Sussex County offers incentives to its employees to carpool to work

Newton - Parking in downtown Newton has always been difficult. Recently, Sussex County officials began trying a few innovative approaches to help alleviate one of the problems - the number of county employees who work in the county seat exceeds the number of parking spaces available beneath the County’s Spring Street Administration Building.  Recognizing that adding more spaces was not practical, the county has allied with TransOptions, the Northwest NJ Transportation Management Association, to try to reduce the number of cars driven into Newton by county employees. The County enlisted TransOptions to pilot the N.J. Department of Transportation’s Commuter Rewards Program. The pilot incentive program pays three dollars per day for up to ninety days to commuters who switch to carpooling, vanpooling, walking, cycling or riding transit to get to work. By providing an incentive for county employees to modify their commute, the county hopes to increase the number of employees who do not drive alone to work. As an additional incentive to increase the number of employees carpooling, the county has recently offered any county employee carpool that has at least 3 participants a preferred parking space in the Spring Street parking facility. By guaranteeing a parking spot, the county hopes to increase the number of county employees who carpool to work and could ultimately free-up 14 parking spaces. John F. Ciaffone, TransOptions President, said that it will take unique solutions to reduce northwest New Jersey’s reliance upon the solo commute to work. “Sussex County’s limited public transit and its rural/suburban character makes it almost essential for most people to drive to work. By offering incentives we hope that we can lure more commuters out of their solo drive into carpools and vanpools,” he said. For more information, call 973-267-7600 or visit www.TransOptions.org.