The ideal commute for a lot of people would be walking out of their front door and into their office. While a nice thought, those commutes rarely exist. Since employee retention is so important in this day and age, going the extra mile to make employees' lives that much easier makes a huge difference – especially when you’re moving office locations or adding new space to an existing one. 

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?” 

This past November we held a panel that brought together industry leaders to discuss parking in the workplace. Hearing professionals who work in this area daily and deal with both customers and businesses taught us one major thing: how often people forget about the importance of parking. 

The average commute is pretty terrible. Plain and simple. Employers can offer free transit passes, free bikeshare membership, or even a free bike, but there are things beyond control that employees have to deal with. To make commutes completely stress--free, employers could move their employees into the office. Just kidding — mostly.

We recently wrote a post about parking in the United States. In that blog, we touched on the excess parking the country has and how it’s a waste of time and valuable space. 

Convincing someone to change their commute from driving to a more sustainable option is a challenge. People get caught in a routine, and that routine becomes second nature. With the rise in understanding the importance of transportation demand management (TDM), employers and developers are making substantial efforts to change commuting behaviors.

Having a commute as short and pain-free as possible is the goal of most professionals. Commuters want to walk through parks, breathing fresh air on their way to and from the office — not stare at miles of red brake lights. Unfortunately, living and working in locations close enough to each other to allow for that type of commute usually only happens in cities, so developers are trying to change that. How? Mixed-use developments.