Auto Aleternatives - Engineering a Fix ; Vancouver firm offers bevy of incentives for employees to leave cars at home
By Eric Middlewood, The Columbian Staff
Monday, May 29, 2006
When Chad Kays rides his bike or walks to work, it doesn't create a stir among his co-workers. They don't ask, "Did your car break down?" or "Do you need a ride?"
Kays has a car, a 1989 Acura, but it sits for days at a time.
"It just feels good to be able to propel myself to and from work with my own energy," said Kays, a 34-year-old technician at Wallis Engineering in downtown Vancouver.
His co-workers understand because a lot of them feel the same way. During the summer, as many has half of the consulting firm's 19 employees bike or walk to work, with a quarter keeping it up year- round.
"In the winter, that says something," remarked Wendy Schmidt, 24, an engineer-in-training at the firm, which does work for small- and medium-sized cities on both sides of the Columbia River. "All our projects have bike lanes. This just puts it into practice."
Suffice it to say, it's not an office where you'll find workers commiserating about high gas prices.
"A lot of us have long been pretty hostile to the automobile," said Robert Wallis, who founded the firm in 1984.
Employee-driven
When Schmidt started working at the firm in 2004, she decided to get rid of her car. Other companies she had worked for offered bus passes, so she asked about reimbursement for the fare from her northeast Portland home.
"Chad was walking," she said. "We thought, 'Shouldn't you get the same money for walking?'"
The Bicycle Transportation Alliance's September bike-to-work challenge added momentum equal to a bicycle heading downhill.
At first, workers had to commit to a car-free commute for a whole year to be eligible for a $500 bonus. Then it changed to a month-to- month affair. Employees who choose an alternative commute 90 percent of the month get a $50 bonus. Employees track their commutes on a chart posted on a cubicle wall. Those who don't make the goal get a ticket for each day of no-car commuting with a chance at a $100 prize every two months or so.
The firm also gets behind June's annual Pedalpalooza festival, which encourages biking, by hosting several events in its parking lot.
"Most people live in cities shaped by water, sewer and drainage systems. If engineers see their work in creating a habitat for people, they're going to be more motivated," Wallis said. "The policy of helping people bike and walk to work that's related."
Other factors boost the effort. The office has a shower. The dress is casual, unless an engineer is meeting with a client. A Schwinn cruiser stands at the ready just inside the front door of the office. Workers can borrow the bike for errands, or if they need to go into the field, they can drive the company truck or one of the downtown Flexcars, available through the firm's membership in the car-sharing organization.
"It's definitely an employee push. They're the ones who found Flexcar," said Gill Wallis, Robert Wallis' wife and the office administrator. "We try to do things that keep them wanting to work here. Health is a big deal. We have a parking lot that's almost full. Not to be hokey, but it's also team-building."
She and her husband live near Battle Ground, and usually drive to work, but they make an effort to bicycle, especially during the September bike-commute contest. (Last year, when even an employee who lives in Tigard biked to work, the firm came in sixth among small companies in the metro-wide contest.)
Accident epidemic
"Anyone who bikes winds up hating cars," said Robert Wallis, 59, who admits he's always felt guilty about moving to Battle Ground.
When he served as an officer in the U.S. Navy, he rode his bike to his ship. After he moved to Vancouver, his family lived in Vancouver's Lincoln neighborhood and he walked and biked to work for 12 years.
As his family grew he and his wife have five children continuing to live in Vancouver's Lincoln neighborhood didn't seem like the option it does today, he said.
That tinge of guilt, combined with strong feelings about the transportation system, shapes the culture at his firm. A history buff, Wallis quotes from a Dec. 29, 1921, issue of Engineering News Record entitled "Too Many Automobile Killings":
"It was not that long ago the big city typhoid rate was above 20 per 100,000. Millions have been spent in water-purification and sanitation to bring that figure down. And yet, nearly half as many people are being killed today by automobiles, with the probability that in cities the automobile killings are much higher. It will pay to spend some money to save lives."
Wallis added, "What makes that significant is that our death rate from those directly killed today by automobiles is about 20 people per 100,000" the same as the death rate from typhoid.
"I can't believe people tolerate it," Wallis said. "It's so obvious. It's been so obvious my whole darn life. It drives me nuts."