|
|
Greetings!
|
At last year's National Walk@Lunch Day (coming up again, on April 24), Airlines Reporting Corporation (ARC) gathered more than 50 of its 230 Arlington, Virginia-based employees during their lunch break to walk with pedometers in neighborhoods surrounding their office building. Walking is health!
ARC is one of hundreds of companies located throughout Arlington partnering with Arlington Transportation Partners for the purpose of encouraging employees to choose healthy sustainable transportation. In addition to walking programs, ARC offers employee transit benefits, flexible work schedules, and even subsidized Capital Bikeshare memberships.
These are the kinds of "mobility management strategies" that can work anywhere in the world. ARC was recently recognized as being one of the League of American Bicyclists' "bike-friendly companies" for 2012. But beyond the accolades and recognition, these strategies, which are frequently very inexpensive and can usually be easy to implement, offer a lot of bang for their buck in building happy and healthy work forces and more profitable and sustainable companies.
Paul Mackie, Mobility Lab Director of Communications
|
|
|
| Quick Links |
Hot Stat
The vast majority of us will
outlive our driving retirement
by approximately 10 years or
longer. Yet, an AAA
Foundation for Traffic Safety survey revealed that while older-driver safety programs exist in 42% of Area Agency on Aging coverage areas, programs that help people transition from driving to alternative transportation services were available in only 3% of AAAs.
|
|
Mobility Lab Presents Author Jeff Speck
|
|
|
|
Register Now:
Transportation Solutions for Aging in Auto-centric America
|
Mobility Lab has an exciting lineup of speakers and partners for our next symposium, set for April 11 from 10 a.m. to noon at George Mason University's Arlington campus.
We will be talking about how Boomers and seniors can prepare for "driving retirement." One potential solution we'll discuss is how volunteer-driver services - through nonprofit organizations such as senior villages and faith-based programs - could expand their mandate beyond driving seniors when they need a ride to helping them maintain their mobility. Community-based organizations could conduct travel training and work with people on individual mobility-management plans.
|
|
Walking on Mondays Looks Like a Healthy,
Smart Business Strategy
|
 | | Ted Eytan, MD |
I learned so many things at Mobility Lab's most recent Hack Day. Most people who attend these sessions walk away with a heightened knowledge of how to turn ugly data into handsome graphics.
My little hack (the chart above) was pretty simple. I used pedestrian data to visualize a clear spike in people walking on Arlington's trails on the weekends, with a drop-off during the work week. This analysis is important, because there's behavioral science to show that Mondays have special significance in changing behavior and it may be more effective to start a change on Monday, and continue that change on a Monday, for lasting effect.
Imagine that you are an employer in the area, and could start a Monday campaign, by encouraging your employees to conduct walking meetings on Mondays or walking to work on Mondays.
Read the full story here.  
|
|
Maps in Motion: Telling Stories from Transit Data
| 
Mobility Lab's Hack Day on March 23 brought programmers together with agency representatives and community stakeholders. Our goal was to share data we have about regional mobility systems and the tools we use to visualize them.
There's something about visual information that manages to engage people and fire the imagination. As more agencies release open data, the more opportunities we have. How can we use this data to convey information, and democratize our transportation networks?
The above graphic and accompanying movie is an example created by Jay Gordon from MIT. His London in Motion video shows how London's transit system relates to its communities, animating 16 million daily transactions.
See more from Hack Day here.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
The Misadventures of My Very First "American" Bus Ride
|
 | | Mariela Alfonzo |
|
| Mobility Lab's Partner Spotlight | 
It's easy for Mobility Lab to communicate real-world success stories about mobility management because we share
office space with Arlington Transportation Partners (ATP).
In operation since July 1998, ATP has the goal of making transportation as simple as possible throughout the bustling Washington D.C. region. The organization has helped implement free programs and services designed to encourage the use of alternative transportation modes for more than 700 businesses, 300 residential communities, all 43 hotels, and 90 site plan properties in Arlington, Virginia.
Chris Hamilton, bureau chief of Arlington County Commuter Services, told National Public Radio last week that "ATP gives every one of those employers assistance in setting up commute benefit programs, parking programs, carpool programs, and bike incentives. Sixty-five percent of those 700 employers provide a transit benefit. That's the highest in the region."
It is inspiring every day to know about the high level of customer service ATP offers for something many of us never think about as a consumer product - transportation.
|
|
Please Send Us Your Feedback
|
We hope Mobility Lab Express, our events, and the research and case studies at our website will be go-to resources for you. In fact, we invite you to share your stories of how mobility improvements have been made in your communities. We'll publish your feedback, and together we'll strengthen the conversation on mobility for all!
Simply respond to this email or click here with any thoughts or suggestions.
|
|
Please feel free to share this newsletter with those who may be interested.
|
|
|
|
|
