Your stories and endorsements
Do tell us what you think! We’ll share what you send us on this page, and could post it to social media as well.
Send your message and photos to CloseCommute@gmail.com, and include “My story” or “Endorsement” (without the quote marks) as part of the subject line. Thanks!
“BC Transit supports commuting distance reduction programs such as Closer Commutes as a way to reduce traffic congestion and greenhouse gas emissions.”
– Greg Conner, Vice President, Human Resources and Corporate Secretary, BC Transit
“What a great initiative you are about to launch!”
– Erika Sandow, PhD, Professor, Centre for Demographic and Ageing Research, Umea University, Sweden
“A simple, elegant and workable project.”
– R. Warren Bell, BA MDCM CCFP FCFP(LM), Past Founding President, CAPE (Canadian Association of Physicians for the Environment), Founding President, WA:TER (Wetland Alliance: The Ecological Response), Rural Preceptor, University of BC, Salmon Arm, BC
“Thanks so much for… the excellent and useful annotated bibliography and information around your StatCan dataset… We did not have the resources to do an analysis of StatCan data so this dataset will be very useful to the project.”
– Barbara Neis, Project Director, On The Move Partnership, Professor, Department of Sociology, Memorial University of Newfoundland, St. John’s, NL; Co-director of the SafetyNet Centre for Occupational Health & Safety Research; Vice-president of the Trudeau Foundation Society
Over 1600 signatures on our Change.org petition!
See: www.trelawnyconsulting.com/petition_signatures.pdf
“Closer Commutes represents a rare opportunity for HR professionals to really shine within their organization. They can present a solid business case to the chief executive that updating their policies will reduce employees’ long commutes which will trigger higher productivity and lower HR expenses with no downside risks.”
– Professor Tom Rippon, Human Resources degree program, Camosun College, Victoria, BC.
“Closer Commutes’ business case is MORE than compelling… ABOUT BLOODY TIME somebody had the foresight and good sense to [get more cars off the road] in the Capital Region District. Your philosophy is sound, your approach sensible and scalable, and I know that with the correct strategies, Closer Commutes will succeed… [Let’s] discuss how the Greater Victoria Chamber of Commerce can assist… [we] do have access to the largest amount of employers in the city.”
– Peter Miles, Greater Victoria Chamber of Commerce
“This innovation has the potential for business to continue to support transportation solutions and save money/ create efficiencies /increase employee well-being at the same time.”
– Lisa Helps, Mayor, City of Victoria
FACTOID: Closer Commutes is a re-imagining of the “proximate commuting” commute reduction strategy developed in the mid-1990s by Gene Mullins of Seattle. He conducted a full-scale proof-of-concept demonstration project with 500 employees of Key Bank across 17 branches. At these branches, the overall total employee commuting miles dropped by a remarkable 17% over the 15-month project. Meanwhile a control group of branches that did not implement a proximate commute program, the total employee commuting miles increased slightly. The US EPA and DoT and other agencies endorsed this transportation demand management strategy. “Let Employees Work Close to Home” was one of TIME magazine’s “51 Things We Can Do to Save the Environment” in 2007. Despite this publicity and the obvious logic behind the concept, proximate commuting was not adopted by HR departments at large employers, except Starbuck and Boeing. One reason could be that companies didn’t feel it was their responsibility – or to their benefit – to do anything. They needed (and still need) to be urged by long commuters to “let employees work close to home” – for everyone’s benefit!
