Employees in Motion : Walk/Bike to Work Programs : University of Washington

Employees: 25,000

The University of Washington has created two innovative programs to encourage walking or biking to work. They communicate to their employees about these programs in unique ways, including through their internal transportation website, ads in both the faculty and student newspapers, articles in employee newsletters, postcards, and posters.

Walk In

In the spring of 2003, the University of Washington Transportation Office conducted a campaign to promote walking to the UW campus, called Walk In. The primary goals of the promotion were to:

Increase the number of staff and faculty who walk to campus instead of driving alone.
Highlight the walking facilities available to people traveling in and around the University District and surrounding areas.
Reduce the demand for vehicle parking on campus.
Promote new initiatives to increase the number of journeys made on foot.

Targeted in this promotion were staff and faculty single occupancy vehicle (SOV) parking permit holders who live within two miles of the Seattle campus, as well as staff and faculty who live within two miles of campus who use commute alternatives such as carpooling or the bus.
The Walk In campaign focused on walking as a reliable, inexpensive, and fast mode of travel for short trips. The health aspects of walking were also emphasized in the promotions. The University undertook a week-long series of activities to promote the program’s kickoff, as well as ongoing efforts to promote walking. In the initial year of the campaign, six tactics were used:

Employee Involvement. A UW staff steering committee was formed to develop the campaign structure. The committee was comprised of staff from the departments of Public Health, Publication Services, University Relations, University Week, Recreational Sports Programs (IMA) and two commuting walkers. The steering committee provided input on the promotional materials and campaign strategies, and included diverse perspectives on walking.To impact how faculty and staff perceive walking to campus, a respected faculty member’s walking commute was profiled in the Spring U-COMMUTE News, a transportation newsletter which is sent to all Seattle UW staff and faculty.
Walking Energizer Stations. Two locations were identified as highly visible and well-traveled entrances to campus where information was made available to walkers on the first two days of the campaign. Pedestrians who came to these “Energizer Stations” were given the free treats, UWALK guide, public health information, Department Challenge information, tips on walking and lighted safety reflectors.
UWALK Pedestrian Guide. The UW Transportation Office hired Feet First, a pedestrian advocacy organization, to develop a walking guide and map for the greater University District area. The purpose of this guide is to help people find their way around the University District and adjacent neighborhoods on foot. The guide highlights pedestrian short cuts, safe routes of travel, and interesting landmarks. Included on the guide is a scale showing distance walked in minutes from Drumheller Fountain, a central point on the UW campus. A total of 30,000 maps were produced.A total of 3,885 UWALK guides were mailed to UW faculty and staff. This included approximately 1,100 to faculty and staff who currently drive alone and live within two miles of campus; 165 UW Building Coordinators; and over 2,600 departmental contacts that regularly request transportation material. About 1,400 maps were distributed at the Walking Energizer Stations during the campaign. Maps were also placed in pockets on A-frame boards placed throughout campus during the campaign. Maps were placed at nine UW Commuter Centers and the University Bookstore. In addition to the University’s efforts to distribute the pedestrian guides, Feet First placed the guides at City of Seattle Community Centers, local City of Seattle libraries, and the City of Seattle’s University Neighborhood Center.
Department Walking Challenge. A departmental team walking challenge was developed as a means of encouraging participation in the campaign throughout the campus, and continuing the momentum of the campaign beyond the initial week’s activities. Forms were developed for participants to track the number of walking commute trips and other campus walking trips. Each team captain received a T-shirt, and each team participant received a radio, lighted safety reflector, and a copy of the UWALK guide.
Noon Lecture Series. In coordination with the UW Work/Life program, two seminars on walking were held, targeted to Upper Campus and Health Sciences staff. The talks featured individuals from Feet First and the Washington State Department of Transportation. The noon hour series was highlighted in the University Week on-line calendar and in an article that appeared in NewsRounds, a weekly publication for employees of the UW Medical Center.
Promotional Efforts and Materials. A designer was hired to develop an icon to represent the Walk In campaign. The icon appeared on all promotional materials. Postcards were produced with messages focused primarily on the efficiency of walking and secondarily on health benefits. Postcards were sent to approximately 5,000 staff and faculty who live within a two mile radius of campus. Two hundred posters were printed describing campaign events. Press releases were sent to University Week and NewsRounds regarding the campaign events. An article about the campaign appeared in University Week, a publication that is sent to approximately 18,000 UW employees. Six A-frame boards and seven banners were produced and placed throughout campus during the campaign.

