INC NEWS - Duke not among best commuter workplaces (Herald-Sun)

[John Schelp]

Duke not among best commuter workplaces
Herald-Sun, 25 April 2006  

Some of the Triangle's biggest employers, including
UNC and IBM, are among the Best Workplaces for
Commuters, a distinction awarded by the Environmental
Protection Agency to employers who provide employee
benefits to encourage mass transit. 

So far, however, Durham County's biggest employer --
Duke -- hasn't signed on to the 2-year-old program. 

"Right now, it doesn't really stand anywhere," said
Tobin Freid, coordinator for the program, which in the
Triangle is administered by the Triangle J Council of
Governments. 

Although Duke officials have said they're interested
in the program, officials say Duke hasn't applied to
join the 32 workplaces in the Triangle that represent
more than 70,000 employees. Nationally, the award
covers some 1,500 employers, including corporations,
governments and educational and other institutions. 

Participation in the Best Workplaces program requires
employers to offer employees at least one primary
employee public-transportation benefit worth at least
$30 a month, Freid said. Usually, the benefit takes
the form of a subsidy for taking a bus or other form
of public transit, or a vanpool, she said. 

"That usually is the big sticking point," she said.
With its more than 27,000 employees, "that could be a
substantial amount of money for [Duke], but they put a
lot into building parking decks." 

The primary benefit also can be parking-related, such
as cash paid to employees in lieu of free parking. 

Employers must also provide three or more supporting
benefits, such as preferred parking for carpoolers;
on-site services that reduce the need for extra car
trips, such as child day care; or incentives for
employees to live close to work. 

"That's pretty rare," Freid said of the latter option.


One supporting benefit is provided by the Triangle
Transit Authority and therefore is theoretically
available to employers free: matching people who want
to share rides, she said. 

Also, to qualify as a Best Workplace, employers must
make available to employees who use public transit a
way to get home in an emergency. Again, that service
is offered by TTA, Freid said. 

Finally, employers must designate a staff member to
coordinate alternative forms of commuting and must
promote the benefits and make them easily available to
employees. 

In the Triangle, qualifying businesses and
institutions also include N.C. State University, RTI
International, GlaxoSmithKline, Cisco Systems and the
cities of Durham, Raleigh, Chapel Hill and Carrboro.
Wake and Durham counties also participate. 

Nationally, 67 colleges and universities are Best
Workplaces for Commuters, including Harvard, Yale and
Stanford and several large state universities besides
UNC. 

Duke does participate in TTA's vanpooling program. TTA
loans two vans to Duke employees who pick up
co-workers. Duke also encourages bicycle commuting by
providing 12 free parking passes a year for cars
driven by people who usually bike to work. 

Neighborhood activist John Schelp raised Duke's lack
of transit subsidies as an issue earlier this year on
a neighborhood e-mail bulletin board. 

"There's a lot Duke can do as far as being beyond the
walls, being part of a community where it's safer for
pedestrians, the air is cleaner and there's less
congestion near campus," Schelp said in an interview. 

Duke officials said they have merged portions of
Duke's bus service with Durham's DATA municipal bus
service. That gave the latter a larger ridership that
in turn enabled it to qualify for more federal
funding, said John Burness, a Duke spokesman. 

"We are always looking at ways we can be more
effective and efficient; we're very conscious of
energy conserving," Burness said in an interview
earlier this year. 

As for the Best Workplaces for Commuters program,
Burness referred questions to Tallman Trask, the
university's executive vice president, whose office in
turn referred them to the university's campus services
office, where an official who had been asked about the
program earlier but hadn't responded couldn't be
reached Monday.