More Telework Means Major Savings, Increased Productivity

Matt Rosenberg

Using a robustly-researched, fine-tuned "telework savings calculator" developed by the Telework Research Network, Seattle Times workplace blogger Michelle Goodman highlighted what this region's employers and workers could save in various costs and gain in improved productivity if the 40 percent of regular, salaried non-government office workers who could work from home, but don't, did -- just half the time.

The upshot: There are billions of dollars in potential benefits from telework being left on the table in the Seattle region alone.

Kate Lister (pictured at right), co-author of "Undress For Success - The Naked Truth About Making Money At Home" and principal researcher of Telework Research Network, shared with me today her latest data about the robust national impact of 40 percent of the regular, full-time, non-government, in-office workforce working at home half the time. Maybe your company would like a piece of this action.

Continue reading " More Telework Means Major Savings, Increased Productivity " »

Microsoft's Rob Bernard On "Zero, Shared, And Efficient Miles"

Matt Rosenberg

We've now got a full transcript (at bottom, here) of the address given by Microsoft's Chief Environmental Strategist Rob Bernard last month at Cascadia Center's "Beyond Oil: Transforming Transportation" conference. Stressing the growing potential of information technology to shape decisions about commuting and travel, Bernard outlined what might be called a hierarchy of mobility preferences. Or, as he put it, the best miles are zero miles, followed by shared miles and then efficient miles.

So, zero miles....how do I leverage the information in my calendar to keep me from coming to the office? Because if I can stay home I can get a lot of work done. So by literally looking at the blocks of time, and there's color-coding options within Outlook that I use as well, you can say, hey, look, within this calendar, if (you) just move around a few meetings, or make them tele-presence meetings, (you've) got an opportunity to work from home two, two-and-a-half days a week right off the top. Now, we do a lot of work with BT (British Telecom), out of the UK. BT has taken the idea of calendaring and moved to the idea of meeting-free days and moved on to the next level. Forty percent - 40 percent - of their workforce does not go to the office. Forty percent of their workforce works at home.

Microsoft has also started its own employee transit service, the Microsoft Connector, so that employee travel miles can be shared, and environmental impact and traffic congestion reduced. Bernard (pictured, right) explained:

.....we're all familiar with the paradigm of mass transit. I take a bus, I take a subway, Seattle's light rail, all these things are great, but they're only great if you live close to ....a pick-up and a drop-off. This is really difficult. Like in my case I'd actually have to take three buses to get to Microsoft from my house, and it would take me about an hour-and-a-half to get here. So it's great, and the vision is, get lots of bus and lots of mass transit and get lots of people off the road. But that model only works so well, because lots of people like me don't have a direct line, so the convenience trade-off does not work.

...one thing we did a as a corporation is, we said, wait a second. We have lots of centers of population who are disconnected, that can't really take mass transit effectively to get to work, but are actually on the road every day. So we actually rolled out, last year about this time the (Microsoft) Connector buses. People have seen them around, I'm sure, the buses are all over. We did it for about four months as a trial and it was so successful that we doubled the fleet.....you go online and reserve your (seat), you get on the bus, and what's great is, it's not only convenient, it's wired. So I can actually do work while I'm going to and from work...Today we are now saving....250,000 car miles every single week in the Puget Sound area thanks to the Connector system, which is...pretty impressive....And we think that that number is going to increase. As gas prices have increased, ridership has increased and we're looking at having more routes and more people.

Microsoft subsequently announced an expansion of its Connector service, which was to have taken effect yesterday. But what about employers lacking the company's vast resources? More efficient and flexible ride-sharing is an alternative to traditional, static-schedule carpooling, said Bernard.

"....the problem with rideshare is it's a great concept, but unless you have a static job, which says I'm going to be coming and going at these exact times, and everybody else in my carpool is the same, it doesn't work because it doesn't take into account the dynamic reality of life...So Microsoft researched, and...we said, what do we do to actually take this concept that I talked about earlier of calendaring, geographical information and presence, and put these things together and say, wait a second, what if we use smart carpooling, or smart-pooling, and said, look, we can look at everybody's calendar who signs up for the program, and we can find and accept matches, based on a schedule? So today if I happen to be leaving at 3:30, great, who else is leaving at 3:30 who lives in my zip code?

Now all of a sudden I start to have a dynamic processing system that says I'm going to match you on the fly (with) other people who have a similar schedule and geographic location. You can have different riders in both directions, and you can reschedule, so I'll see that a meeting comes up and I'll say, oh, I'm going to take that meeting at 3:30, I'm now leaving at 4:30. System needs to go in and change who my riding partners are. So we're experimenting with this at Microsoft, we believe that this will be the wave of the future. We're getting people to carpool. Car-pooling is a great concept but it really doesn't work at scale today.

