HUNTINGTON BEACH : Worker Commuting Plan to Be Expanded

A program that offers workers at City Hall days off and other incentives for car-pooling, walking or riding a bicycle to work will be expanded to two outlying sites.

The program began a year ago. According to a city staff report, about 20% of the people working at City Hall and at police headquarters now regularly use alternative forms of transportation or walk to work.

The city has about 1,100 employees, and some travel from as far as Riverside and La Verne, the report says. There are 370 employees at the water division site and the Gothard Avenue city yard, where officials are now concentrating their efforts. They hope that within a year, one-third of all city employees will be participating in the program. The city, like all Southland employers of 100 or more workers, is required by the South Coast Air Quality Management District to have an alternative commuting plan in place. In addition to complying with that requirement, however, the city also hopes to encourage residents and other employers to follow suit, said Brian Smith, coordinator of the program.

“We’re always very cognizant that employers in Huntington Beach and the general public may be looking to us for what we’re doing in this area,” Smith said, “so we have a particular concern for doing a good job with this.”

Employees may receive one day off for every 40 days they commute by an alternative means. The city also offers ride-sharing contests and preferential parking for car pools. Workers may also use police-impounded bicycles and, if they regularly ride them to work, can eventually own them free of charge.

The city has also doubled the number of its bicycle racks, and it has converted 350 employees to four-day workweeks.