Smart Transportation Choices Get Rewarded

Community Transit’s Choice Connection program promotes smart transportation options throughout our community. In 2015 these programs combined removed over 538,696 drive-alone trips for our roads, and 5.8 million pounds of CO2 from the air we breathe.Two innovative incentive programs are offered to help reduce traffic congestion and pollution, and encourage healthy travel options.

• Smart Commuter Rewards is an incentive program that helps large businesses motivate employees to reduce their drive-alone trips to work.
• Curb the Congestion promotes smart transportation options to residents and employees on six of Snohomish County’s most congested corridors.

Each quarter Community Transit recognizes standout participants and employers who are dedicated to smart transportation choices. Congratulations to the Choice Connections award winners for 4th Quarter of 2015:


Smart Commuter of the Quarter, Daniel Dootson

Curb the Congestion Champion of the Quarter

Eric Blanchet of Monroe travels over 58 miles a day by longboard, skateboard and bus every day to his job at Microsoft in Redmond. For over seven years he’s been committed to choosing a healthy commute not only for himself, but the environment as well. He’s often seen riding his longboard around the Microsoft campus, and even helps teach his coworkers how to ride.

 

Smart Commuter of the Quarter

Daniel Dootson of Edmonds has biked 50,000 miles over the past 23 years, rain or shine five days a week to work. As Edmonds Community College’s Visual Media Services Director, he applies this same tenacity to his job. He knows that if he can conquer the elements, he can handle anything that might come his way during the day.

 

Employee Transportation Coordinator (ETC) of the Quarter

Sylvia Peacock of Trade Products & Specialty Manufacturing in Lynnwood is consistent in her Commute Trip Reduction (CTR) efforts. She makes the time to provide extra assistance to her employees, many of which don’t have access to a computer. Thanks to her efforts she increased her number of employees tracking their non-drive alone trips by 20%, and helped save over 2,100 pounds of CO2 pollution during in the fourth quarter alone.

 

Employer of the Quarter

The City of Monroe consistently provides outreach and education to their employees on smart transportation choices to work. By the end of the fourth quarter 2015 they had 20% of their employees participating in their worksite transportation program. In partnership with Community Transit, the City of Monroe is working to expand their efforts to promote smart transportation to other residents and employers in the community. These consistent efforts are making an impact, and helping take cars off the road in our communities.

 

The Choice Connections program recognizes individuals and worksites in Snohomish County and the City of Bothell that support Washington State Commute Trip Reduction (CTR) goals. They go above and beyond to use smart transportation alternatives to driving alone, and encourage workers to do so.

 

To learn more about the Choice Connections program and to sign up to start receiving rewards for your smart transportation choices, please visit www.communitytransit/ChoiceConnections.

October Brings Winners Across Snohomish County

Wheel Options is a statewide promotion that encourages commuters to choose alternatives to driving alone to work. Eligible modes include carpool, vanpool, bus, train, light rail, streetcar, biking, walking, and working from home or a compressed work schedule (e.g. four, 10-hour shifts in a week). Across the state of Washington more than 18,000 commuters participated by logging six or more days of eligible commutes during the month of October. This year the Wheel Options grand prize was a $2,500 “Choose Your Own Adventure” travel package.

A huge congratulations to each of the winners from Snohomish County and the City of Bothell:

Weekly winners

$25 Starbucks – Scott Farrand from Edmonds Community College (Lynnwood)

$25 Target – Evan Gustafson from Leviton Networks (Bothell)

$25 Nike – Dan Britten from Genzyme (Lynnwood)

$25 Gap – Ryan Bentz from Panasonic Avionics (Bothell)

Monthly winners courtesy of Community Transit

$100 MasterCard - Noor Panjwani from T-Mobile (Bothell)

$100 MasterCard - Randal Stocking from Sonosite (Bothell)

$100 MasterCard - Daniel Dootson from Edmonds Community College (Lynnwood)

$100 MasterCard - Kevin Lai from Boeing Harbour Point (Mukilteo)

$100 MasterCard - Bridgett Hogue from Boeing Canyon Park East (Bothell)

 

For more information on Wheel Options and for a complete list of winners please visit http://www.wheeloptions.org.

