Air Quality District Orders Employers to Implement Ride-Sharing Plans

Orange County employers must implement ride-sharing programs or face fines reaching $25,000 a day under an order announced Thursday by the South Coast Air Quality Management District.

The order, officially known as Regulation 15, affects every public and private employer in the county with 100 or more employees. Beginning this month, companies with 500 or more workers will get the first notices and will have 90 days to comply. Smaller companies will be phased into the program over 30 months.

The goal, officials said Thursday, is to reduce smog by increasing the average number of commuters per vehicle from 1.13 to as many as 1.75.

Under the order, employers are required to try to reduce peak-hour traffic to and from their sites through means that might include bus riding, staggered work hours and, most probably, employee car-pooling. Companies are being encouraged to offer incentives such as cash bonuses, subsidized parking or use of company-owned vehicles for those who share rides.

Employees’ participation is voluntary. However, employers who fail to submit a plan may be fined as much as $25,000 a day.

Eventually, district officials said, about 600,000 Orange County workers could be affected. The program is also being implemented in Los Angeles, Riverside and San Bernardino counties.

“Despite our significant progress in improving air quality, much, much more needs to be done,” said D a vid Howekamp, an official of the federal Environmental Protection Agency, which supports the program.

Orange County transportation officials have been proposing since last year that participation in such a plan be voluntary for employers here, but the AQMD rejected that idea.

Jim Dunlap, a program manager for the district, said the county submitted a new set of exemption proposals Wednesday night, but the district has yet to review them, and the mandatory program is going forward nonetheless.

However, county Supervisor Harriett M. Wieder, a county transportation commissioner and a member of the AQMD board of directors, had been a critic of the proposal to make participation in the plan voluntary here.

“Volunteerism doesn’t work always,” Wieder said. “In this case, government knows best.”

Several of Orange County’s largest employers--including Southern California Edison, McDonnell Douglas and Hughes Aircraft--already have commuter programs like the ones sought by the district.

For those companies without such programs, the district is offering to help set one up at no cost. Companies may also turn to the Orange County Transit District Commuter Network, which advises firms on implementing bus-riding programs, or they may consult with one of a growing number of private firms.

Hughes Aircraft in Fullerton has offered a ride-sharing program to its 12,000 employees since 1978, according to Bill Jones, an administrator at the Fullerton plant.

With about 2,400 employees there participating, Jones said he considers the program a success. But, he warned, “this is not an easy program to administer, and it is not easy to get people involved . . . . I think (district officials) are going to be surprised at how difficult it is.”