SmartTrips Program to Focus on East Portland This Summer; Offers Benefits for All Portland Residents and Businesses

The City of Portland’s SmartTrips program is revving up for another successful year as the SmartTrips Green Line program gets underway at the end of March.

SmartTrips is an individualized marketing program sponsored by the Portland Bureau of Transportation. The program, which was implemented by the city in 2004, is designed to reduce drive-alone trips by increasing biking, walking, carpooling and public transportation usage by the residents of a specified geographic area.

We want to inform people of these other methods of transportation while educating them on how to incorporate these transportation methods into their everyday lives,” said Scott Cohen, business coordinator for the SmartTrips Business program.
 
He continued, “We aren’t looking to drastically change commuters’ lifestyles, but we are asking them to look into ways of changing the way they travel for one or two days a week.”

Portland offers many transportation options.

ABOUT SMARTTRIPS

SmartTrips is an offshoot of a program called TravelSmart that the city had been looking into adopting in the early 2000s. TravelSmart was designed by SocialData America to decrease ride alone travel through education. The methods of the program were designed through data collected in Australia and parts of Europe. The TravelSmart pilot program took place in 2003 with 600 participating households, and a larger pilot took place in 2004 with 6,100 households. After participating in both pilot programs, the city decided to implement a modified version of the program that reduced the costs, added hands-on experiential activities and extended the contact period with residents. The new and improved program was aptly titled, SmartTrips.

SmartTrips has since become a two-pronged program: SmartTrips Residential and SmartTrips Business. While one focuses its efforts around residents of a specific area, and the other around businesses of a specific area, each program aims to reduce single-occupancy car trips through education and information in the form of brochures, maps, incentives and events.

Single occupancy trips lead to congestion.

SMARTTRIPS GREEN LINE PROGRAM

This summer the SmartTrips program—titled SmartTrips Green Line (due to the recent addition of the Max Green Line which transports people from Clackamas Town Center to downtown Portland in 39 minutes)—will be focused in East Portland, between 72nd Street and 122nd Avenue, from the Columbia River heading south to the southern City limit. This stretch includes 17 different Portland neighborhoods [The area includes all or part of the Cully, Sumner, Parkrose, Parkrose Heights, Roseway, Madison South, Woodland Park, Montavilla, Hazelwood, Mill Park, Powellhurst-Gilbert, Lents, Brentwood-Darlington, Mt Scott-Arleta, Foster-Powell, South Tabor, and Pleasant Valley neighborhoods].

The program will begin at the end of the month when SmartTrips staff mails out a newsletter and calendar of events to everyone within the area. The calender of events includes such SmartTrips events as the Ten Toe Express Walking Campaign, Portland By Cycle Campaign, Senior Strolls, Women on Bikes and Sunday Parkways. All of these events take place within the designated region over the eight-month period of the program. The community walks and bike rides are designed to familiarize people with the City’s designated pedestrian/bike trails as well as providing them with useful day-to-day tips from experienced pedestrian/bike commuters. There are even events planned for particular groups of people like women, senior citizens and children, that deal with specific concerns from these demographics.

Sunday Parkways introduces people to the possibility of bikes as transportation.

“These community bike and pedestrian events (like Sunday Parkways and Senior Strolls) are all about familiarizing bikers and walkers with the bike corridors,” said Cohen. “Basically, making citizens aware of where the access points are, how to move from neighborhood to neighborhood and how to get to interesting places like business nodes and City parks.

Then in April, residents of the area are mailed an order form where they are asked to provide details on what modes of transportation they are interested in learning more about. At a cost of only $10 [tax dollars], a vinyl tote bag is hand delivered by bike within two weeks. The tote bag contains a variety of information on ways to easily transition into a new form of transportation. Traditionally, about 30-percent of residents within the specific area participate in the program.

Each participating resident receives a different set of information depending on their order form. So, those interested in using walking as a mode of transportation will receive a free pedometer, a schedule of neighborhood walking tours, a walking logbook and a host of other literature on the importance of walking as transportation. Conversly, those interested in public transportation will be sent bus and rail schedules, the Honored Citizen’s Guide for seniors and the disabled, and information on how to obtain a free personalized transit tracker card that allows residents to get real time arrival information for the four closest public transit outlets to their home.

Walking is a great option for short trips.

In addition to the personalized information, participants are given a small gift and a coupon book full of deals offered by local participating businesses.

“The coupon book is designed to encourage residents to walk and bike for neighborhood shopping trips,” he said. “Our residential program gives out almost 10,000 coupon books each year to the target area. This year there will be approximately 140 businesses within the East Portland area that will be in the coupon book.”

While the coupon book is a gift for participating citizens, it is also a gift for businesses participating in the SmartTrips Business program, a consulting and information service offered to any Portland business owner looking to improve the method of transportation to and from their place of business for employees and customers alike.

WHAT SMARTTRIPS CAN DO FOR YOUR BUSINESS

The SmartTrips Business program offers local businesses four different (Free!) opportunities: a supply of Portland walking and biking maps for customers, employee commute options kits (much like the residential commute options kits), the installation of a free bicycle rack at the nearest public right-of-way to the business, and consultation on tax-deductible investments and policy changes that can be made by businesses, like the State of Oregon’s Business Energy Tax Credit and TriMet’s employer transportation program.

Commuting by bike is a healthy alternative.

“We focus primarily on working with business owners because they are the ones who can sign up for tax incentives and implement office policies,” said Cohen. “But we also offer information for employees similar to the information offered in the residential program. This commuter information is available for any employee, not just those whose employers are enrolled in the program.”