Microsoft sponsored a global student competition on transportation applications of software, and one entry was a real eye-opener, said Bernard.

...there's a team out of New Zealand that has created and looked at this thing that's basically a taxi bus and what it does is it says based on your presence and your information in the city of Christchurch, they have a bunch of vans and a bunch of drivers, and they use route optimization and they were basically able to get wait times...down to about...two minutes...from seven minutes. Down to two minutes in a major city. Very cool stuff. So we're working to see how can we take this and apply it to other cities.

Efficient miles result not only from the peak-hour congestion pricing in managed lanes, something Cascadia Center has long advocated and which is now gaining steam in Central Puget Sound and nationwide. Efficient miles also result from the use of congestion-avoidance technology. Bernard:

...there's a new service on our maps, it's based on a technology called Clear Flow, which says, actually give me a route, based on traffic. And as you can see, this map has actually been re-routed based on the dynamic information that's happening in real time. This type of information should be and will be in cars in the future, so that your routes can recalculate, not just based on theoretical, but based on actual data. Now, it becomes even more interesting, and this is where Microsoft research is looking at it...if I gather this data over time, and we've been doing this in Seattle, I can predict, with high accuracy, what the road will look like in 15, 30, 45, 60 minutes....each of those dots tell me different types of things....there's a grey dot with green in it...telling me...in about 15 minutes (Interstate 405 north) is going to be jammed up. So if you're actually going to get through 405, you'd better leave now, or expect a delay....we've been working on this algorithm quite a bit...it is highly accurate and getting better as we get more data.

Of course, other companies and independent software developers are involved in the push to green the daily commute. But by concentrating some of its considerable resources on a whole set of tools to improve surface transportation, Microsoft adds considerable forward momentum. The questions for employers, commuters and service providers who stand to benefit, are: how soon, how broadly, at what cost, and with what degree of user-friendliness will next-generation commuting and telecommuting software applications become available?

And, can we please just install WiFi on public transit buses and commuter trains everywhere?

Read the whole Bernard transcript. And courtesy of TVW, Washington state's public affairs cable channel, view video of Bernard and all of the other Day Two "Beyond Oil" speakers, including former CIA chief James Woolsey and Better Place CEO Agassi, here.

RELATED:

"Microsoft Introduces Tool For Avoiding Traffic Jams," New York Times.

Microsoft's "Live Maps" site (click on "Check Traffic" and select region).

Telework: An Employee Retention Tool

Matt Rosenberg

With funding from the Washington State Department of Transportation and advice from 75 employers, the Kitsap Regional Coordinating Council will develop common standards for telework. Derek Sheppard of the Kitsap Sun has more:

Often, the idea of telework comes with some reservations. Will companies and employees miss out on the spontaneous creativity that trickles down next to the water cooler? What about slackers? Who will middle managers manage if there's no one around? The focus, (Poulsbo City Council Member and telework advocate Ed) Stern said, is finding the right employees who can produce "deliverables," so there's a definable product they can show for their time at home. And the idea isn't proposing wholesale abandonment of a company's workplace.

Stern hopes the employers who participate commit to allowing select workers at least one day at home every two weeks. Companies should think about the benefits of allowing certain employees to work from home, Stern said. It allows workforce expansion without additional office space, results in better employee retention, reduces congestion and carbon emissions and gives workers more time with their families.

....Bruce Agnew, Director of the Seattle-based Discovery Institute's Cascadia Center said telework is experiencing a resurgence of interest, and can be part of a larger effort to reduce traffic and carbon emissions that includes effective mass transit, peak-hour tolls and ride-sharing....The state's aggressive effort to reduce greenhouse gases could help explain the renewed interest in telework, he said. "The quickest way to do that is eliminate a day or two of commuting to work," he said.

Stern is right on the money in highlighting "deliverables." If teleworkers can deliver documented, valuable work product laboring from their domiciles or other off-site locations, employers should welcome the results, and the considerable benefit to the employee.

Telework can be a powerful tool for employee retention.

Now, please excuse me. I have to fix a smoothie.

RELATED:

"Telework Cuts Congestion, Boosts Productivity," KOMO-AM 1000, Seattle, 9/16/08.

"Slow But Steady 'Telework Revolution' Eyed," Cascadia Prospectus, 9/26/07.

Beyond "Roads Versus Transit"

Matt Rosenberg

Seattle Times editorial columnist Lynne Varner (below, right) is a resident of suburban Sammamish, a growing community north of Issaquah, and Interstate 90. Today she warns against the gleeful predictions of some commentators that commuting by vehicle, and the whole suburban lifestyle are heading toward the end stages because of spiking gasoline prices.

