Transportation demand management (TDM) is all about giving people more transportation options: helping them use the infrastructure that currently exists in more sustainable, equitable, and efficient ways, like carpooling, public transportation, or walking and biking.
But changing people’s transportation behavior doesn’t happen by magic. It requires hard work: making sure people know about the great transportation options in their regions. That usually manifests itself in an incentive program.
Arlington County is a leader in the TDM industry with its renowned Champions incentive program, founded by our friends at Arlington Transportation Partners (ATP). Champions gives rewards to businesses, commercial and residential properties, hotels, and schools that help people associated with them reduce their amount of drive-alone trips. Similar to LEED-graded classifications for environmentally clean buildings, Champions grants different levels of certification depending on how many TDM programs an organization adopts.
Mobility Lab conducted a study of both participants in the Champions program and non-participants to find out what Champions is doing right and how it can be better. Here are some of the top takeaways:
Champions as a marketing tool
LEED classification is a big marketing draw for commercial and residential properties. Champions can be that way, too. Champions certification not only shows that the organization cares about the environment, just like with LEED, but that people associated with that property have multiple mobility options. This is exactly what people living in and moving to cities want, but also still need to frequently be reminded about.
Champions as a high-end brand that small organizations know is right for them too
The prestige of earning Champions certification is what makes it attractive, but some small businesses expressed their believe that Champions is too sophisticated for their organization to participate in. That’s not true. Any organization – regardless of its size – can take easy steps to give their employees and residents more transportation options.
Case-study stories help recruit more participants
Both current and potential Champions participants suggested that ATP present more case studies of successful Champions to new recruits. Case studies reaffirming that Champions both works and is affordable is very influential in convincing new organizations to join.
Read our summary of the project and some of its top findings here. And you can find it in our Research Catalog here.