 

Art Is Not What You Make - It's What You Make Of It

Over the past several months, we’ve had the pleasure of partnering with art students from Mariner High School. They designed and created 42 panels for our Mariner Park and Ride bus shelters that are now on display. Their hard work is a shining example of the artistic youth in our community, and leaves a lasting artist impression for everyone to enjoy.

We were lucky to capture the first hand experiences from Racheal Yi, a student involved in the art project. Wise beyond her years, she shares with us her experiences and pride for the project:

As a student in the Mariner High School Art department, I feel honored to say that in the past several weeks I participated in one of the most important projects that this classroom has completed during its history. For nearly two months, our classroom worked on a mural to express what is so underrepresented in this community: some of Everett’s finest artistic minds and creative youth. We worked as a team on a total of 42 panels that will be installed at the Mariner Park & Ride bus stop. There was never a moment when we were not working as a team, but this did not limit our room for individual creativity; the production of each panel required thoughtful, original input from multiple artists who brought their ideas forward to produce something with consummate prestige.

Community Transit approached our advanced art class this year with an opportunity that most of us had never come close to having before: to work freely on a lasting piece of artwork that would represent our creative roles in this community for years to come. The unique thing about this project was that as much as we felt free to create something almost completely from scratch, we also felt the pressure of knowing that our art would serve as a demonstration of the creative dynamics of not only our school, but of our entire community.

In the planning stages of this project, our class started out with multiple different ideas that were eventually narrowed down to four major themes: Surrealism, Evolution of Art & Transit, One Way or Another and Transit Through the Ages. All of these themes synthesized different modes of transportation with different styles of art, allowing us to meet the needs of Community Transit while demonstrating our creativity as artists. Surrealism features extraordinary subjects in surreal settings. Evolution of Art & Transit and Transit Through the Ages depict the evolution of transportation over time, as well as various different styles of art. One Way or Another expresses transportation since the beginning of time through modern silhouettes in vibrant settings.

From this experience, our class learned a lot about being mature, individual artists. It will surely be rewarding to see our work age with us as we continue to strive for nothing but the best as creative thinkers. We hope that through the completion of this project, we can encourage more recognition for the artistic youth of this community. The production and installment of this mural will surely last as a major impact on our lives as we grow from students to leaders. Additionally, the production of this mural gave us some real-world experience as contemporary artists - we worked with a client’s needs in mind as we exercised our artistic vision as well. This experience served as a professional example of what many of us may decide to work with in the future, while also giving us the freedom that we need as young adults.

The most important lesson that many of us have learned from our experiences in the Fine Arts department is that art is not to be defined by a sentence or by an image; art can be defined only through one’s interpretation of something new. Art is not the ability to paint well. It is not a measure of intellectual capacity. It is the freedom to let something promote thought and consciousness.

We hope that by leaving this legacy behind, we can advocate more creativity and an increased representation of a student’s artistic capacity. We hope that even after we exit the halls of our school for the very last time, art can be a universal medium through which this community’s students can interact with the world. Perhaps someday, art can become a more recognized mode of expression.

After all, art is not what you make - it’s what you make of it.

Community Transit Recognizes Smart Transportation Choices

Community Transit’s Choice Connections program recognizes worksites and commuters in Snohomish County and the City of Bothell that go above and beyond to reduce pollution and congestion by promoting healthy transportation choices.

Congratulations to the Choice Connections Award winners for the 2nd Quarter of 2014:

Smart Commuter of the Quarter

Gina Paterson-Bryant from Premera Mountlake Terrace audits processes and systems to better serve Premera’s customers. She carefully considered her impact on the environment, and made a very deliberate decision to give up her car completely in 2005. Gina uses public transportation, carpools and walks for her commute and all of her personal errands as well. She is a personal advocate and resource for her co-workers on how to use transit and go car free!

 

ETC of the Quarter

Kelly Davis from Seattle Genetics in Bothell used her passion as a cyclist to take her worksite program to the next level.  Kelly led Seattle Genetics to receive the Cascade Bicycle Club Silver-level BizCycle Certification denoting Seattle Genetics as an outstanding employer for commuters. Kelly organized her worksite’s Bike to Work Month Campaign and tied it to a fundraiser for Gilda’s Club. Kelly’s team raised $6,000 for cancer support and together biked over 6,000 miles in the month of May. 