The New York Times recently published essays from writers expressing the national angst over skyrocketing gas prices. The mood was funereal. One was titled "Goodbye to the Great American Road Trip," and needs no further explanation. "Ghosts of the Cul-de-sac" announced, a tad gleefully, a mass exodus from the suburbs and exurbs as people escape their cars for city living.

Blog postings on the subject ranged from expressions of schadenfreude to something more venal. Suburbanites are stereotyped as gas guzzlers commuting to McMansions, the values of which are dropping like granite countertops. One poster predicted rising gas prices will scatter suburbanites like rodents.

...Barring a change in price, we're going to have to change the level of demand. It has already started. Cruising is down...The urge to blame someone - who better than affluent suburbanites and their cars? - is understandable, but a waste. Smart public policy will fail if its relies on emotional attempts to lure people back to the city or offer a bike for every garage. Better solutions are to continue efforts belatedly launched around telecommuting, fuel-efficient vehicle standards and increasing funding for public transit.

Varner's on point. Here are a few more thoughts.

A comprehensive North American carbon tax, offset by reductions in Social Security withholding taxes paid by employers and employees, and resolutely factored into the cost of gas, would probably do more than any other one thing to change the way people get around day-to-day. But politicians would rather futz around with cap-and-trade schemes that big business will game the same way they game their taxes. How can planetary citizens of North America lead their leaders in the right direction?

It's not just more transit use, and better fuel mileage for internal combustion engine vehicles that are needed; it's also new vehicle technology. Especially the all-electric and plug-in hybrid electric vehicles now being developed by automakers. The challenge of making energy cleaner as demand grows is one we have to face anyway, no matter what kinds of cars people drive. Nuclear power will be a growing part of that conversation, as will renewable sources such as wind, solar, wave, and geothermal. Second generation bio-fuels made from forestry, agricultural and animal waste hold great promise to pencil out as substantially "net-green." But it's going take to take time, and great investment in research and development. The federal government has a legitimate, larger role to play here.

Transit is important; but It can't cost taxpayers billions upon billions, and depend upon tax hikes of indefinite duration. For both roads and transit, we're going to have to look north to our neighbors in British Columbia. They're pioneering transportation public-private partnerships in North America. One of several BC PPPs to help handle regional growth is the rapid rail Canada Line from the city to the airport and the suburb of Richmond. There are public funds being used, to be sure, but only to a degree. A private consortium was engaged to design, build, (partially) finance and operate the line. They are payed in full only if they meet achingly specific performance standards at various points in time. Are the trains running on time? Are they clean? And so forth. They make their profit in the end if they perform to standard - and yes - that profit comes in part from fares paid by passengers. But the region gets a valuable new transit line sooner rather than later or not at all, at a capped cost to taxpayers, with an operator incented to deliver good service.

Puget Sound commuters would benefit grandly if comprehensive regional bus rapid transit - BRT that really lived up to the name - were instituted with performance guarantees keyed to on-time performance. Private capital could help finance the construction of such a system. Alternatively, or perhaps complementarily, if voters here are to approve a broader regional build-out of Sound Transit's nascent light rail line beyond the Sea-Tac Airport to Husky Stadium stretch (which is now being constructed in phases), an approach like that used for the Canada Line just might do the trick.

As a transit rider, I want reliable pick-up times and trip times. I don't want to be stuck in traffic on at-grade rail or waiting at a stop for a late bus. But if a trip between the same two points takes longer on one mode than another, I don't care so much, as long as there's on-board WiFi. What if I am paying taxes for 30 years for some or another new transit line(s), but it won't begin service for 12, or 15, or 20 years?

Even assuming I would use it when built, that's a very big problem.

If we who pay sales taxes and vehicle fees are to be tapped again, projects have to be delivered in time for us to benefit in our working years. It's no good if improvements being discussed now only serve our grown children - assuming they even choose to stay here. Real performance guarantees, cost ceilings and accelerated construction timelines are essential. That's going to require a new way of doing business.

Game on?

Bike-sharing, again

Linnea Noreen

We talked here recently about Velib, the Parisian bike-sharing service, and how excellent it would be to have something similar in Seattle environs. Apparently I'm not the only person to think of this... Michele, at the Washington State Department of Transportation, informed me that the University of Washington is launching a similar on-campus program with automated rentals of electric bikes, in partnership with Scootabella Incorporated and Intrago Mobility Corp. of Boulder, Colorado. First in the nation. We are so cutting-edge.

AND it's electric.

Sure, you can strap your own bike to the Metro bus, or just ride it hither and yon. But while some Huskies may not mind getting all fragrantly sweaty, many cubicle dwellers may. And that's where the "electric" part hits the jackpot. As "Dr. Go" explains in this Intrago "Last Mile" video.

