The Hacienda Business Park Owners Association is actively working to create a transportation services organization which will work with tenants of the park to maximize the use of transportation system management programs. The anticipated program will require any single tenant, or owner of a multi-tenant building housing 50 or more employees, to hire an in-house transportation coordinator. Hacienda Business Park Owners Association is publishing a manual which will provide the transportation coordinators with the most recent information on transportation systems in the Tri-Valley area.

The Hacienda Business Park Owners Association, managed by Mary McLaughlin, will act as the monitoring agent of this mandatory program, which is an element of the covenants, conditions and restrictions (CC&R's) that govern development in the park. Individual tenants and property owners will be responsible for setting goals to eliminate a significant portion of single-occupant commute vehicles from the roads.

Single-occupant vehicles are no longer desirable to accommodate increasing numbers of commuters. The use of commute alternatives has become a popular method of transportation, and results in reduced highway congestion and improved air quality.

Many companies in the Bay Area have initiated commute alternative programs. At Lawrence Livermore Laboratories, a two-person Transportation Coordination Office provides a wide variety of services. As a result, 60% of the 7,200 employees use carpools, vanpools, mass transit or other public transportation to commute to work.

McLaughlin said that "Hacienda Business Park is one of the few business parks which will mandate the participation of tenants in commute alternative programs. The implementation of the program elements will contribute to the ongoing process of improving air quality in our communities by decreasing the number of vehicles on our streets."

There are many commute alternatives available which Hacienda tenants may initiate to reduce commute traffic, and peak hour congestion. The most popular alternative is ridesharing. Ridesharing is the use of one vehicle by a number of commuters. Vehicles can be the employees' private automobiles, employee or company-owned vans, and privately chartered buses.

"Hacienda Business Park transportation coordinators can match up employees with commute pools, or encourage employees to participate in existing programs such as RIDES for Bay Area Commuters, Inc.," McLaughlin states. RIDES has started 455 third-party vanpool groups since April of 1978, and surveys indicate that 29,000 persons have been placed in RIDES carpools.

Another commute alternative is the use of mass transit. In areas which are not locally served by existing mass transit, employers can encourage their employees to use services by providing shuttle bus service from nearby transit stations. According to McLaughlin, a proposed BART expansion project would include a station serving Hacienda Business Park. The Tri-Valley area is currently served by BART Express Bus Service.

Many companies will encourage their employees who live within a 1-5 mile radius to walk or bicycle to work. The use of walking and cycling is encouraged by providing convenient and secure bike rack locations and shower facilities. At Hacienda Business Park bike trails have already been constructed for use by both commuting and recreational cyclists.

An additional way to reduce traffic congestion caused by peak commute hours is the use of Alternative Work Schedules. Staggered work hours, flex-time schedules and the four-day work week all reduce the number of vehicles on the road during peak congestion periods created by the standard "eight to five" work day.

With a staggered-hours program, different work groups are assigned to begin work at different times. Spacing arrival times before and after conventional work hours allows workers to commute when traffic is moving freely, and when seats are available on mass transit.

Flex-time is a newer scheduling practice which allows workers to select their own schedules within set guidelines. Some of the more ambitious programs allow workers to arrive anytime between 6:30-10:00am. Most flex-time programs allow workers to change their work hours from day to day to accommodate personal schedules and family emergencies.

In addition to decreasing the number of vehicles on the road during typical commute time, Alternative Work Hour programs have other benefits. Companies that have these programs have experienced reduced absenteeism, improved performances on the job, and a reduction in employee turnover.

In addition to managing their own programs, the individual Transportation Coordinators at Hacienda Business Park will also be members of a committee which will coordinate transportation systems management between the companies which are locating at Hacienda.

Many of those companies which are relocating to Hacienda Business Park have a history of encouraging employees to use commute alternatives. Crum and Forster Personal Insurance is already encouraging employees who commute to participate in a RIDES program. Each of the nine Hewlett-Packard sites in Palo Alto has an on-site transportation coordinator who provides employees with information on vanpooling, carpooling, transit and bicycle use. A 1979 survey of the 6,000 employees at the Palo Alto facilities showed that 36% were using alternatives to the single-occupant vehicle for their commute.

To see a reproduction of the original article and edition of Pleasanton Pathways, visit: November 10, 1983 Pathways.