is a leader in the Smart Commute program. Currently, there are three TMAs operating in York Region: Smart Commute North Toronto, Vaughan; Smart Commute 404-7 (Markham-Richmond Hill); and Smart Commuter Central York (Newmarket, Aurora, and East Gwillimbury). These TMAs have helped major employers in the Region, including IBM, Magna International, and Direct Energy, implement programs that have reduced congestion on Regional roads and improved the health, fitness, and productivity of their staff.

To demonstrate its commitment to sustainability and to lead by example, York Region has implemented an aggressive TDM program for its staff of approximately 3000. Staff who carpool enjoy access to preferred parking spaces at three of the Region's largest work sites. Additionally, the Region has implemented policies that provide for significant discounts for staff that take transit; a guaranteed ride-home program for staff that carpool, take transit, cycle or walk; flex time to avoid travel during peak congestion periods, and compressed work weeks to reduce the need for commuting.

Awards

 

In 2008, the Smart Commute program won the Federation of Canadian Municipalities' CH2M Hill Sustainable Community Award for Transportation.

 

Also in 2008, the Ontario Professional Planners Institute recognized Smart Commute with two awards: Excellence in Planning, and the inaugural Healthy Communities Award.

For more information

For more information regarding Smart Commute, or to start a carpool of your own, visit www.smartcommute.ca or www.carpoolzone.ca. For information on employer-based commuting programs within York Region, visit one of the TMAs operating in the Region at their websites:

·         Smart Commute North Toronto, Vaughan

·         Smart Commute 404-7 (Markham, Richmond Hill)

·         Smart Commute Central York (Newmarket, Aurora, & East Gwillimbury)

You can also contact:

Asher Mercer, Travel Demand Management Co-odinator

Email: asher.mercer@york.ca

Tel: (905) 830-4444 X 5061 or toll-free 1-877-464-9675 X 5061