• The award-winning Commute Partnerships Program, which leverages funds from public, private and other partners to implement effective commute trip reduction programs for employers, property managers, and other clients. The Partnership has been shown to reduce single-occupant vehicle commuting from eight to 40 percent at participating work sites. King County’s funds leverage six dollars from partners for every public dollar invested.

• The Metro Vanpool program, which is the largest such public program in the nation. King County’s 700 vanpools carry more than 6,000 riders daily in a nine-county region. In one year, a single vanpool saves about 8,000 gallons of gasoline, and eliminates more than 100,000 vehicle miles. The fleet recovers about 75 percent of its costs through rider fares.
   
• The Jobs Access welfare-to-work program, which provides transportation services for employment, job search, training, and childcare to low-income and welfare populations. The program serves more than 430 employment, job training, and child care sites and has trained 200 welfare-to-work case managers as transportation coordinators for their clients. The Jobs Access program has had a remarkable success in recruiting 12 public and non-profit partners, and serves as a national model.

In presentations at U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) headquarters in Washington, DC, on May 14, the U.S. Department of Transportation's Federal Highway Administrator Mary E. Peters joined EPA Administrator Christine Todd Whitman in recognizing public and private sector organizations for expanding choices available to commuters. The Washington State Department of Transportation was also recognized for its work with employers through the State Commute Trip Reduction Law. The 11 honorees were selected from a field of over 450 organizations across the nation that work on commute issues.

Accepting the award on May 14 from the FHA’s Peters was Metro Transit's Bill Roach. After flying him out for the ceremony in Washington, D.C., federal officials asked Roach to advise them on how to shape a national program that would replicate some of the successes he's helped create here in the Puget Sound region.

Commuter Choice programs are intended to help reduce traffic congestion and enable employees to get to work more efficiently. Traffic congestion cost Americans $78 billion in 1999 according to the Federal Highway Administration. On the average during 1999, Americans spent 36 hours stuck in traffic. Since 1970, the country's population increased by 38 percent and highway travel during that same time period grew by 148 percent

The other nine Commuter Choice pioneers recognized by the U.S. Department of Transportation were: