[00:00:00] Friday at 12:00. My name is Brianna. I'm an STVT intern and I'm here to introduce today's speaker. Before I introduce our speaker, I just wanted to remind you all of our STVT biking and walking photo contest. The deadline for submissions today, May 1st, and the details for the photo contest are as followed. People should submit a photo from a walk or bike and the best photo will receive a gift card from a local Vermont business. You can submit photos by direct messaging, one of our social media accounts.

[00:00:29] OK, so to switch, focus and introduce our speaker.

[00:00:36] Today we have with us Abbie Dillon. She's a UVM senior and she has been an intern for Sustainable Transportation Vermont for the past two semesters. Today, she's going to speak about her sustainable transportation background, as well as some of the projects that she's been working on during her internship. Abbie thank you so much for being here. I'm so excited to have this opportunity to hear more about how you became so involved with sustainable transportation.

[00:00:59] Thanks so much for having me. I'm so excited to talk more about the program.

[00:01:04] OK, wonderful. I'm going to pass it on to you now. And for people that are watching and have questions or comments during Abbie's presentation, please feel free to put them in the comments section and we'll go over them at the end.

[00:01:16] Great. Hello, everyone. Happy Spring, as Brianna said. My name is Abby Dillon and I'm a senior at UVM majoring in environmental studies. This past year, I've been interning with Sustainable Transportation Vermont, working specifically on a program to incentivize people to commute sustainably. So it's now going to chat a little bit about my own transportation experiences along with some of the work I've been doing this year with sustainable transportation Vermont. Sustainable Transportation Vermont is dedicated to changing Vermont's current transportation system and educating the public about current transportation trends. Their aim is to make Vermont a state that relies less on private vehicles and more on walking, biking and public transportation in order to reduce the environmental, economic and social impacts of their travel. So along with working with citizens of Vermont public officials and state representatives,  STVT works with students at UVM running an internship program. And this is what I've been part of this year. So over the course of the year, I had the pleasure of working alongside between 8 and 10 other interns, all working on their own projects, and these projects range from working on something like a Burlington Bike map to pushing for more bike lanes in Burlington. And so what was so wonderful about this program is that the interns have of a lot of flexibility over what type of project they would like to take on. So looking at this, this gave me a really wide range of things to pick when considering what I would like to be working on this year. So. Before moving to Vermont a few years ago, I was living in London, England. And this is where I grew up. And so thinking back about transportation, things are very different in London than they are here, as one can imagine. And so growing up, I had a really distant view when it came to cars. And so starting from a very young age, I got around using the public bus and tube system. And so then in high school, I usually rode my bike to school. And just for a little bit of perspective, it probably took about 20 minutes to ride my bike to school. Thirty five minutes to take the bus. And if for some reason  those options wouldn't work, it would take about forty five minutes in the car. So simply being driven in a car was just so inconvenient as sometimes it took twice as long as like other options and navigating traffic was usually quite frustrating. The buses also had a special lane that they could only use during rush hour. And that was the same for cyclists, cyclists could also use that lane. And so this drastically sped up journeys on the bus for me and and biking to school, too. And so it made it very convenient to get around enforcements like these really made driving such an inconvenience growing up. So. When moving to Vermont for university, I found that things were quite the opposite of what I experienced growing up, instead of public transportation being convenient option and cars being an inconvenient option. It was completely flipped. So I found if you didn't have a car here getting around, would be much harder. So coming into school, I set a personal challenge for myself and that was to graduate without ever needing to own a car. I am about a week away from graduation. And I can say that goal is pretty much achieved. I almost made it through without even getting my driver's license. But sadly, that had to happen last summer for a job. But I found not having a car while living in Vermont has really forced me to explore different transportation options. And that's helped a lot with the work that I was doing this year. So this past year with my fellow intern, Brianna, who we just heard from the beginning, we worked on the parking permit incentive program. So the goal for this project was to work with UVM employees to turn in their parking permits for a select period of time for an incentive. Overall, with this project, we aim to change the behavior of eligible employees to get out of their cars and to save the bus, bike or walk to work.

