The great thing about starting fresh

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If you’re an experienced employee transportation program leader, you probably know a lot about which strategies are effective and which ones aren’t. In recent years, behavioral science has been helping to clarify why certain things just work. One of the interesting presentations from CommuteCon 2020 examined new commuter initiatives through the lens of behavioral science, highlighting findings you’ll want to know about as you ramp up to launch yours. One principal that can be applied anywhere is the “fresh start effect.”

What is the fresh start effect?

People tend to take strong action in pursuit of a new goal in response to an outside prompt or time-based landmark. Researchers call this the “fresh start effect.”  These temporal markers can include significant changes in a person’s life: moving to a new city, changing homes, or changing jobs mark excellent examples.

  • New Year’s resolutions
  • Anniversaries of events
  • New work schedule
  • New work location
  • Restarting the commute after working remotely
  • “I’ll start next month”
  • “I’ll start on Monday”
  • “I’ll start after my birthday”

Employers can also help commuters create their own fresh starts. For example, a bike challenge may motivate some employees to try cycling for the first time. When a new cyclist has a positive experience, that’s a great time to encourage them to commit to a long-term change.

Timing matters when it comes to new commuter programs

Researchers note that people often commit to new behaviors with more energy and focus when a “fresh start” event prompts them to do so. This fascinating behavioral phenomenon highlights strategic benefits for commuter engagement. If you can take advantage of a “fresh start effect,” you can significantly boost the likelihood of creating new habits. Position your programs to take effect after a long holiday, when the month turns over, or when the season changes. Emphasize the change and appeal to personal reasons commuters might have for wanting to make a coincidental change themselves.

Don’t miss your biggest fresh starts

A campus move or a shift from remote work to a hybrid work arrangement may represent a major fresh start opportunity for large groups of your employees. Many organizations are timing big changes in parking and transportation options to coincide with these transitions, when employees are more open to doing things differently. This is making huge upgrades to the commuter experience possible without disrupting routines.

To hear more about research on timing and other factors in creating behavior change, check out this ten-minute talk from Jessica Roberts of Alta Planning at CommuteCon 2020. Then connect with us to discuss how you can take advantage of the fresh start effect to make commuting less stressful and more sustainable.

Exploring Change in Transportation Demand Management

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The past year has been one of the most challenging in memory for many in the transportation demand management industry. Widespread workplace shutdowns erased tens of millions of jobs in the United States alone, leaving highways, transit hubs, bus networks, and subway stations eerily silent. The pandemic’s protracted course has only added to the uncertainty, with the light at the end of the proverbial tunnel continuing to blink in and out as we head toward the seventh annual CommuteCon in April 2021.

Yet, despite these challenges, the past year has also been a catalyst for great change: the traditional workplace might never be the same after months of mass telecommuting, and shifting priorities have inspired many to seriously rethink the way we get around. At the same time, safer and healthier ways to access shared transportation have found the spotlight, while a transition in federal governance signaled intriguing policy changes.

CommuteCon 2021 will examine the lessons we learned in 2020 and look ahead to where these changes might lead the transportation demand management industry in 2021 and beyond. We are in the midst of transformative and regenerative change, and here’s a sneak peek at how the upcoming edition of CommuteCon will advance the unfolding conversation.

Transportation demand management policy appears headed for a new era

The new presidential administration appears committed to enacting major policy changes that stand to have a transformative impact on the way people get around. These include:

  • Ambitious targets for reducing vehicle miles traveled (VMT), including a proposal to supplement or replace the gas tax with a VMT tax
  • Shared transportation investment models that get state and local officials more involved
  • Minimizing or getting rid of municipal parking requirements, signaling an expected decrease in the number of cars requiring parking in the future
  • A likely shift toward more public transit and mass commuter solutions

It’s still too early to predict exactly where these policy ideas will end up, but CommuteCon’s expert panelists will offer their insights.

Shifting priorities are redefining the TDM landscape

One of the most profound and important concepts currently regenerating the transportation demand management landscape is not directly related to emissions, infrastructure, or support for certain modes at the expense of others. Instead, it has to do with the very philosophies that underlie and inform transportation demand management strategies. This concept is widely known as transportation equity (or transit equity).

Transportation equity grows from the principle that transportation access is a public good and a public right, and should equally serve people of all classes, races, and socioeconomic standing. Transportation leads to opportunity, and equity-focused policies strive to make those opportunities more readily available to everyone.