Intrago CEO Larry Blankenship confirms that the UW pilot program is set to launch this coming fall. Many kudos to UW Director of Transportation Services Josh Cavanaugh, who was instrumental in advancing the pilot progam, according to Blankenship. UW's U-Pass program already provides a variety of incentives for commuters to cut single-vehicle travel.

Eventually, says Blankenship, the idea is to expand automated electric bike rentals to a range of metro locations within test markets such as Seattle. Like Velib, this would make intra-city walking a more attractive proposition, as well as transit.

Sign me up!

TECHNORATI TAGS: VEHICLE TRIP REDUCTION, ELECTRIC BICYCLES, UNIVERSITY OF WASHINGTON, SEATTLE, INTRAGO, WASHINGTON STATE DEPARTMENT OF TRANSPORTATION

Flexcar is *so* passe

Linnea Noreen

Car-sharing just got a one-up. Enter Velib, the Parisian bike-sharing program.

Zipcar (or should I say Flexcar?!) is so last year. The latest and greatest is bike-swapping -- better for your health, the environment, cheaper and vastly more flexible. With the expansion of the Burke-Gilman Trail and Bike Master Plan approval, maybe Seattle is the place to start the trend, State-side?

It works like car-sharing... you pay roughly $30 for a year membership, but unlike its carbon-depended cousin, you get 30 minutes free for every trip using Velib. It is then incrementally a dollar (roughly) an hour--$1 for the first hour, $2 for the second hour-- the idea is to avoid permanent "check-outs". Bikes are available every 300 meters (few hundred feet), and are interchangable. If you want to extend the time, you can swap it with one down the road, and the clock restarts. Clever, huh?

In Seattle, the idea would be to pair the bike system with public transit -- have many pick-up locations in urban neighborhoods and suburban developments, where people can grab and go (in this case a shared bike). They ride to the park and ride, and hop on transit. After work, they hop off transit, grab one of the many bikes waiting and ride it back to neighborhood or suburban bliss.

It's really quite dreamy, and a great addition to our current transit system. Instead of wondering about whether the park and ride will be full, or how you're going to walk the extra 2 miles to your friend's house, you just grab a bike at the Transit Center. Even better, the system in Paris was entirely self-funded through advertising contracts. Image: a huge boon to mobility and convenience, with no taxpayer money. What a steal!

Can Better Carpooling Help Fix Our Traffic Mess?

Matt Rosenberg

A recent proposal under Washington State DOT's Trip Reduction Performance Program would utilize a "Flexible Carpooling" strategy in a pilot project for Sea-Tac Airport employees, removing 100 commuter round trips per work day.

Trip Convergence Ltd. is seeking a WSDOT grant of $86,000 over two years to help launch a five-year "proof of concept" test of its user-friendly form of carpooling - described in this YouTube video. (Full disclosure: Cascadia Center is one of several regional entities serving in an advisory capacity to Trip Convergence Ltd. with respect to the above-referenced pilot project).

According to Trip Convergence's grant application to WSDOT, members would drive to a Park and Ride location near Interstate 5 and State Route 18 in Federal Way, where they meet up with other commuters - each person choosing whether to drive or to be a passenger. When a car has one or more additional passengers, the driver then departs for the airport, letting the passenger(s) out at a designated drop off point. In the evening, the process is simply reversed. The application notes:

Participation will be tracked through the use of infrared and radio frequency ID technology, and based on the record of each trip, ride credits will be transferred between riders and drivers. The ride credit received by the driver will entitle the driver to take a ride at a later date.

The system does a good job of addressing the inconvenience that often accompanies carpooling. Rather than wait for a specific group of people, each member rides with the first available vehicle thereby increasing flexibility of when to come into and leave from work. Commuters that often need a car during the day can choose to be drivers, and locating a couple of Flexcars at the airport would also help alleviate the fear of being caught somewhere without a car.

But will it really pencil out, especially with a government grant involved, and compared to more popular forms of alternative commuting, such as bus transit? Let's try to drill down a bit. When a "trip reduction" is tallied, the car is sitting idle not for one day, but for each work day of the calendar year - about 250 days - because the driver is using an alternative form of travel, flexible carpooling in this case. Thus an "annual trip reduced" is really about 250 annual round trips that one car foregoes, or the equivalent spread among several cars.

So, 100 annual round trips reduced - the aim of the Trip Convergence Ltd. pilot project - is really about 25,000 daily round trips, total, reduced per year. At a stated trip reduction cost to WSDOT of $43,000 per year in the project's first two years, the operating subsidy would total a modest $1.72 per daily trip reduced. Factoring in 15 vacation days per year for the owner of each vehicle, 100 annual round trips reduced would total 23,500 daily round trips reduced, and the subsidy would rise to $1.82.