[00:05:32] So just to dive into a little bit of background, there had been years of TDM work at UVM prior to this year, TDM stands for Transportation Demand Management and it's the focus on understanding how people make their transportation decisions. So UVM is one of the largest employers in the state. There's a huge amount of people coming to campus every day. The medical center as well as UVM grew, so did the challenge of having enough parking spots. So UVM, the Medical Center, Champlain College and CATMA all linked up to find solutions to deal with all the cars coming into Burlington Daily. CATMA also stands for Chittenden area transportation management association, and they work with employers like UVM to provide employee commuter benefits. So in the first few years, CATMA helped UVM reduce the number of employees driving alone from over 70 percent, down closer to 50 percent. However, in the last few years, since then, there hasn't really been a significant improvement beyond that. So in 2018, Richard Watts and Ben Howe started a research study on transportation habits in the state. They use incentives and marketing strategies to explore what could change commuters habits around driving. This year, we expanded much further with the process. Watts and Howes how started last year. So with the grant from the CCRPC we were able to really kick off the program starting last September. The program was set up where early in the semester we sent out multiple e-mail forms asking UVM employees to describe their transportation habits, and if they were interested in our incentive program. Based on those answers, we contacted eligible employees with phone and email to discuss their transportation habits and work with them to be enrolled in the program. Jack Hanson, Brianna and I all set out with the goal of getting at least 30 participants, excusme 30 employees, to hand in their passes for six months.

[00:07:35] The idea behind these incentives and this outreach is that we can leverage off of all the existing commuter benefits available through UVM and CATMA. So, for example, all UVM employees can ride Green Mountain Transit buses free of charge.

[00:07:51] There's a carpool program to link employees together. There's guaranteed ride home program stating that if you missed the last bus home, you're eligible for a free taxi ride home. There's also a discount on memberships for green ride bike share for all UVM employees. Along with these, we also offered the participant a select number of occasional use employee parking stickers so they could still drive to work. A select number of times if they needed to. Making employees aware of all of these options and then topping it off with a gift card is really what got more people to take advantage of these offerings.

[00:08:32] One strategy we use that I found particularly helpful was to call employees and market the program over the phone. So by doing this, we can walk through people's individual transportation circumstances and challenges and try to come up with a solution that was more sustainable and cheaper than driving alone every single day. So over the span of about three to four months, we called hundreds of employees. And sometimes things don't always work out and the option for people to not drive was simply not available. Examples of these were usually parents who had to bring their kids to school or people who just couldn't really take the bus. It wasn't really like the easiest option for them. But other times I was able to help an employee map out exactly where they could catch the bus, which bus they would be taking and what times those buses run daily. And that would help a lot with getting people enrolled in the program.

[00:09:29] So when an employee actually agreed to be in the program, they would surrender their UVM parking passes in exchange for a gift card along with this the paycheck, deductions that occurred to pay for their parking would actually end. UVM Parking and Transportation Services was an amazing partner throughout this process and their cooperation is really key. So in this program, not only do you gain a lot of commuter benefits, but you're also able to save a lot of money. So when joining this program and committing to switch to sustainable transportation, you're able to save between two hundred forty- seven hundred dollars every single year just on parking. So along with helpful commuter benefits and the halt of paycheck deductions, you're also helping the environment. Transportation is the leading cause of climate change in Vermont. And by changing your transportation habits, you are able to reduce emissions and create a safer and more equitable transportation system in the state. This year, we were able to hit our goal and we ended this year with 30 participants in our program. The participants are all different UVM faculty members. So individuals who work in the labs to admissions advisors to math professors. The range was very large and we are incredibly proud with the number of participants we have this year. This outcome is particularly important because this project for people is not just a one time incentive, it sparks a completely new behavioral change. One defining moment for me during this internship was working closely with a potential participant who for multiple weeks was really on the fence about joining a barrier for them was to get to the bus they had to cross an extremely busy road with no crosswalk. So we worked together to find solutions on that it was  a very back and forth process, but after many weeks of deliberation, they actually did decide to do in the program. For this participant that was huge. They had been driving alone to work for the past 20 years and this switch was extremely critical. After checking in after a month or so, they said in my response to the question about how it was going. They said, quote, "It is quite liberating. I was one of the many thinking it's more convenient to drive. But comparing the traffic to where I was parking. In truth, we could hardly call it convenient". So in response to the difficulties of crossing Hinesburg Road, they have been now lobbying for a crosswalk to be put in and have actually enlisted their neighbors to as well. So they ended our conversation saying that it's really good to have the single day passes for when they need to bring lots of materials to work. And overall, they say they're changed. So it's really individual stories like these that make the program so rewarding for me to have worked on. There are definitely moments in the project where progress would be a lot slower and it was these types of interactions that helped a lot with keeping that motivation going.

