Large Employers Gain Delay on Mandated Trip Reduction Plan

Large employers in the county won a reprieve this week when the Board of Supervisors delayed a plan to require van pools, staggered work hours and other employer-provided incentives to reduce traffic caused by workers driving to their jobs.

The county of Ventura, however, which has 11 job sites and 6,200 employees, will go forward with a trip reduction plan of its own for county employees next month.

“This allows the county to establish a leadership role in clean air,” said Richard Baldwin, air pollution control district officer.

The county’s traffic reduction plan, which would have affected all private and public employers of 100 people or more in the county, was due to begin Jan. 1. Under the revised schedule, those employers will not begin receiving their notices of the plan until August, with compliance not due until after January, 1991.

The second phase of the plan is scheduled to begin the following January with employers of 75 people or more required to increase employee ridership to an average of 1.35 riders per car. In 1993, employers of 50 or more must devise plans to comply with the rule.

When the rule is in full force, more than 140,000 workers and nearly 600 employers countywide will come under the rule.

County officials say full implementation of the plan will reduce the two principal components of ozone, oxides of nitrogen and reactive organic compounds, by about 1% and .05% respectively.

That is still only a small fraction of the 40% reduction in both compounds needed to reach the state and federal clean air goals, officials say.

“It will take a lot of those one percents to achieve the standards,” Baldwin said.

Ventura County is under federal order to clean up its air, the sixth worse for ozone pollution in the nation. First on that list is the sprawling South Coast Air Quality Management District, which includes four Southern California counties including Los Angeles.

The delay in implementing the rule for private employers became necessary when Baldwin lost two key employees during the year. William Mount, director of planning for the district, has since been hired back.

Under the county program, all the affected employers will be required to devise plans that show that they can reduce the number of times their employees drive their cars to work. Among the means suggested include employer-provided van pools or van pools coordinated by Commuter Computer, a statewide agency; special parking for van commuters; staggered hours that provide for four 10-hour days or nine days working 80 hours.

Employers will be monitored each year for compliance.