As the program evolved in subsequent years, walking cards and lanyards were provided to all participants, with stars to note their completion of certain numbers of trips walked. Participants became excited about sharing their results and wearing their cards to demonstrate their successes.

The first year participants kept track of their trips walked with paper logs; now the process is automated on their website. The tracking is not double checked; results are compiled on an “honor system”.

The Transportation Office spent about $14,000 for this campaign, not including the cost of designing and producing the UWALK Pedestrian Guide, or staff time to develop and implement the campaign. However, given that this was the first walking campaign, there were many items that needed be purchased, which will be available for future campaigns.

Program Expansion

Following the pilot program in 2003, University of Washington made adjustments to the program, which has encouraged continued growth in the program. In this expansion, individuals could register for the program online and then log their miles and trips walked. There were prizes to incentivize participation, including $10 “commuter bonus” vouchers, discounts from local vendors, water bottles, flashing reflectors, and back-sacks. At the conclusion of the challenge, there was a luncheon for participants who met a trip threshold for walking.

Results

Overall, the Walk In campaign was well received, which is evidenced by the increasing participation.

2003: 60 participants
2004: 470 participants
2005: 300 participants in a 3 month special challenge
UWALK Guides distributed through June 1, 2003 via:

Energizer Stations - 1,400
SOV Parking Permit Holders living within 2 miles of campus - 1,100
Pockets on A-Frame boards - 300
Commuter Centers - 1,200
Walk In Department Challenge Teams -153
Building Coordinators - 165
Distribution List - 2,620

Department Team Challenge

There were 16 teams with a total of 161 participants, with most teams participating in the 2004 May, June, and July challenges. In 2005, the University repeated the program and sent a detailed survey to the 296 walkers, of which 43% of participants responded. Interestingly, while 39% of respondents said they walked from home to campus, 29% said they walked from a bus stop a mile away per the program’s suggestion that walking to work could also mean getting off the bus early and walking the remainder of the way.

Strengths

Detailed planning with an eye towards innovative ways to capture attention for the program
Engaging the campus layout in designing the walking maps
Advertising and providing materials at local businesses and community centers to provide an additional avenue of contact for employees and give some recognition to the university for its unique program

Innovative Ideas

Mailing information about commuting programs to people who lived with a certain radius of campus Creating detailed maps of the campus area with walking paths and distances measured
“Energizer stations” as a visible representation on the campus and reward for walkers to encounter each day
A steering committee of employees provided ownership over the program and encouraged participation

Lessons Learned

The people who participate in the walk to work program are not particularly motivated by prizes – they do the walking out of a desire to be healthy and engage in a fun activity.
Conducting a full-blown program is very time consuming: people call frequently to ask how to log their trips, what counts as a commuter trip, how they can commute from their location, etc. This type of individualized attention from the program coordinators takes a significant amount of time, though organizers used these calls to shape informational materials when the program was later repeated.
The UWALK Pedestrian Guide was the impetus behind the walking campaign. While the guide generated much enthusiasm, it had some limitations. Some felt the geographic area covered in the map was too large (approximately 3 miles by 4 miles), and might be more effective it if were about two miles by two miles (the area covered in other pedestrian guides that have been produced). Others felt the map was too University-centered, and because of this the adjacent neighborhoods will not take ownership of it, making it difficult to develop effective partnerships with neighborhood groups.
Distributing the guide with the lighted safety reflectors encouraged more people to take the map than if the map had been distributed alone.
The Department Walking Challenge was felt to be effective means of continuing momentum for the campaign in the months following its launch. Having teams comprised of staff within a single department helps participants feel their efforts are noticed. Ease of tracking is felt to be a key component to encourage participation. Recording all trips made encourages everyone to walk, not just the “fit” or the people who live close to campus and commute to work by walking.
Limiting team size to 10 people would result in greater accountability by team members and encourage more participation. The registration and tracking forms could be completed on-line so that team captains would not have to download and print the forms and submit hard copies.
In the future, they plan to also include a link to the campaign site from the UW Homepage.