[00:12:36] From January of this year, the program was very successful.

[00:12:40] We hit our goal and we're ready to transition into the second phase of the project. So this would be to open up a program to employers throughout Chittenden County and in January and February, we hit the ground running with this and with our outreach, and we use similar guidelines for the community project as we did for the UVM project. And you can see our poster as well for this project. You can read a little bit more about it on there. And that was a poster that we distributed to businesses throughout the community, and had them hanging up on bulletin boards and things like that. So to join this program, you had to work in Chittenden County and currently drive alone to work at least four days per week.To get the gift card, you and your supervisor had to sign off swearing that you will commute alone by car no more than one day in any given week for six months. Kick off for this is really strong. Brianna and I spent time going business to business explaining the program. We're very pleased with the response. And this program actually attracted the attention of Vermont legislators on the House Transportation Committee. Brianna, Richard Watts, Jack Hanson and Josh Katz all spent a morning in Montpelier describing the incentive program and suggested ways it could be adopted for For-Profit Businesses. There is a very positive reaction for this program from the legislators and Representative Curt McCormack who was very behind the program. He'll actually be speaking next week, so please make sure you tune in to hear him speak on Friday, the 8th of May at 12:00 p.m..

[00:14:23] But yes, the committee was very receptive and in fact, they have included a funded TDM pilot in the draft transportation budget. So this meeting most definitely helped the push toward sustainable transportation and hopefully will lead to permanent policy in Vermont going forward.

[00:14:45] As everyone is well aware of one unfortunate barrier when working on this project was the recent halt due to Covid-19, we had just kicked off with our phase two for communtiy outreach portion of the incentive project. And in fact, our first participant, an employee at GlobalFoundries in Essex, had just signed up and several more were considering, sadly, which put everything on pause for now. But I do look forward to when the UVM incentive program and the countywide program can be up and running again. I believe there's a really good foundation set with both of these projects, to not only continue to expand past Burlington and Chittenden County, but out in to Vermont as a whole and further. So overall, you might ask, well, why does this matter? What's the big deal? Overall, why this program matters so much right now is because we're facing some of the toughest climate problems we've ever seen and it's going to take the effort of everyone to make positive change occur. Making a switch in your behavior when it comes to transportation is huge. A tiny switch, a tiny change to switch from driving to the bus cause a really large ripple effect in the community. I've noticed, for example, we had a participant during the program who worked in a lab here at UVM. And in the next few weeks, we had two more people join the program also working that lab. They just heard or talked about it and from that alone, they wanted to be part of the program. It really is moments like that that really show how easy it is to make a change and to switch behavior for overall good.

[00:16:28] Not only is sustainably commuting better for the environment, cost effective and efficient. It just feels good. And that's something I've noticed people share a lot. So looking forward to next year and beyond.

[00:16:44] I hope this parking incentive program can really take off. We've set a really strong foundation this year to use at UVM next year and out into the community. And I hope this type of program can be adopted in other places as well. Reflecting on this year, it was a fantastic opportunity for me to have worked with sustainable transportation, Vermont and to be able to use my own transportation background to build a program to really get cars off the road. I also just wanted to say big thank you to Jack Hanson, Richard Watts and Brianna Jasset and all the other interns I worked with this year. And now I'd like to open up to any questions people might have left the program for Brianna and I and another thank you for tuning in and listen to that.

[00:17:28] Abbie, thank you so much for that wonderful presentation. So we have a few questions. So the first one is from George and how do you help map out the routes? Do you have any helpful Web sites or apps that you can share, George that's a

[00:17:45] really good question.

[00:17:47] Thank you for asking I found that Google Maps is a great, great resource when trying to help someone map out their route.

[00:17:58] It's great just because you can plug in their address and school and exactly where you want to go. And I would say that that's been a very helpful resource during this project.

[00:18:07] OK. And the next question is from Jack Hanson.

[00:18:11] So he asks, Do you think this model could/should be used at employers around the state, could incentivizing, carpooling and telecommuting allow some of the rural employers to make gains?

[00:18:26] Yeah, I most definitely think this model should and can be used at employers around the state.

[00:18:37] A technical glitch.

[00:18:40] And yes, I most definitely think it should be used around the state. Bri I don't know if you were to touch upon that question as well.

