JOINT BASE MYER-HENDERSON HALL, VA -- Joint Base Myer-Henderson Hall commuters will have a new resource to help them stay on top of transportation options with the opening of a commuter resource information station, according to JBM-HH and Arlington County officials.
The center will open following the results of an approximately two month survey that revealed 30 percent of military personnel and 41 percent of civilian employees who work on the joint base are either dissatisfied or very dissatisfied with their commutes to work.
"The commuter information center will serve primarily for informational purposes to ensure people are aware of all the possibilities that are out there to get to work," said Lavonda Lessane, JBM-HH strategic planner for plans analysis and integration.
The survey of some 467 JBM-HH military, civilians and retirees was conducted as part of a public-to-public partnership between JBM-HH and Arlington County. Additionally, over an eight month period, Arlington Transportation Partners and Mobility Lab met with base officials to identify trends among commuters.
Lessane has held regular meetings with the Northern Virginia Regional Commission, which has provided a strategy to address JBM-HH's transportation-related challenges, detailed in a drafted Memorandum of Understanding between JBM-HH and the NVRC.
Commuter resource information stations (transportation information booths) will appear at all three portions of the joint base, including Fort McNair, to provide drivers with an array of commuter choices. The hope is to decrease the number of single occupancy vehicles entering JBM-HH.
"The findings of the survey were very revealing," said Peggy Tadej, Northern Virginia Regional Commission's director of Military Affairs. "Eighty-eight percent of respondents surveyed said they drive on post alone. That number is high for a populace that works inside the beltway and are closer to Metro access than people who work at Fort Belvoir or Quantico, especially considering all federal government employees receive $255 per month to cover the costs to commute using public transportation. That's a benefit that helps everybody."
Moreover, the survey also revealed that only 3 percent of respondents had actually ever used mass public transportation, carpooled, or biked to work, suggesting a lack of awareness of such options, and incredibly low usage of alternative modes of transportation, according to the survey.
The commission plans to reverse that. Currently, NVRC is in the process of creating brochures which will cover an array of transportation alternatives.
Section 3.2.7 of the MOU states that NVRC will provide "reports to JBM-HH on the number of events, number of carpools and vanpools started, miles saved, emission reductions achieved, along with stories of the benefits of commute alternatives to members of the JBM-HH and Fort McNair communities."
Furthermore, members of the NVRC will also disseminate commuter information at table-top events, new employee orientations, all-hands deck meetings and town hall meetings, as requested.
"The brochures we're creating will include information on Metro, buses, van pooling, carpooling, and even information for people who want to use Uber and Lyft, which are other means to get to places," Tadej said.
"There are also subsidies in existence for van pools which is information that will be available for people who visit the commuter resource information stations," Lessane added, in reference to incentives for regional Commuter Connections like Arlington's Vanpool Connect incentive program. "If there's a need, it needs to be fixed. The best part of my job is seeing an end result."
There are also additional measures the commission has tabled to address the full range of commuter-related issues, according to Tadej.
"We're also working with Arlington Transit and Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority trying to see if we can get bus service back on Joint Base Myer-Henderson Hall which hasn't been on the installation since 2001 following the events of 9/11," she said.
Mobility Lab's survey also found 20 percent of civilians were not at all satisfied with the transportation system for travel to and from locations on and off the joint base. Fifteen percent of military personnel living off base were not at all satisfied, compared to 19 percent of military personnel living on base.
Commuter resource information stations won't be available to the public until mid-September at the earliest, according to Lessane. The MOU has to be sent to base legal for review and then signed by the JBM-HH commander.
To see the survey in its entirety, visit http://mobilitylab.org/2016/07/13/analysis-military-transportation-improved-pedestrian-connections/.
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