New updates to SANDAG's iCommute Program

Steer Davies Gleave provides ongoing support to SANDAG through the iCommute Employer Outreach Program. The program supports SANDAG’s local Transportation Demand Management (TDM) goals by conducting employer outreach throughout the San Diego region to reduce Single Occupancy Vehicle (SOV) travel and encourage more sustainable transportation options. In the last year, the iCommute program has seen many exciting updates:

• A multi-jurisdictional dockless bikeshare pilot: Various cities have joined forces to select a vendor and launch a pilot bringing dockless bikeshare to 5 cities in the North Coast area of San Diego. Steer Davies Gleave conducted a peer review and provided best practices advisory.
• Expansion of the Shift San Diego construction outreach campaign: The project includes customized and diversified media buys to announce and celebrate construction milestones as well as provide transportation solutions in the University City and Golden Triangle areas of San Diego. Integrated messaging and media buy strategies ranged from geo-targeted online ads to bus ads, from radio ads to printed mailers.
• Revamped employer outreach: The Employer Outreach team incorporates Motivational Interviewing and Question Based Selling methods in outreach to catalyze effective behavior change, and a resurvey of employer clients has found an average SOV reduction of 15%.
• Formalization of a Pilot Program: After an 18-month pilot and evaluation, “Try Transit” recently transitioned to a formal program. The “try before you buy” type initiative resulted in more than 50% of participants continuing to commute regularly by transit.
• An overhaul of the CRM software used to track outreach: The Account Executives track employer engagement, SOV rates, and program overviews through a customized version of Salesforce, which SANDAG recently overhauled to provide more detailed reporting, incorporate the vanpool, bike parking and Guaranteed Ride Home programs, and more accurately represent the TDM programs at various employers.
• An anticipated partnership with new Google product Waze Carpool: In order to promote and facilitate ridematching throughout the region, Waze Carpool will sponsor various events and promotions. The partnership will include discounted rides to select employment centers, outreach events in targeted zip codes, and in-app marketing.