Employer of the Quarter

T-Mobile in Bothell developed a major campaign to encourage their employees to register and log their trips in RideshareOnline.com, a commute tracking program. The campaign included a generous number of gift card as an incentive for new users. The campaign added 88 new participants to RideshareOnline.com for a total of 106 actively participating employees. The successful campaign launched T-Mobile to surpass its tracking goal to reach133% of employees logging trips.

Choice Connections reward commuters for choosing a smart alternative to driving alone, and offers the tools and resources needed to get started. When you choose a smart commute, your efforts reduce traffic, save money and time, and help the environment. To learn more about the Choice Connections program, please visit Community Transit Choice Connections.

Community Transit’s Day in the Life: Oxy Gene

Our spotlight this month is on a man who needs little introduction, Community Transit’s very own Superhero, Oxy Gene! He’s been spreading the word about his personal motto of truth, justice and really clean air for 15 years. Watch for Oxy Gene at fairs and festivals all across Snohomish County. I think you’ll agree with me that he’s definitely earned his title of Superhero!
 

 

Hello Good People!

  

I know you’ve probably seen me around the Puget Sound area and are wondering, “Who is this Oxy Gene character anyway”? Well fellow citizens, I can’t give out all of my secrets, but let me tell you a little bit about myself.

 

I live in the small town of Airisclear, WA near the slopes of Mt. Rainier. I love waking up in the morning and seeing that beautiful mountain! But when air quality standards begin to fall, the mountain becomes a little hazy. That’s when I dash from my home to rid the air of pollution. I HATE POLLUTION! I hate everything about it! I hate the vile concoction of filth, exhaust, and other oxygen killing particulates that invade our air everyday. What is one of the main causes of air pollution? You guessed it…CARS! But by taking public transportation you are doing your part to keep our air clean.

 

When Community Transit called I was happy to help out. I spend my days visiting the good people of Snohomish County showing them how to ride the bus, and all the benefits of using public transportation including making our community a better and healthier place to live, and how to save time and money by sharing the ride with family and friends. Now that summer is here, look for me at various parades around beautiful Snohomish County. Enjoy the summer everyone! 

Want a chance to meet Oxy Gene? Visit him this summer at the following events:

• July 19 – Snohomish Kla Ha Ya Days Parade
• August 2 – Stanwood Camano Fair Parade
• August 5 – Mukilteo National Night Out
• August 5 – Snohomish County National Night Out
• August 9 – Mill Creek Kids Fun Run
• September 6 – Mukilteo Lighthouse Parade
• September 13 – Marysville Touch a Truck

For more information on Oxy Gene please visit www.commtrans.org/oxygene.

Website Survey Results: You Like Us-- but We Can Do Better

Last month, we asked for 4 minutes of your time to take our online website survey and you gave us 1,824 minutes! (That's 4 minutes each for the 456 people that  took the time to tell us what they like, don't like and want to see for communitytransit.org in the future.) Sure, we've got Google Analytics to give us reports on hits, visits and other numerical data-- but we wanted to hear from the people that use our website and we're glad we did!

We want to update our website in 2014. The last time it was refreshed was roughly five years ago, which doesn't seem very long ago until you realize the iPhone and iPad just came onto the scene in 2009. If you consider this September 2013 study of cell phone and usage by Pew Internet, it appears we are doing this refresh just in time:

"63% of adult cell owners now use their phones to go online, a figure that has doubled since we first started tracking internet usage on cell phones in 2009. In addition, 34% of these cell internet users say that they mostly go online using their cell phone. That means that 21% of all adult cell owners now do most of their online browsing using their mobile phone—and not some other device such as a desktop or laptop computer."

So, one of the takeways learned from our website survey is that it needs to be mobile-friendly so that the information you need is accessible no matter what mobile device you are using. We also found out that a majority of you rate the website quite high, and for that we thank you!

Below is an infographic illustrating the highlights and trends gleaned from the survey. Do you agree? Are you surprised?  What are your reactions to what the survey participants said about our website?