JoAnn Panayiotou, owner of Trilogy Video located at 2325 Northwest Thurman Street, enrolled in the SmartTrips Business program last year when it was focused around Northwest and North Portland. The business offered a coupon within the coupon book and also made the walking/biking maps available at the store.

“What originally enticed me was that they were offering to put together a coupon for us free of charge,” said Panayiotou. “I decided to give it a try and was surprised with how many people immediately came in and used it.”

She then decided the walking/biking maps would be a good idea to offer to customers within her business because of the then-recent installation of a bike-parking corral on Thurman Street.

The bike corral on NW Thurman in Portland's Northwest District.

“The maps have been a huge hit here because residents can see what is all accessible by foot and bike within the area,” she said. “Sometimes people forget how easily accessible everything in this neighborhood is, and the map helps people visualize that.”

She continued, “It has been a year since I started carrying the maps and I still can’t keep them on the shelves for very long.”

The program has also helped such businesses as Plew’s Brews in the St. Johns neighborhood and Pho Gia (on Northeast Sandy Boulevard and 20th Avenue) install bike racks in front of their businesses, free of charge.

Business owners can get bike racks installed for free.

The idea behind the bike racks is that people tend to commute by bike if doing it that way makes the commute easier.
 
“If there is a bike rack right in front of a business customers are more likely to ride their bike because it is more convenient, especially in areas where parking is hard to find,” said Cohen.

In some instances the single bike racks have worked so well that businesses have contacted PBOT about installing the bike-parking corrals that are popping up all around town. While the corral-style parking lots aren’t part of SmartTrips, the program is a great resource to help get the ball rolling.

The bike corrals are installed through PBOT by eliminating two to three free on-street parking spaces. This space allows for 12 to 24 bike parking spots. Currently there are 46 bike corrals installed around the city, with ten more pending and 50 more being requested by local businesses and neighborhoods.

At this bike corral on Northeast Alberta 18 bikes fit in just two parking spaces.

“The bike corrals are meant to respond to the needs of local businesses,” said Sarah Figliozzi, the bike-parking planner with PBOT. “Although we don’t have quantitative evidence here in Portland yet, everything we have heard thus far from businesses is that removing car parking spaces is creating more business.”

This is a true assessment according to a 2009 study by the Toronto-based Ecovelo, a bike as transportation advocacy group. The study proves that people whom walk or bike to stores are more likely to spend money than those who come by cars. Thus, not only is the amount of parking increased, but also the people coming into the business are more likely to spend money.

Bryan Steelman, owner of Por Que No Taqueria, can vouch for the findings in this study. He had PBOT install bike corrals at both Por Que No locations, 2524 North Mississippi Avenue and 4635 Southeast Hawthorne Blvd. He was so elated with the initial results that he decided to offer happy hour prices at any time of the day for anyone who showed up on bike for a whole week. He has since had several specials revolving around biking customers.

A great bike infrastructure makes it easier to get around.

“Other than just providing parking for more potential customers, the bike corrals make storefronts much more visible as well as adding a nice buffer between the street and the sidewalk,” said Figliozzi. “Plus they only cost about $3,000, so it’s a relatively cheap way to improve business vitality.”

As bike riding and pedestrian commuting increases, several local businesses are making improvements to better accommodate this population. Just last September representatives of the local fast food chain, Burgerville, announced that they would change the company policy to allow bicyclists to use the drive-through lanes at all of their locations.

“SmartTrips provides people with options,” said Megan Doern, the communications director for the Portland Business Alliance. “And the more options that people have to get to a business, the better it is for that business.”

While some might see it as a bit of a stretch that eliminating parking spots leads to more sales, it might be much easier to understand how it can improve employee production within the same business.

In fact, there is a host of research to show that employees who use sustainable methods of transportation cannot only increase production, but it can also drastically cut sick time. Also, there is research that correlates stress levels to time stuck in traffic.

For some businesses, providing the services of SmartTrips and other sustainable programs can be the make-or-break point for hiring the best possible employee. This is one of many reasons The Standard, a downtown Portland financial services provider that employs 2,500 individuals, decided to contact SmartTrips.

“It’s a way to compete with other local large businesses when trying to attract and retain employees,” said Carrier Farrar, the sustainability director for The Standard. “Portlanders know that they live in a beautiful city and they are aware of their impact on the environment. So, they tend to like programs that help minimize it.”

While SmartTrips is a very informative program, PBOT staff will be the first to tell you that it is only one of many programs that citizens can use to help reduce their environmental footprint.

Along with SmartTrips, The Standard offers a significant public transit subsidy, carpool subsidies based around how many people are in the carpool, savings on Zipcar accounts, and safe bike storage, lockers and showers for bicycle commuters. About 60-percent of their staff within the downtown Portland headquarters uses sustainable transportation. Not only do its employees use environmental friendly means of transportation, but the company also uses wind energy, efficient lighting systems, 100-percent recycled content paper and two of its buildings are LEED Gold certified.

While it’s hard to quantify the exact affects of the SmartTrips program, sustainable transportation usage has increased 12-percent since the program was first implemented.

“It’s one of many resources that we offer to our employees,” said Farrar. “It’s easy, but most importantly, it gets all of us communicating about simple ways to become more sustainable.”

For more information on SmartTrips, please visit the web site: http://www.portlandonline.com/transportation/index.cfm?c=43801. The site has information on both the SmartTrips Green Line program and the SmartTrips Business program.

If you work in Portland and want to learn more about how to make your trip to work more green, fill out the information here: http://www.smarttripsbusiness.com/. Those who participate will receive a customized transportation information packet and a free bike bell.