That compares favorably to King County Metro bus service, which as this Metro fact sheet reports, requires $3.64 in operating costs per boarding while simultaneously yielding only 84 cents in operations revenue, for an average operating subsidy of $2.80 per boarding, or $5.60 per daily round trip.

A large part of the difference is likely explained by the unionized salary and benefits costs of operating large public bus fleets and, as off-peak load factors run low, uneconomic fuel costs as well.

One implication is that smaller, more nimble and flexible approaches to group commuting could attract greater market share, especially if regional tolling and transportation-specific carbon taxes, or mileage or cordon fees, are instituted within high-density metropolitan regions. Already, due simply to existing road congestion, we see companies such as Microsoft instituting their own privately-funded regional bus service for employees, which is both salubrious for taxpayers, and in the company's enlightened self-interested, due to its employee retention concerns.

Another implication is that Metro may need to look more closely at serving fewer routes better and faster to improve operating margins. Metro's planned bus rapid transit "rapid ride" corridor routes may provide a useful template for broader stratagic shifts in the system.

More on Vehicle Trip Reduction: "Slow But Steady Telework Revolution Eyed."

TECHNORATI TAGS: CARPOOLING, FLEXIBLE CARPOOLING, WASHINGTON DEPARTMENT OF TRANSPORTATION, TRIP CONVERGENCE, SEATTLE, KING COUNTY, BUS RAPID TRANSIT, MICROSOFT EMPLOYEE BUS ROUTES

Slow But Steady "Telework Revolution" Eyed

Matt Rosenberg

The nation and major urban regions within the West Coast Corridor of Cascadia and California - namely Vancouver, Seattle, Portland, Los Angeles, San Francisco and San Diego - continue to grapple with costly road and transit projects and the threat of global warming. These stem in part from workforce and population increases. Against this backdrop, common-sense trip reduction strategies such as telecommuting deserve more attention. Adopted on a broader scale, increased telecommuting can: help control road congestion and future transportation infrastructure costs; and help limit man-made greenhouse gas emissions and vehicle-related air pollution.

A recently-released study by Tiax LLC of Cambridge, Mass. for the Consumer Electronics Association calculates that telecommuting - or to use a much better phrase, telework - saves 840 million gallons of gas in the U.S. annually and reduces carbon dioxide emissions by 14 million metric tons. But media reports and the study itself may actually underestimate both the number of current U.S. teleworkers (those who work from home or remote work centers at least eight hours a week) and their cumulative environmental benefit. Reports on the TIAX study by, for instance, the San Jose Mercury News and a Washington Post blogger assert that the study finds there are 3.9 million U.S. workers who telecommute (at least once a week). But the TIAX study itself casts the numbers in a clearer light. First, (p. 39, link above), the study's actual stated estimate of U.S. workers who telecommute at least once a week is 4 to 6 million, not 3.9 million. That's because (p. 40, link above) the U.S. Energy Information Administration 2001 estimate used as the source is not of 3.9 million once-a-week telecommuters, but rather translates, as Tiax notes, to 3.9 million households where at least one member telecommutes at least once a week.

Not mentioned anywhere in the recent media reports on the Tiax study is that the EIA data cited is from a six-year-old survey, and that using the same definition of what constitutes telework, other more recent estimates size the current U.S. teleworker pool as two to three times that in the Tiax study. April 2007 information from Gartner Dataquest highlighted earlier this month in an in-depth MSNBC.com story on telework is that currently, 12 million U.S. employees work from home at least eight hours per week; up from 6 million in 2000; and growing to 14 million by 2009. Percentage-wise that's still a drop in the bucket, but some assert that the trend grow. Rita Walston of The Telework Consortium tells MSNBC we should expect to see four-fifths of larger corporate workforces working out-of-office in the future, either from home or remote work centers. The MSNBC story also notes that 56 percent of Sun Microsystems' employees use home or remote work centers, resulting in information technology and real estate savings to the company of $387 million per year.

The amount of telework per worker per week is a key variable not fully addressed in the current discussion. If one day of telework out of five is feasible, why not two or three or more? To an extent it still depends on the employee and work team, and the product or service. But face it: for all the considerable upside of working on-site, there are also downsides. Put another way, there's a reason Dilbert rules.

Obvious barriers to telecommuting are lack of trust from employers, and personal disconnectedness for teleworkers perhaps coupled in some instances with legitimate fears their career advancement will be harmed by lack of time spent on in-person alliance-building and office politicking. The reality is that even for teleworkers, there are times when there is simply no substitute for being on-site. Remote work centers can often serve this purpose in larger organizations, but for smaller or mid-sized workplaces, flexible on-site work spaces for teleworkers can be important.

Government programs including financial incentives for employers and employees to increase their use of telework and other trip reduction methods such as carpooling are one approach currently in vogue. But if telework is to reach a more critical mass in coming decades, it will be more due to corporate and political leaders who connect the dots between telework, employee retention, the daunting costs of transportation infrastructure upgrades, and man-made greenhouse gas emissions.

