State formally turns mandatory traffic-reduction program into voluntary
DENVER — The state Air Quality Control Commission has backed away from a proposal to require large employers to figure out ways to get employees out of single-occupancy cars on their commutes to work.
Instead, the commission will push a voluntary program that it hopes will help it gather baseline information and begin to reduce vehicle miles driven by Coloradans going to work.
The commission ran into opposition from business groups and others when it proposed an Employee Traffic Reduction Program that would have affected employers of more than 100 people in a large swath of the Front Range. It would have required those employers to devise programs to get workers out of their cars and into car pools, mass transit or other means of getting to work.
SPONSORED CONTENT
Business Cares: April 2024
In Colorado, 1 in 3 women, 1 in 3 men and 1 in 2 transgender individuals will experience an attempted or completed sexual assault in their lifetime. During April, we recognize Sexual Assault Awareness Month with the hopes of increasing conversations about this very important issue.
Opponents argued that the program was based upon faulty baseline numbers, didn’t take into account the impact of work-from-home practices borne out of the pandemic and added expense to businesses at a time of economic downturn.
The commission, which is charged with enacting rules to comply with the federal Clean Air Act, on Thursday accepted a staff recommendation that it scale back the program and make it voluntary. While the vote was 8-1, commissioners expressed concern about the task ahead and the inability to make progress on meeting air-quality standards.
Elise Jones, a former Boulder County commissioner who cast the lone vote against curtailing the program, said the commission was “taking a tool out of the toolbox for now. … How do we meet our targets without this?”
The voluntary program will encourage large employers to develop traffic-reduction plans on their own that might include what the commission calls “micromobility” (walking or biking to work), using public transportation, working from home and other strategies.
© 2021 BizWest Media LLC
DENVER — The state Air Quality Control Commission has backed away from a proposal to require large employers to figure out ways to get employees out of single-occupancy cars on their commutes to work.
Instead, the commission will push a voluntary program that it hopes will help it gather baseline information and begin to reduce vehicle miles driven by Coloradans going to work.
The commission ran into opposition from business groups and others when it proposed an Employee Traffic Reduction Program that would have affected employers of more than 100 people in a large swath of the Front Range. It would have…
THIS ARTICLE IS FOR SUBSCRIBERS ONLY
Continue reading for less than $3 per week!
Get a month of award-winning local business news, trends and insights
Access award-winning content today!