What matters to commuters in the COVID-19 age?

Health and safety have rocketed to the forefront as top concerns of commuters in the time of COVID-19, but transportation demand management professionals are also looking at other important priorities. These include:

  • Increased workplace flexibility
  • The rise of hybrid onsite/offsite working
  • No more parking defaults

As commuter priorities shift, transportation demand management strategies will need to shift as well. A near-term direction is just beginning to take shape, and our presenters will weigh in with their thoughts on where things may be heading.

Will traditional commuting ever come back?

One of the most intriguing aspects of the current debate centers on whether commuting as we knew it will ever be the same again. Some transportation demand management insiders believe daily commuting will quickly return to normal, while others think it has changed forever and will never go back to the way it used to be.

CommuteCon 2021 presenters will explore this and many other uncertainties about how things will play out in the months and years ahead.

Answers are still emerging and CommuteCon is a forum for continued conversation

Above all else, CommuteCon 2021 will serve as a safe and engaging place for professionals to exchange ideas about transportation demand management strategies and policies for a post-COVID world. Our goal is to inspire an impactful, insightful, and ongoing discussion around these and other key issues facing the TDM community in this unprecedented time.

Join us at CommuteCon 2021 for a fascinating glimpse into the future of transportation demand management. Sign up for the CommuteCon mailing list  to get registration and speaker updates.

New Government Transportation Demand Management Plan Aims to Boost State and Regional Partnerships

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The new federal government transportation demand management plan pledges expanded partnerships between federal, state, and regional transit authorities. Observers note that the details released thus far seem a bit on the vague side, so let’s see if we can extract some insights into what the pledge actually calls for.

What does the government transportation demand management plan say about partnerships?

Government transportation demand management authorities say they will establish a “new $3 billion grant program for programs of national significance to facilitate collaboration across states and regions.” Expert analysis links this aspect of the plan to the Department of Transportation’s proposed Local Leaders Office, which will create liaise the federal government with:

  • State governors
  • Tribal leaders
  • County officials
  • Mayors

According to official DOT releases, the plan will “empower cities and towns to pursue innovative projects that offer residents more options and modes of transportation.”

What might the government transportation demand management plan actually mean?

Details at this early juncture are nebulous, but reading between the lines of the administration’s priorities, it seems like the partnership program has several definitive features and objectives. These may include:

  • Creating transportation solutions that effectively address the unique needs of local and regional populations
  • Using the partnership model to advance equity programs
  • Accelerating the national move toward more sustainable transportation alternatives
  • Rolling out a wider, more robust regional and national network of intermodal transportation solutions

The Local Leaders Office and the $3 billion funding program is also expected to give local and regional authorities increased say in the DOT’s ambitious road improvement project. DOT officials want to repair 50% of all U.S. roads deemed to be in “poor condition” by the end of the decade.

Manage organizational TDM needs with the help of RideAmigos

One thing seems certain: over the next few years, the national transportation landscape is likely to undergo significant change. Businesses and organizations will need to adapt their commuter programs and TDM plans accordingly, and RideAmigos is here to help.

Get started today with a free analysis of your current initiatives or a comprehensive demo of our industry-leading TDM software platform.

Reflecting on 2020 & Looking Ahead

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At RideAmigos we are on a mission to change the way the world commutes for good by empowering everyone to make smarter transportation choices; and we partner with some of the most innovative employers and government agencies to do it. 

Over the years, agencies and employers have used RideAmigos to help commuters choose an alternative to driving alone over 25 million times and eliminated 237 million pounds of CO2.

Looking back on the past year, we are so proud of how our partners each rose to meet the challenges brought by the pandemic, economic crisis, and continued reckoning with access and inequities in our mobility ecosystem.  

Setting New Precedents

Overall in 2020, commuters used RideAmigos to report working remotely more than a million times in connection with employer or regional programs. They also logged just as many active trips, such as biking or walking, either to work or just to get outside. 

Before the pandemic set in, agencies and employers using RideAmigos were replacing over half a million SOV trips per month in 2020 with active trips, remote work or shared modes. 

Also in 2020 RideAmigos was part of a team that received an Association for Commuter Transportation Excellence in Research Award. The award recognized work with the City of Durham and Duke University’s Center for Advanced Hindsight to bring a personalized commute plan pilot to scale and through this helped organizations achieve a mode shift of up to 10%.