Additional Resources:

"Tele-commuting Or Hell-ecommuting?" Reason Foundation's 'Hit and Run' blog, Aug. 30, 2007.

"Seeking Loyal, Devoted Workers? Let Them Stay At Home," Wall Street Journal, Sept. 11, 2007;

"After Pushing Telework, GSA Tries To Lead The Way," Washington Post, Sept. 13, 2007.

"The Gridlock Report - One More Case For Telecommuting," BloggingStocks, Sept. 18, 2007;

"Clear The Streets - Stay At Home," Alameda Times-Star, Sept. 19, 2007;

"More Workers Telecommuting, But Obstacles Remain ," Virginian-Pilot, Sept. 23, 2007.

TECHNORATI TAGS: TELECOMMUTING, TELEWORK, TRANSPORTATION, ENVIRONMENT, GLOBAL WARMING, EMPLOYEE RETENTION, CASCADIA, WEST COAST CORRIDOR, BRITISH COLUMBIA, WASHINGTON, OREGON, CALIFORNIA

Research Compendium

Matt Rosenberg

Last updated August 25, 2008

The research, it just keeps coming. On this page, we'll compile links to key studies and reports on innovation in transportation.

MANAGING, PLANNING & FUNDING TRANSPORTATION

Cascadia Center Reports

"Lessons In Public-Private Partnerships & Climate Change: What British Columbia Taught California, And What Washington Can Still Learn," 10/07.

"A Tale Of Three Cities: How San Diego, Denver and Vancouver, B.C. Raised Major Regional Funds For Transportation," Doug Hurley, Cascadia Center For Regional Development, 9/06.

"Travel Value Pricing: Better Traffic Operations Management & New Revenue For The Puget Sound Region," John S. Niles, for Cascadia Center, 4/06.

"Transportation Working Group Recommendations," Transportation Working Group, Cascadia Center For Regional Development, 2/15/05.

Transportation Working Group background, members, and resource book.

"An Institutional Conundrum - A Simplified Overview Of Metropolitan Institutional Reform Applied To Transportation In The Puget Sound Region," Deb Eddy, Cascadia Center For Regional Development, 2004.

"How Do We Get There From Here? A Transportation Future For The Puget Sound Region," Bruce Agnew & Bruce Chapman, Cascadia Center For Regional Development, 2003. View the video, as aired on Seattle Channel, 5/20/05.

Other Reports

"Just Pricing: The Distributional Effects Of Congestion Pricing and Sales Taxes," Brian Taylor, UCLA Institute Of Transportation Studies; Lisa Schweitzer, School Of Policy, Planning And Development, University Of Southern California, 5/08

"Transportation For Tomorrow," National Surface Transportation Policy & Revenue Study Commission, 1/08.

"Running On Empty - 2007 Annual Report," Washington Transportation Commission, 12/07.

"Building New Roads Through Public-Private Partnerships: Frequently Asked Questions," Leonard C. Gilroy, Robert W. Poole, Jr., Peter Samuel, Geoffrey Segal, Reason Foundation, 11/07.

"Review Of Congressional Earmarks Within Department Of Transportation Programs," Office Of The Inspector General, U.S. DOT, 9/7/07.

"Case Studies Of Transportation Public-Private Partnerships In The United States," Aecom Consult Team, for U.S. DOT, Federal Highway Administration, 7/7/07.

"Case Studies Of Transportation Public-Private Partnerships Around The World," Aecom Consult Team, for U.S. DOT, Federal Highway Administration, 7/7/07.

Draft Vision 2040 Puget Sound Regional Council, 7/07.

"Lake Washington Urban Partnership," Washington State Department of Transportation, 4/30/07.

"Report On SR 520 Bridge Replacement And HOV Project Funding Alternatives," Seattle-Northwest Securities Corporation, Montague DeRose & Associates, LLC, 3/28/07.

"Destination 2030 - Taking An Alternative Route," Washington State Transportation Center/Booz Allen Hamilton (For King County Executive), 3/05/07.

"Overview Of National Strategy To Reduce Congestion On America's Transportation Network," USDOT, 3/07.

"Public-Private Partnerships For Toll Highways," Robert W. Poole, Reason Foundation, Testimony To U.S. House Committee On Transportation & Infrastructure, Subcommittee On Highways & Transit, 2/13/07.

"Report On The Transportation Innnovative Partnerships Program," Washington Transportation Commission, 1/07.

"Regional Transportation Commission Final Report," Regional Transportation Commission (of Puget Sound), 12/31/06.

"Washington Transportation Plan 2007-2026," Washington Transportation Commission, 11/06.

