Getting to work doesn’t necessarily mean being stuck in traffic. Sometimes it can even be fun.
Many employees of sustainable real estate company Melaver, Inc. have been using alternative ways of getting to work for some time, from a skateboard to a scooter to bikes.
Michael Frey skateboards less than a mile each way to his job at Melaver, and he switches to his work shoes once he gets to the office.
“People stare and smile all the time because I wear nice clothes to work and carry a briefcase yet I’m on a skateboard,” Frey said “Sometimes I get comments like ‘I bet that saves you some gas’ or ‘You’ve got the right idea.’
“I miss skateboarding on the days it rains and I have to drive because I really enjoy it in the morning and after work,” Frey said. “I do it for fun and for the environment.”
Clara Fishel of sustainable brokerage firm Melaver-Mouchet bikes eight miles round trip to work. Tommy Linstroth, Head of Sustainable Initiatives for Melaver, Inc., has been biking to his job from his home near the Historic District for about four years.
“I do it not only to lessen my carbon footprint, but also because I’m never stuck in traffic or looking for a parking space,” Linstroth said. “And with gas at $4 a gallon, it’s easier on my wallet as well.”
“I’m hoping that Savannah and Chatham County work to expand the number of bike lanes and resources for people who choose to get out of their car and onto a bike,” Linstroth added.
Cathy Rodgers of Melaver, Inc. recently bought a motor scooter and ‘scoots’ to work three to four days a week, hoping to stretch the gas in her car to only one tank per month. She was able to buy the scooter when she paid off her car. Her commute to the downtown office is 25 minutes each way – the same amount of time spent in the car and parking.
“It’s so much fun to drive a scooter to work,” Rodgers said. “I have great scenery, meet bikers at intersections who say ‘good morning,’ I can beep at someone and make them smile – and get there in about the same amount of time with less traffic stress!”
Camille Pope of Melaver walks to work and says it’s a great way to start or end her workday.
“Because I am on foot, there is no such thing as bad traffic,” she said. “In the morning, my walk is a great way to enjoy the outdoors before I start work. At night, it gives me the opportunity to clear my head before I arrive home to spend time with my family.”
Several Melaver staff members from surrounding areas carpool. For people who still want to get to work in a car but don’t want to foot the entire gas bill, a new online ride-matching system at http://coastalcommuters.org can help set up a carpool.
Melaver, Inc. is a third-generation, family-owned business based in Savannah, Georgia. The sustainable real estate developer currently has eight LEED certified projects in their portfolio and developed one of the first LEED certified buildings in the U.S. which is also on the National Register of Historic Places. Melaver Inc. also developed the first all-retail LEED shopping center in the country, Abercorn Common, including the first LEED McDonald’s worldwide.
Contact: (912) 236-0781
www.melaver.com
Tips on biking to work
Be safe. Wear a helmet and pay attention to cars – practice defensive driving. Be aware of traffic laws. Have a light on your bike.
Be prepared. Keep a light rain suit at work in case the weather changes. Keep toiletries at the office to freshen up.
Map it. Think about the route you take – you might choose different roads when biking to work than you take when you drive to work.
Pack it. Have a backpack or a little storage – you might want to change shoes when you get to work, for example, and you might have papers to bring to or from work.
Find a carpool in the Coastal Empire
If you are interested in reducing your transportation costs, you can use the Coastal Commuters online ride-matching system at http://coastalcommuters.org to find one or more carpool partners. As more people enter their trip descriptions in the system, your chance of finding a match will increase.
Mass transit, bicycling and walking are also economical alternatives. Use any of these transportation methods and log your trips in the Commute Calendar within the ride-matching system to see not only how much money you are saving, compared to driving alone, but also how much you have reduced your emissions of pollutants and greenhouse gases. Coastal Commuters is supported by the Chatham Urban Transportation Study/Metropolitan Planning Organization.
http://coastalcommuters.org
Commuting facts
If your daily commute is just 10 miles each way (the national average) and you normally drive a 20-mpg vehicle, you would save 236 gallons of gas each year by opting to carpool, telecommute or use transit. If each commuter car carried just one more passenger once a week, we would cut America’s gasoline consumption by about 7.7 million gallons, according to www.nrdc.org.
Most Americans (77 percent) drive to work alone, according to 2005 numbers from the U.S. Census Bureau. Driving a car to work is the main way of getting to work for 9 out of 10 people; 87.7 percent use a car to get to work. Public transportation is the method for 4.7 percent of the commuters.