ONE car, one driver, no passengers: that's the challenge for Beth McKechnie, who co-ordinates green commuting projects for Resource Conservation Manitoba.
One of her goals is to get Manitobans, in particular, workplaces, thinking about active ways of getting around, both for the environment and the health of employees.
Joanne Kaethler loves riding the bus.
Employers who encourage active transportation will benefit from healthier, more punctual staffers who take fewer sick days, said McKechnie.
And she thinks the desire from employees for more transportation options is only going to grow.
"I think in part, there are more and more people looking for this as an option," she said. "We're moving into an employees' market in the next 20 years, with the number of baby boomers retiring."
In honour of Car Free Day next Saturday, Sept. 22, read on for some ways local businesses are ridding the road of those pesky SOVs -- that's single-occupancy vehicle.
TRANSIT:
SEVEN Oaks General Hospital isn't what you'd call a bus-rider's paradise.
But businesses looking to green their commute could learn a lot from the hospital, which, despite its not-quite-central location at Leila Avenue and McPhillips Street, is one of the city's more commuter-friendly places to work.
Toby Maloney, communications co-ordinator of the Wellness Institute at Seven Oaks, said that's in part thanks to initiatives like the EcoPass, an employer-subsidized transit pass that rewards employee with a lower monthly cost.
"Our aim was encouraging healthier transportation," said Maloney, who's happy environmental benefits are part of the deal.
Seven Oaks started offering the pass five years ago, and subsidizes the passes by 30 per cent, which means roughly a $20 discount for staff, said Maloney. Of that, about $13 is covered by Seven Oaks' ancillary fees and $7 by Winnipeg Transit.
Originally, Transit predicted the hospital could attract up to 75 riders. But today there are more than 100 staffers taking the bus regularly, even more in winter.
Joanne Kaethler, who works as executive assistant to the president at Seven Oaks, started busing "as a bit of a protest" after paying more than $2,000 for car repairs.
"I felt quite positive about trying this out," said Kaethler, who commutes from River Heights. "And I've never looked back."
Kaethler said her trip works out to about an hour each way, including walking. While that might be an off-putting figure to some would-be riders, she said she values the downtime, and is less stressed when she gets home.
"I just feel very strongly that more people should do this, because it is great for the environment," she said.
The hospital has also tried what Maloney dubs "soft encouragement" -- setting up a kiosk with bus schedules, and arranging a visit by Transit staff to answer questions.
But Maloney said there are many more employees who could easily try active transportation. He once did a tally and found one-third of the hospital's more than 1,300 full- and part-time workers lived in the adjacent two postal codes.
"A lot more people could be walking or busing quite easily," he said.
CYCLING:
PLENTY of businesses have outdoor bike racks. But how many offer employees interest-free loans to buy a new bicycle, or have an onsite repair area for bike maintenance?
"Some of those things are purposely done to promote green commuting," said Mountain Equipment Co-Op store manager Ken Berg. "Some are done because we're an outdoor store and it kind of makes sense, from an outdoor perspective."
MEC has always taken an environmentally-friendly approach to selling outdoor gear, earning a coveted Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) gold rating for the Portage Avenue store.
But some of the store's options for commuting staffers aren't out of reach for the average business, even if it doesn't cater to hikers and cycling enthusiasts.
Along with the interest-free bike loan, the store has a secure bike storage area, an increasingly popular measure for employers worried about theft, says McKechnie. The Health Sciences Centre has a similar lock-up, and Seven Oaks just set up one, too.
MEC also has a repair area with a bike stand, tools and a pump, set up partly to encourage green commuting, and partly to familiarize staff with bike maintenance.
The store also has two unisex showers for staff, a big draw for serious cyclists who'd rather not go through the day with helmet head and sweat stains.
Of the store's more than 40 staffers, Berg estimates between 60 and 70 per cent bike to work, and many switch to transit in winter. There's no staff parking at the store, and Berg said they intentionally set up shop downtown to stay close to bus routes.
McKechnie said there's some reluctance from Winnipeggers about walking or biking to work, in part because people overestimate how long it will take by bike or on foot, and underestimate the time it takes by car.
Most people have a level for how far they'll walk or cycle, she said -- up to eight kilometres by bike, and four kilometres walking. That makes cycling a good fit for Winnipeg, where the average commuting distance is less than six km.
That distance shouldn't take more than half an hour by bike for the average person, according to Resource Conservation Manitoba, which reports that a leisurely cyclist can go about 3.5 km in just 15 minutes.
McKechnie said Canadians tend to associate cycling with a heavy work-out and Lycra shorts, while in European cities employees often bike to work in office attire, an easy option if you're going at a relaxed pace, and your bike has a full fender to keep the mud down.
CARPOOLING:
LES Poss knows the headache of long commutes -- every day, the 22-year-old student treks from the town of Niverville to Red River College, roughly an hour each way.
Poss wasn't thrilled with how his one-man car commute would affect the environment, but a bigger concern was cost. After crunching the numbers, he figured out that it would cost him $14 a day to drive alone.
After hearing about an online carpooling option set up through the college with www.carpool.ca, Poss thought he would give it a try.
"With the price of gas and the environment and everything, it was definitely worth a shot," said the first-year mechanical engineering student.
A plus for Poss was the site's preference breakdown, which lets users find a match based on factors like time frames and location. The site can even filter out non-smokers, a necessity for Poss, who has asthma.
After going through his options, the student found an electrical engineering instructor in nearby Otterburn looking for a rideshare. The two both prefer smaller, more efficient vehicles, and have talked about "everything from cars to school to life, and saving gas," Poss laughed.
Now that he's ride-sharing, "that's 750 kilometres that I'm not driving" per week, he said.
Carpool.ca seems to be the most popular of a host of sites set up to accommodate carpool and rideshare groups. But many of the sites suffer from out-of-date profiles, and all would benefit from an influx of users.
So far, access on Carpool.ca is limited to specific organizations who've signed up, like the University of Manitoba and University of Winnipeg, Red River College, the Health Sciences Centre and the Province of Manitoba's downtown offices.
"Between the combination of one less vehicle on the road, and driving an efficient vehicle, it's a good feeling," said Poss.
Sign up for Winnipeg Transit's EcoPass.
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