"Reducing Congestion In Atlanta: A Bold New Approach To Mobility," Robert W. Poole, Reason Foundation, 11/06.

"Public-Private Partnerships & The Development Of Transport Infrastructure: Trends On Both Sides Of The Atlantic," Benjamin G. Perez, PB Consult Inc., James W. March, Federal Highway Administration; 9/06.

"Transportation Finance At The Ballot Box: Voters Support Increased Investment & Choice," Center For Transportation Excellence, 8/06.

"Building Roads To Reduce Congestion In America's Cities: How Much & At What Cost?," David Hartgren, M. Gregory Fields & Robert W. Poole, Reason Foundation, 8/06; (WA state congestion analysis, from study).

"Why Mobility Matters," Ted Balaker, Reason Foundation, 8/06.

"Current Toll Road Activity In The U.S.: A Survey & Analysis," Benjamin Pereze, Steve Lockwood, for U.S. DOT, Federal Highway Administration, 8/06.

"Remarks Of Pat Jacobsen - CEO, Greater Vancouver Transportation Authority - To House & Senate Transportation Committees of Washington State Legislature, 1/19/06.

"Traffic Congestion & Reliability: Trends & Advanced Strategies For Congestion Mitigation," Cambridge Systematics & Texas Transportation Institute (for Federal Highway Administration), 9/1/05.

"2005 Urban Mobility Report," Texas Transportation Institute, 2005.

"Unclogging America's Highways - Effective Relief For Highway Bottlenecks," American Highway Users Alliance, 2/04

HUBS, CORRIDORS & GATEWAYS

" Canada: A Macroeconomic Study of the United States' Most Important Trade Partner,"U.S. Department of Agriculture Economic Research Service, Updated 9/15/06

Canadian Embassy State Trade Fact Sheet 2006, Canadian Embassy, 2006.

Canada/U.S. Regional Economies, Canadian-American Border Trade Alliance.

"Western Hemisphere Travel Initiative: The Basics," U.S. Department of Homeland Security.

Resolution Of The West Coast Corridor Coalition, 11/03.

"From B.C. To B.C. - And Beyond - the Story Of The West Coast Corridor Coalition."

"Spatial Concepts & Cross Border Governance Strategies," Susan E. Clarke, University of Colorado, (presented to EURA Conference On Urban & Spatial Policies), 4/02.

"The Character of Non-Governmental Transborder Organizations In The Cascadia Region of North America," Lawrence Douglas Taylor Hansen, Revista Mexicana De Estudios Canadienses, 2/02.

SURFACE & MARINE TRANSPORTATION

Cascadia Center Reports

"Testimony In Support Of King County Passenger-Only Ferry District," Matt Rosenberg, 11/13/07.

"Alaskan Way Replacement: Alternative Approaches," Ove Arup & Partners, for Cascadia Center, 11/06.

"A New Vision For Developing Transit For Livable Cities." Enrique Penalosa, former
mayor of Bogota, Columbia speaks at a Cascadia Center co-sponsored event on implementation of Bogota's TransMileno Bus Rapid Transit system. Seattle Channel video, 9/27/06.

"Statement of Tom Till to Washington Transportation Commission On Amtrak & Related Issues, Including Availability of Federal Funding," 1/18/06.

Other Reports

"King County Passenger-Only Ferries Project Briefing Paper," IBI Group, for King County Executive, 11/7/07.

Puget Sound Regional Council Passenger-Only Ferry Study, 2007 (ongoing).

Chapter 7, "I-405 Plan: Transit and HOV", in "I-405 Congestion Relief & Bus Rapid Transit Projects - Final Recommendations Report," WSDOT. (See "I-405 BRT Service").

BNSF Corridor Preservation Study, Puget Sound Regional Council, 2/27/07.

Statewide Rail Capacity and System Needs Study, Washington State Transportation Commission, 12/06.

Columbia River Crossing Project Alternatives Page.

Willamette River Ferry Feasibility Study, City Of Portland Department of Transportation, 2006.

Waterborne Transit Policy Study, King County Department of Transportation, August, 2005.

Rich Passage Passenger-Only Ferry Study, Phase I, WSDOT, Federal Transit Administration, 4/05.

"Report Card For America's Infrastructure," American Society Of Civil Engineers, 2005.

TECHNOLOGY & ENERGY

Cascadia Center Reports

Speaker Presentations At Cascadia/Microsoft/Idaho National Laboratory "Beyond Oil: Transforming Transportation" conference, 9/4/08 and 9/5/08, Redmond, Wash. (Topics included electric vehicles, plug-in hybrid electric vehicles, renewable energy, traffic management systems and technology, transit. Many of these files are very large and may take several minutes to open/download depending on your internet connection).

