We know it’s not possible for everyone to give up their car for their commute, especially for employees who live and/or work in more suburban areas without access to robust public transit systems. But there’s still a way to limit your number of daily drivers coming to the office.

We’ve written about New York City plenty of times before. For good reason! There are nearly nine million people living in the city, commuting every day. The New York City subway system is also one of the largest systems in the world, moving more than four million riders per day. Safe to say, commuting has a major impact on the day-to-day for a lot of people.

Employee benefits may only come to mind for your employees once a year when they have to re-enroll in a new health plan. Unlike health benefits, however, commuter benefits can be updated at any time throughout the year to accommodate behavior change and shifts in habits.  That means you need to make sure they think about how their commuter benefits are working for them, and help them make changes throughout the year.

There are many terms and initiatives in the world of commuting these days. Transportation demand management (TDM), commuter benefits, commute trip reduction (CTR), parking cash-out, and so many more. 

Earlier this month, San Francisco made headlines by banning cars on one of its busiest streets. It isn’t the first city to implement this change, but it is the most recent. Of course, changes of this magnitude will bring a lot of concern from NIMBYs, but from the videos we’ve seen, traveling on Market Street sans cars looks pretty awesome. 

We’ve all heard the phrase “practice what you preach.” Most people follow this principle to avoid being called a hypocrite. Unfortunately, employers tend to fall short of practicing more sustainable commutes, while encouraging their employees to do so. 

When it comes to commuting, HR traditionally takes the lead in designing and implementing benefit programs. This makes sense, since benefit packages are often used as recruiting tools for new hires. But as the world of commuter benefits becomes more competitive and begins to become more integral to an organization’s success, it also leads to the question: “Who is in charge of our TDM strategy?”