Taking Action in a Crisis

When the COVID-19 crisis began, agencies and employers used RideAmigos to communicate safe commuting guidelines. They also responded to changing circumstances with rapid adjustments to incentive programs.

As the pandemic continued our clients began to reimagine commuter engagement strategies. This included: 

  • Launching programs to engage a hybrid workforce of remote and essential onsite employees.
  • Creating opportunities for community members who may have been unemployed or furloughed to stay engaged and learn about alternatives to driving alone.
  • Challenging employees and the public to build new habits by biking-to-anywhere 

2020 was a difficult year for the world and our community of transportation demand management (TDM) professionals was no exception. But we also came together in exciting ways. CommuteCon, always a virtual event, saw over 1,500 people join in. The April 2020 event was timed perfectly, providing a forum to discuss the unprecedented challenges and unique opportunities brought about by the pandemic. 

Looking Ahead 

We are continuing to work with our amazing customers as they reimagine the future with a reimagined commute experience for essential workers, future returns to the office, or hybrid work arrangements with smart parking management, subsidies and incentives, and other proven commuter behavior change programs.

We are continuously reinvesting in our products, and working to bring the latest insights from research into technology to our clients to create a better more sustainable commute experience. 

2021 promises to be a year of transformational and regenerative change. We’re looking forward to working together to harness this moment to make an even greater positive impact on our communities and the planet. If you are interested in learning more about how commuter engagement can support your evolving workplace, contact us to get started.

UBIT Taxes on Transportation Fringe Benefits Have Been Repealed. Here’s What it Means for Your Business.

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In 2018, the federal government made some changes to its Unrelated Business Income Tax (UBIT) policies. The changes required businesses to pay taxes on certain transportation fringe benefits offered to employees.

The UBIT changes were not popular, and they forced millions of businesses to remit payments on employee perks related to parking and public transportation benefits. American businesses were significantly impacted, and the new UBIT policies had negative effects on commuter programs.

Thanks in part to lobbyist advocacy, the government recently agreed to repeal its UBIT taxes on transportation fringe benefits. Here’s how the changes break down, and how they might affect you.

What did the UBIT taxes on transportation fringe benefits cover?

The 2018 changes that introduced UBIT taxes on transportation fringe benefits required companies to pay taxes on benefits related to parking and public transit. For example, companies that covered parking costs or offered free transit passes to commuters had to pay taxes on those expenditures, which were previously tax-free.

As a result, many companies saw their UBIT-related tax bills rise by as much as 21%.

What has changed?

In December 2019, the federal government repealed its UBIT taxes on transportation fringe benefits in response to pressure from businesses and lobby groups. The taxes were very unpopular and were negatively impacting employers’ commuter policies.

How are businesses affected by the changes?

The tax code change is retroactive to 2018, meaning that the companies that paid them qualify for refunds if they are exempt from these taxes under the new rules. If your company paid these taxes and is now exempt from them, be sure to notify your taxation, finance, and legal departments as you are entitled to have your tax payments on transportation fringe benefits returned to you.

About us

RideAmigos is a leading provider of powerful TDM software solutions and organizational commuter strategies. To learn more about how we help businesses of all sizes make life easier for commuters, get started today.

Launching New Commuter Programs: Why Timing Matters

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Behavioral science is broadening TDM professionals’ understanding of why certain strategies work. One of the most interesting presentations from CommuteCon 2020 examined new commuter programs through the lens of behavioral science, yielding interesting findings you’ll want to know about as you ramp up to launch yours. If you missed Jessica Roberts of Alta Planning at CommuteCon, check out the recording.

Here are a few behavioral concepts you should consider applying to your programs:

The “fresh start effect”

People tend to take strong action in pursuit of a new goal in response to an outside prompt or time-based landmark. Researchers call this the “fresh start effect,” and examples include:

  • New Year’s resolutions
  • Anniversaries of events
  • “I’ll start next month”
  • “I’ll start on Monday”
  • “I’ll start after my birthday”

These temporal markers can also include significant changes in a person’s life: moving to a new city, changing homes, or changing jobs mark excellent examples.

Researchers note that people often commit to new behaviors with more energy and focus when a “fresh start” event prompts them to do so.

