A local program aimed at improving air quality and reducing traffic congestion is growing out of its pilot phase, and it may add vanpooling to the types of transportation it supports.
Green Trips has received a fresh three-year grant to fund and improve its program, coordinator Jonathan Gibbons has confirmed.
Since Green Trips' June 2013 launch, 1,710 people have signed up for the free, online service that offers rewards like gift cards to users who log their walking, biking, carpooling and public transit trips.
Securing the grant allows Green Trips to go looking for a new contractor to provide the program's web platform. Gibbons hopes the changes will result in a refined program that is easier to use.
"It would be more robust," Gibbons said. "We would like to be able to offer vanpool support for employers, and hopefully the new service will be less clunky to navigate."
Vanpools are typically large-vehicle carpools that are backed either by municipalities or companies to reduce strain on infrastructure and the environment. Green Trips would not provide the vehicles and drivers for vanpools but could offer support and incentives to those who use them, depending on what is proposed by companies vying for the contract.
Administrative support for a potential vanpool pilot project is listed as a preferred but not required component in Green Trips' request for proposals that was posted on the city of Chattanooga's website this month.
Green Trips is overseen by the Regional Planning Agency, which is a partner in the Thrive 2055 regional planning initiative that is making 2017 the "Year of Transportation."
Covenant Transportation Group CEO David Parker made headlines last month when he warned the initiative's leaders of serious economic ramifications if the region's highways are not upgraded soon.
"We just can't keep doing what we're doing and not think it's going to hurt the U.S. economy," Parker told the Thrive 2055 luncheon while also mentioning his own traffic-plagued interstate commute.
Gibbons said the most important thing individuals can do to help with traffic congestion is to make efficient choices every day.
The $600,000 federal Congestion Mitigation and Air Quality grant funding Green Trips requires a 20 percent local match. It is identical to the grant that launched the program in 2013. The CMAQ is the same grant program that has helped the city with the cost of its bicycle implementation plan.
"The first grant was essentially a pilot program," Gibbons said. "We were able to determine the feasibility and effectiveness of it. It turns out, that thanks to the multimodal approach of finding options that work for people in our community, it's been very successful."
Contact staff writer David Cobb at dcobb@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6249.