State and county officials on Oʻahu are looking into ways to decrease government employees’ transportation footprint when commuting to work.
A final report outlined several ways to reduce miles traveled in a vehicle by government employees.
" How can we use some of these strategies to help us reduce vehicle miles traveled? That's how much we're driving, as well as increase the use of active and shared modes of transportation. So think, walk, bike, roll, transit, carpool, or van pool to help us meet, again, the state's carbon net negative codified law," said Kiana Otsuka, senior transportation planner for the Oahu Metropolitan Planning Organization.
"Goal two and goal three are really focused on, how do we increase and enhance transportation benefits to make the state a more competitive employer, as well as improve the quality of life of our employees," Otsuka said.
Some of the potential solutions included boosting the state's carpool program, parking stall sharing among employees and subsidized public transportation passes.
State and city employees already outpace the general public when it comes to using public transportation.
Although the legislative efforts to implement strategies proposed in the study failed this session, the City and County of Honolulu is starting to take some steps forward.
Starting this week, any city employee can have a HOLO transit pass loaded onto their work badge. All state and city workers can already deduct the cost of monthly transit passes from their paycheck pre-tax, although fewer than 100 employees do so.