Timing matters when it comes to new commuter programs

This fascinating behavioral phenomenon highlights strategic benefits for new commuter programs. If you can launch yours to take advantage of a “fresh start effect,” you can significantly boost its likelihood of success. Position your programs to take effect after the Christmas holidays, when the month turns over, or when the season changes. Emphasize the change and appeal to personal reasons commuters might have for wanting to make a coincidental change themselves.

As an important side note: the “fresh start” doesn’t have to be organic. You can create it yourself. One way TDM professionals do this is through targeted, individualized outreach programs.

For example, say you’ve launched a bike challenge and scores of your team members are cycling to work for the first time. If one of your commuters had a positive first experience, you can make that experience the “fresh start.” Reach out with an incentive-based offer that invites the commuter to commit to a long-term change. The likelihood that your invitation gets accepted will be much higher.

You can implement programs based on principles of behavioral science like these with the RideAmigos commuter management platform. For more ideas on how to do this at scale, check out this short talk from our Director of Innovation, Corey Tucker. The RideAmigos team is happy to offer further insights, tips, and strategies for making your new commuter programs successful. Get started today!

 

Detecting Bias in TDM Research

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The transportation demand management sphere is increasingly being influenced by quantitative analysis, and scientific research. These approaches have huge potential to make positive impacts. However, to ensure that policies based on data and TDM research are equitable, professionals need to be aware of their own potential biases and understand how they can impact outcomes.

Bias in TDM research: what is it?

With science playing an ever-growing role in the TDM space, inherent biases in scientific models stand to have an increasing impact on research outcomes. As leading experts have pointed out, prevailing approaches to scientific inquiry and the scientific method itself are grounded in society’s dominant, traditional sociopolitical systems.

Thinkers and theorists preoccupied with questions of inclusion and equality have pointed out the shortcomings and problems with these systems. They tend to be grounded in perspectives that favor the majority order rather than prioritizing the needs and viewpoints of minority communities. As a result, policies based on TDM research can become shaded by inherent viewpoint biases that do not account for equitable social justice.

How to overcome bias in TDM research

Accounting for and correcting biases in TDM research requires active effort on the part of the scientists, professionals, and policymakers who interpret data to make decisions. Here are some questions to ask when looking at data-based information that’s going to inform policy:

  • Does that data reflect inherent social biases? What biases are accounted for, and what biases are not?
  • Who collected the data? What biases might they have?
  • Who interpreted the data? What biases might they have?
  • Does the data represent the needs, viewpoints, and experiences of all members of the population group to which it applies?

Most of all, it’s critically important to supplement data-based analysis with actual field research. It’s critically important for policymakers to have a clear, accurate understanding of what’s really happening “on the ground” in the location in question. In many cases, the raw numbers may not reflect the real, lived experiences of the people the future policies will affect.

These shortcomings can interfere with equitable access to transportation systems. This is particularly true in a time of ongoing gentrification, as the traditional demographics of cities and neighborhoods continue to experience rapid, dramatic changes.

If you’d like to learn more, get started with RideAmigos today.

“Replacing” Your Commute During the COVID Pandemic

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Sure, commuting takes up a lot of time, and it can be stressful. But even so, many people find themselves missing the comfort of routine now that they’ve been relieved of their daily commutes in favor of teleworking.

Here are some creative and interesting rituals newly minted telecommuters are using to stay sane, connected, and productive in the face of this abrupt change:

Video coffee dates

When we started asking around the office, one of our team members said, “I’ve started having some morning video coffee dates with friends, providing a ritual and giving some personal interaction as I start my day.” Sounds like a great way to stay connected!

Vary your surroundings

One respondent offered, “I’ve been switching rooms every other day with my partner to change things up.” Another noted, “Going to a different physical space [to work] is a super helpful practice.”

Different scenery adds variation, which can be psychologically important to people who aren’t used to sameness and monotony.

Meditation

This was an interesting response: “I replaced commuting with meditating in the back yard for a few minutes to get started in the morning. Then, after work, I do a workout outside to tell my body ‘I’m done.'” This bookends the day with mental and physical breaks.

Get a pet

One emphatic respondent insisted: “If you don’t already have one, get a furry friend because they give you a great excuse to take five or ten minutes to give them the attention they want (and deserve!). Having something else that needs you is a great way to break up the day.”

Another pet owner added: “My dogs are very good at telling time, and every day they know when it’s dinnertime and that I should stop working and feed them. They’re very persistent, and help keep me accountable to healthy scheduling.”