Ride in the Rain

The University of Washington started the “Ride in the Rain” program to encourage biking to campus as a year-round commute alternative, with a particular focus on overcoming the stereotype that it is too difficult to bike in the winter. This works well at their facilities because as a matter of normal course of business, the University provides bike racks around campus that provide space for about 5700 bikes and lockers to accommodate 562 bikes.

In Seattle where the university is located, January is one of the rainiest months, so they conduct the Bike in the Rain program in that month.

The Ride in the Rain program is a team oriented competition. To begin the program, postcards were sent to people who live within five miles of campus. To join, participants choose their own teams of four to ten people and register online for the program, and information is entered about each team member, including their average commute distance. Each week during the challenge, participants or the team captain enters the number of trips made by each participant, and total commute mileage is calculated.
Additionally, the number of rides made while it is raining is tracked, and individuals get bonus points on their team’s score for days that they rode in the rain as opposed to in calm weather.

While this is primarily a team-oriented competition, there was an individual section to the program; approximately 50 people joined the program on their own rather than with a team.

At the conclusion of the program there is a luncheon for participants who meet a minimum threshold number of trips. The luncheon includes a merchandise fair and the distribution of awards. The merchandise fair invites health-related companies from the area to display their wares and advertise their products. To participate in the merchandise fair, the university asks each company to donate $100 worth of goods that are used as prizes for the winners. Prizes include bike racks, rain jackets, fenders, gel packs, lights, and helmets. Participants tend to get very excited about the large prize packages that they can win.

Results

In 2006, there were 800 participants in the “Ride in the Rain” program.
In a follow-up survey conducted of participants in 2005, 90% of participants said that they rode to work because it was “part of a healthy lifestyle.”
Although many of the participants were already riding to campus before the program, 2% of the survey respondents said they had never biked before the challenge, and 11% only biked occasionally. Nearly half of the respondents (45%) said they rode their bike more often during the month of January 2005 because of the challenge.
About 1/3 of the respondents said they are more likely to ride their bike to campus during poor weather because of their participation in the challenge. The challenge appears to have sustained impacts on increasing bike use. Overall, 18% of respondents said they biked to campus more often in the months following the challenge as a result of their participation.

Strengths

Team atmosphere that engaged the campus
Utilizing intranet to track progress makes it easy for the company to collect data and determine winners

Innovative Ideas

Making natural weather patterns a part of the challenge; rather than assuming that weather has to be a negative, they turned it into a positive new initiative
Mailing information about commuting programs to people who lived with a certain radius of campus

Lessons Learned

There is very little crossover between participants in the Walk In program and the Bike in the Rain program – they attract a completely different type of person. While the Walk
In program is completed by people who are not motivated by prizes, but just enjoy walking, the bike program tends to attract competitive people interested in winning the competition. The participants go to great lengths to scramble for points and rewards in this program.
The merchandise fair was a big hit with riders – they worked hard to win prizes throughout the competition and this was a good reward that they enjoyed.
In both the Walk and Ride programs, they found that ads were expensive and not efficient forms of advertising because of the diffuse reach of those media. It was better to use individual emails, recruitment by past participants, or other more targeted methods to communicate about the programs.

Contact Information

Transportation Office / UPASS Public Information Specialist
UW Transportation Office
1127 NE Boat Street
Seattle, WA 98105
http://www.washington.edu/commuterservices/
206-616-2051