[00:18:50] I think you answered it. Well, I definitely think that this should be with employers around the state, and I think it could have a really big impact on our transportation emissions if it is.

[00:19:06] The next question is from Anna. And she says, that's great success.

[00:19:14] I'm wondering about how this could be replicated in more rural areas in Vermont?

[00:19:21] Yes,  that's a great question. We've kind of had that brought up now and then. I think that's just getting a little bit more creative with like transportation links that you can use, though, maybe having to move toward like carpooling as an option or driving to like a park and ride and then taking the bus. It's sort of it's a little bit more difficult just because like the transportation system might not be as strong in rural areas.

[00:19:56] I think that's when you really start to get creative with it. Yeah.

[00:20:02] OK, so we have a couple questions from Richard Watts, so he's curious, based off your experience, what would be some of the things UVM might do in the future to keep this going? Assuming that we're all back next fall?

[00:20:17] Right.

[00:20:19] I think one really great thing is like to have interns continually working at UVM with the Sustainable Transporation, Vermont.

[00:20:28] As mentioned earlier, what I love so much about this program was the flexibility that this internship provided to UVM students.

[00:20:38] And I think having this program advertise every single year and getting just like into that rhythm event always have interns working on it we can really get that push going to keep it building and building.

[00:20:52] OK. And we have a couple more questions from him, so also, since you're graduating this spring, will you try to live in places that are less car dependent in the future?

[00:21:03] Yeah, that's that's a very interesting question. I think that's something I'm also working through as well because I do love living in cities, but at the same time my interest in work like this is best in a more rural spot. And so that's something that I've been reflecting on a lot. And if I continue with projects like this, it would be great to live in places that do rely on cars because that's where most of the work can happen.

[00:21:32] And I can open that one up to you, too, Bri, if you. Have anything?

[00:21:39] Yeah, I would love to live in a place that is completely independent from cars. But also I think that there's a lot of opportunity in places that are dependent on cars. And like you were talking about Muffy and her experience of how she was taking her car everyday to work, and then she just had one push and it took time but then she became a champion and now she's helping other people in the area  change their habits. So I think there's definitely value in living in a place where you have shifted your own habits and kind of motivating and inspiring other people to do the same and Yeah. And also Richard and Jack, and I'm sure you and I would both like to thank UVM transportation and parking services as they've been an amazing partner through this whole thing. And that's been so helpful with all of the projects that we wanted to accomplish.

[00:22:48] Most definitely. Huge shout out. This project could not have happened without them. And so that partnership was key. And so just another huge thank you to them.

[00:22:57] And Emily Adams asks, how did kicking this off in Vermont serve as a strength and how is it challenging?

[00:23:07] I think the strength lies.

[00:23:11] Just because Vermont is so rural and so we really had to get creative with how we interacted with people and really just we worked really hard on helping people find appropriate options on how to get to work. And I think that made it quite a unique kick off because we are in Vermont and yeah, and just learning about that and advertising that was really strong. How was it challenging kind of the same reason, right? You know, the transportation system here is a lot better than people are aware of. But at the same time, there are some limitations, especially when you have been outside of Burlington. And so those limitations were definitely challenging to work around, but also provided a good opportunity.

[00:24:07] OK, great. I think that was our last question. But if more questions come in in the next few minutes, I can pull you out.

[00:24:13] But I'm going to shift a little bit into introducing our speaker for next week. But before I do, is there anything else you'd like to say?

[00:24:21] Yeah, I just want to say huge thank you to Sustainable Transportation Vermont. And just to remind people to continue their sustainable habits, especially during this time. It's more important now than ever.

[00:24:35] And there's more opportunity there. And there's another huge thank you for everyone joining and for the questions as well.

[00:24:45] OK, great.

[00:24:46] So now we're going to shift a little bit into who our speaker will be for next week, so next week we'll have it with us. Curt McCormack, he is the chair of the House Transportation Committee and he will be speaking at noon again on Friday, May 8th about legislative action

[00:25:05] On transportation. And I'm actually going to pull Abbie back because we have another question. So.

[00:25:20] So Jack asks, could you list some of the towns where people who are participated in this live?

[00:25:27] Sure. So we had a lot of participants in Burlington and South Burlington, some in  Winooski. We had a few in Hinesburg in Essex and two in Middlebury as well. And that's just just a few.

[00:25:45] OK, great. So thank you all for being here. And please tune in next Friday at 12:00 to hear Curt McCormack.