• Bi-State Coalition exploring ferry service to relieve congestion
  
  
• The coastal link brings seamless bus service to Route 1 corridor.
  
  
• NYSDOT and Westchester on track with the Bee-Line's "LIKE-RAIL" - FDR To White Plains Express.
  
  Regional survey provides a look at commuter choices.
  
  
• Many people don't travel to work anymore - they are already there.
  
  
• Highway Advisory Radio on the air in Connecticut's southwest corridor.
  
  
• New web site helps Hudson Valley travelers get around.
  
  
• New Transportation guides available in Connecticut and New York.

A summer 1999 area-wide commuter survey shows that the single occupant vehicle is still ahead in the commuter choice sweepstakes-but the numbers show hope for champions of alternatives to driving alone.

The survey, conducted for MetroPool and the New York and Connecticut Departments of Transportation by Crystal Research, included a nine-minute telephone interview among a random sample of households in Fairfield and New Haven Counties in Connecticut and Westchester, Rockland, Putnam, Dutchess, and Orange Counties in New York. A total of 695 interviews were completed; 494 in Connecticut and 201 in New York.

According to the survey, driving alone to work is the primary choice among commuters traveling to work sites in southwestern Connecticut and the Hudson Valley of New York --70 percent and 67 percent, respectively. At the other end of the spectrum, eight percent of respondents in Connecticut and 14 percent in New York reported that they "Never" drive alone to work.

The 1999 survey was developed as a baseline survey to measure progress in future years. However, a rough comparison of findings between 1998 and 1999 indicates an increase in the percentage of Connecticut respondents using alternatives to driving alone. In 1998, 77 percent reported that they drove their car to work every day (in response to a question that was worded slightly differently) and twelve percent said they "Never" drove to work alone (in an identical question). A similar comparison cannot be made of the New York findings, due to a substantial difference in sample size between 1998 and 1999.

Connecticut commuters who mentioned that they carpooled at least one day per week were likely to have started during the past six months (27 percent). In contrast, most train riders (70 percent) have been using this option for more than two years. Similar trends were noted in New York.

Commuters appear to be receptive to several incentives that their employer might put in to promote alternatives to driving alone. Approximately half of the drive alone commuters surveyed in both states reported that a guaranteed ride home in the event of emergencies and on-site commuter information and assistance might help convince them to use another mode of transportation at least once a week. Financial incentives (such as fare subsidies and a pre-tax deduction program for transit and vanpool fares) generated slightly less interest among respondents.

The commuters were asked to identify which marketing messages would influence them to leave their car at home at least one day a week. Respondents in both states selected "Reducing the wear and tear on your car and saving money on gas" as the most effective. Commuters also responded favorably to the idea of reducing highway stress by not driving alone to work. Of slightly less interest was reducing air pollution. Saving time (by doing other things during your commute by carpool, train, bus, or van) was the least selected message.

Thirty five percent of Connecticut commuters, and 23 percent of New York commuters, reported that their commutes were "harder" than a year ago. The primary reason noted was more traffic during commute hours. Of the ten percent of commuters in both states who reported "easier" commutes, more than a third were commuting to jobs that were closer to their home.

Interviewing was based on a computer-generated random probability sample (random digit dialing) of households. In Connecticut, towns were selected to capture commuters who were traveling to work locations along the I-95 southwest corridor (63 percent to destinations west of Fairfield, with 23 percent traveling to Stamford). In New York, the sample was proportioned by county; 53 percent had destinations in Westchester. The resulting demographic profile of commuters interviewed for the survey closely parallels the general profile for the U.S.