Boulder’s car-color campaign cuts 800,000 vehicle miles

Funding depleted for Driven to Drive Less
By Laura Snider Camera Staff Writer
Posted: 01/17/2012 07:41:24 PM MST

Ron Metz, left, a promoter for Driven to Drive Less, talks with Mike Tuffly during a promotional event in December 2010. ( SAM HALL )
In the fall of 2010, the city of Boulder launched a campaign with a simple plea for car commuters: Do your 14.3 percent.

In other words, the campaign asked area commuters to do their 1/7th for the planet and leave their cars at home one day a week.

The quirky, game show-like campaign, which was branded with an upside-down car for a logo, encouraged people to choose a car-free day based on their car’s color. (Blue car owners skip driving on Monday, and white car owners take a break from getting behind the wheel on Thursday.)

Now, more than a year after the Driven to Drive Less program began, the city of Boulder is reporting that the experiment worked, and the average participant cut his or her driving distance by 15.5 miles a week—or more than 800 miles a year.

“We didn’t want this campaign to be for people who already bike and bus everywhere,” said Chris Hagelin, acting manager of Go Boulder. “We wanted to reach that different target population that mainly drives, but they’re open to a small change.”

The program was inspired by “one less car” campaigns that have been put in place in cities like Seattle and Chicago. But those campaigns tend to ask people to give up their cars completely for a month or even a year.

“We thought we could probably do that in Boulder,” Hagelin said. “But that’s who we already have, and that’s when we made the switch to ‘How about just one day a week?’ Just leave your car parked one day a week and see if you can do it.”

The idea was to ask people to make small behavioral changes that could become long-term habits, and that’s what happened for many of the more than 1,000 people who signed up for the program, Hagelin said.

“A good majority of the people said, ‘I pledge to give up driving one day a week. I had to rearrange my schedule, but in the end, I found it easy to do that one day a week,’” Hagelin said.

The city’s results are based on surveys filled out by participants at the beginning and end of the program. From those surveys, the city determined that, among the participants, single-occupant vehicle trips to work or school fell 38 percent, bike commuting increased 44 percent and transit use increased 27 percent.

In all, participants reduced car miles traveled by 803,816.

At the end of the program, participants also were asked to write an essay about how the program affected them—and what having an electric bike would do for them. On Wednesday morning, three of the participants—as chosen by the strength of their essays—will be honored at 8:30 a.m. at Alfalfa’s during Winter Bike to Work Day. The grand prize winner will receive an electric bike from Pete’s Electric Bikes.

Pete’s co-owner Dean Keyek-Franssen said the company has supported the Driven to Drive Less program from the beginning, in part because of its fun feel.

“One of the things that attracted us was that their marketing angle was different—the upside-down car and all of the stuff just kind of worked,” Keyek-Franssen said. “This is just another interesting way to get the word out that there is other transportation out there that can be transformative to people’s lives.”

The electric bikes sold at Pete’s—and the one that the business plans to give away today—require the rider to pedal for the motor to kick in and assist the rider. It costs about 13 cents a day to keep the bikes charged.

“Donating products helps us get the word out,” Keyek-Franssen said. “In the end, our goal at Pete’s is to help build a larger e-bike industry.”

One of the finalists to receive the bike is Katie Hanczaryk, who bikes to work or school just about every day. If she does get in a car, she’s carpooling.

And while Hanczaryk’s history of alternative commuting predates Driven to Drive Less, she said the campaign has helped her feel appreciated.

“The reason I love Driven to Drive Less is because I feel rewarded every day,” she said. “It’s this little thing that I feel good about, but to actually be rewarded—to be recognized in some way—is so huge. It inspires me. It reminds me, even when it’s hard sometimes, ‘Yeah, I can do this.’”

The program was originally launched with a Federal Congestion Mitigation and Air Quality Program grant, which has now been spent.

“Right now, we’re out of dedicated funding for the Driven to Drive Less campaign,” Hagelin said. “But I think the numbers are very encouraging for staff to sit down and think about, ‘How can we best continue this program without a large dedicated funding source?’”

Contact Camera Staff Writer Laura Snider at 303-473-1327 or sniderl@dailycamera.com.