9/4/08 Presentations:

Sharon Banks
Scott Belcher
Charlie Botsford
John Clark
June Devoll
Rob Elam
Dick Ford
Jim Francfort
Andy Frank
Arti Gupta
Jerry Hautamaki
Craig Helmann
John Horsley
Cornie Huizenga
Ron Johnston-Rodriguez
Preet Khalsa
Dave Kristick
Felix Kramer
Justin McNew
Paul Minett
Brian Mistele
Tim Murphy
Jack Opiola
Syd Pawlowski
Dick Paylor
Ron Posthuma
Matt Sheldon
Jim Stanton
Ed Stern
Julian Taylor
Michael Weick

9/5/08 Presentations:

Kevin Banister
Rob Bernard
Don Foley
Paul Genoa
KC Golden
Paula Hammond
David Kaplan
Rich Laukhart
Jim Piro
Bill Rogers
Jim Walker
Brian Wynn

"Greening The Highway From Baja To B.C. - A Discussion Brief," Matt Rosenberg, 9/19/07.

"Replacing Oil With Electricity And Biofuels In Transportation: The Convergence Of Technology And Public Policy," Steve Marshall, 8/7/07.

Speaker Presentations at Cascadia-Microsoft "Jump Start To A Secure Clean Energy Future" Conference on Plug-in Hybrid Electric Vehicles and Alternative Fuels, 5/7/07

Roger Duncan, Austin Energy/Plug-In Partners (4.78 MB)
Mark Duvall, Electric Power Research Institute (1.13 MB)
Andrew A. Frank, University of California/Davis (1.33 MB)
K.C. Golden, Climate Solutions (1.81 MB)
David Horner, U.S. Dept. of Transportation (700 KB)
Michael Kintner-Meyer, Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (1.91 MB)
Felix Kramer, CalCars.org (708 KB)
John M. Miller, Maxwell Technologies (496 KB)
Philip Mote, University of Washington (3.88 MB)
Tim Murphy, Idaho National Laboratory (674 KB)
Vic Parrish, Energy Northwest (494 KB)
Bill Reinert, Toyota USA (2.00 MB)
Bill Rogers, Idaho National Laboratory (1.05 MB)
Greg Rock, Green Car Company (82.9 KB)
Neil Schuster, Intelligent Transportation Society Of America (2.14 MB)
Rogelio Sullivan, U.S. Dept. of Energy (1.08 MB)
John Wellinghoff, Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (4.23 MB)
Nick Zielinski, General Motors/Chevy Volt (1.79 MB)

Other Reports

"Basic Research Needs: Catalysis For Energy," (report from U.S. Dept. Of Energy Basic Energy Sciences Workshop), 8/07.

"Environmental Assessment of Plug-In Hybrid Electric Vehicles," Electric Power Research Institute, Natural Resources Defense Council, 7/07.

" Joint Science Academies Statement on Growth and Responsibility; Sustainability, Energy Efficiency and Climate Protection, for G8 Summit, 5/07.

"Fourth Assessment Report of Intergovernmental Panel On Climate Change," United Nations, 4/07/07.

Annual Energy Outlook 2007 - With Projections To 2030," U.S. Department of Energy, Energy Information Administration, 2/07.

Impacts Assessment of Plug-in Hybrid Vehicles On Electric Utilities and Regional U.S. Power Grids; Michael Kintner-Meyer, Kevin Schneider, Robert Pratt; Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, 12/06.

"Alternative Fuels Study: A Report To Congress On Policy Options For Increasing The Use Of Alternative Fuels In Transit Vehicles," Federal Transit Administration, U.S. Dept. of Transportation, 12/06.

"Intelligent Transportation Systems Regional Architecture", Puget Sound Regional Council, IBI Group, 8/21/06.

"Future Visions," Washington Transportation Plan Update Process, WSDOT/Washington Transportation Commission, 6/17/05. (See pp. 27-34, "Intelligent Transportation Systems").

GridWise Program Overview, Pacific Northwest National Laboratory.

Technological Basis For GridWise, Pacific Northwest National Laboratory.

Primer On Vehicle-Infrastructure Integration, Intelligent Transportation Society Of America.

TECHNORATI TAGS: TRANSPORTATION, RESEARCH, TRANSPORTATION GOVERNANCE, TRAFFIC CONGESTION, TRANSIT, BUS RAPID TRANSIT, PASSENGER-ONLY FERRIES, TOLLS, PUBLIC PRIVATE PARTNERSHIPS, SEATTLE, PUGET SOUND, CASCADIA, WEST COAST CORRIDOR, FRIEGHT, INTELLIGENT TRANSPORTATION SYSTEMS, ALTERNATIVE ENERGY, ALTERNATIVE FUELS, PLUG-IN HYBRID ELECTRIC VEHICLES