Virginia Tech noted for improving air quality and reducing traffic congestion
Virginia Tech has been designated as a "Best Workplace for Commuters" by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT).
The "Best Workplaces for Commuters" initiative, a voluntary partnership program developed by the EPA and the DOT and designed to cut traffic congestion and traffic-related air pollution, recognizes organizations that provide environmentally-friendly commuter benefits to employees. This designation identifies Virginia Tech as an organization committed to reducing pollution, commuting costs, traffic congestion, and employee stress caused by single-occupant vehicle commuting.
"We are proud to make this commitment to our employees and to the environment," said Steve Mouras, director of Virginia Tech's Office of Transportation. "The Best Workplaces for Commuters program demonstrates that efficient parking and transportation services and a clean environment are not mutually exclusive. Our programs reduce commuting costs not only for our students and employees, but for all commuters as well by taking cars off the road and reducing traffic congestion."
Virginia Tech offers several benefits and services to help employees pursue environmentally friendly and cost-effective commuting strategies. Among those are the faculty/staff carpool program, subsidized Blacksburg Transit (BT) fares, carpool matching, and the Commuter Alternatives Program, which provides free daily parking passes to students, faculty, and staff who use alternative transportation methods as their primary means of commuting to campus.
According to Margo Oge, EPA's director of the Office of Transportation and Air Quality, the effects of incentive programs like Best Workplaces for Commuters can be dramatic. "If just half of all U.S. employees were covered under these commuter benefits," Oge said, "traffic and air pollution could be cut by the equivalent of taking 15 million cars off the road every year, saving American workers about $12 billion in fuel costs."
Best Workplaces for Commuters (http://www.bwc.gov) is a public-private partnership developed by the EPA and the DOT. EPA and DOT have established a voluntary National Standard of Excellence for employer-provided commuter benefits. The program challenges employers across the country to voluntarily meet the National Standard of Excellence.
Founded in 1872 as a land-grant college, Virginia Tech has grown to become among the largest universities in the Commonwealth of Virginia. Today, Virginia Tech's eight colleges are dedicated to putting knowledge to work through teaching, research, and outreach activities and to fulfilling its vision to be among the top research universities in the nation. At its 2,600-acre main campus located in Blacksburg and other campus centers in Northern Virginia, Southwest Virginia, Hampton Roads, Richmond, and Roanoke, Virginia Tech enrolls more than 28,000 full- and part-time undergraduate and graduate students from all 50 states and more than 100 countries in 180 academic degree programs.