Hop on a bike

“I’ve replaced bike commuting with post-work riding,” said one new telecommuter. “I usually pick a part of town to ride to and explore it.”

Another cycling enthusiast added: “I love exploring neighborhoods and nearby areas I had no idea existed. It’s become a vital way to separate myself from work and connect to the world around me in a way I never expected.”

All that, and it’s fantastic exercise!

What’s your work from home ritual?

What are you doing to create a new routine, break up your work day, and separate work time and personal time? We want to know! Tell us in the comments.

Telecommuting During COVID-19: Technology Solutions for WFH Productivity

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The novel coronavirus pandemic has forced sudden, major changes to the way companies do business. Many organizations have switched to mass telecommuting during COVID-19 in a bid to stay productive, creating a new set of challenges. A large number of companies are scrambling to figure out how to maintain productivity in the new working environment, so we’ve put together a list of tools that can help. This is not comprehensive but a good place to start!

Telecommuting during COVID-19: Meeting face-to-face

Hopefully we’re all getting in on the occasional virtual watercooler chat with our teams via Zoom. While it is getting a lot of press these days, and Microsoft’s Teams also enjoys a dominant position in the virtual meeting space, they are certainly not the only game in town when it comes to voice-based productivity tools. Services like Google Meet, Blue Jeans and GoToMeeting also deliver great face-to-face functionality, making them excellent solutions for productivity, team bonding and remote collaboration.

Instant messaging tools with group chat features are a strong alternative, and may be preferable in some cases. Text-based applications make it just as easy to get quick answers to critical questions as teams work remotely. Software development groups with contributors scattered across the globe are used to working this way, and they have excellent insights and recommendations.

Screen sharing

Screen-sharing apps offer an easy and effective solutions when employees need troubleshooting assistance, or when team members need to simultaneously view slide decks, documents, presentations, and the like. Computer World magazine recently featured its top picks for 15 easy-to-use screen sharing apps for businesses. Many of the reviewed solutions on this list support free trials or free-to-use versions with limited features.

Communication and social networking tools

Some enterprise productivity solutions take a page out of the social media playbook, creating online spaces where connected team members can share updates, files, links, and information in a news feed-style interface. These enterprise social networking platforms make making telecommuting during COVID-19 a more seamless experience.

Slack has always been a great tool for remote teams. While it also makes the chat platform list, its wide variety of enterprise integrations it makes a versatile platform for all kinds of collaboration and connection when large portions of the workforce are shifting to work from home.

For a more traditional social media platform, Microsoft’s Yammer has carved out a unique niche. If you need this kind of functionality, it’s well worth a look.

Team management and feedback

One of the hardest things about remote work is the distance between managers and direct reports. With the dramatic shift to working from home at scale, many experts have taken note of the unique challenges this can pose and there is lots of good advice out there for how to rethink remote management – like this article from the Harvard Business Review.

15Five and other similar tools can help facilitate productive one-on-ones. And, of course, recognition tools like bonus.ly can allow anyone in an organization to amplify praise for a colleague’s hard work through micro-bonuses and public announcements.

Online document sharing

Google Drive, Microsoft One Drive, Box and many other free and open-access alternatives have ushered in a new area of remote collaboration. These solutions allow team members to create, share, edit, and collaborate on documents in real time, using a system built around access permissions to ensure only authorized individuals are able to edit files. Contributors can add comments to facilitate discussions and revisions, and everything is cloud-based so secure storage is never an issue.

Virtual office software

People teams in need of comprehensive, fully functional solutions for telecommuting during COVID-19 can also consider virtual office software. These complete platforms aim to recreate the office experience digitally, with functions that support:

  • Face-to-face communications
  • Collaboration on documents and projects
  • Time management, time tracking, and attendance tools

Sococo is a trailblazer in the virtual office software space. You can also explore these free alternatives if you’re only planning to support temporary telecommuting during COVID-19.

RideAmigos is here to help

The unprecedented crisis surrounding the outbreak of the novel coronavirus has created unexpected challenges for many businesses, and the RideAmigos team is here to offer all the help we can. Through our blog, you can learn more about telecommuting and access further resources, and our partners can also help in valuable ways. Check out:

If you’re a RideAmigos customer or partner, we would also like to take this opportunity to share details of our COVID-19 response. Our entire team remains at your disposal if you need any further assistance or insights on how to manage telecommuting during COVID-19 as we all work together to get through this challenging time. Please contact us if we can assist you in any way.