Movability aims to keep cutting traffic with 2019 Mobility Challenge

Several local businesses were honored for successful participation in the 2018 Mobility Challenge Thursday morning during the Mayor’s Mobility Leadership Breakfast. The Mobility Challenge, now in its fourth year, has received mobility commitments from 60 local organizations representing over 100,000 employees commuting to and from their workplaces.

The city-funded collaborative effort between Movability and the Thrival Company is designed to offer employers an opportunity to provide better quality of life for employees by relieving the stress of commuting through traffic.

Mayor Steve Adler called mobility Austin’s “Achilles’ heel” and emphasized the growing cultural demand for transit-oriented urban environments.

“We have to do this, in part because it’s something that we know we need to do, but to an ever increasing degree, which is important, it’s now being expected by our employees and the people that come into and work in our city,” Adler said.

While participants in previous years have received a five-year strategic mobility plan after completing the program, the 2019 challenge will feature a Mobility Challenge 1.0 class for new participants and a more advanced Mobility Challenge 2.0 class for past participants who want the opportunity to implement their existing mobility plans. Approximately five new companies will participate in the 1.0 class with the opportunity to continue with the 2.0 class the following year.

The Mobility Challenge plan helps employers and employees identify the transportation solutions that can best serve their needs and helps them pool resources to create new solutions.

Next year’s Mobility Challenge is also the first to offer employers the opportunity to receive aid by applying for a Best Workplaces for Commuters designation, a national program that provides a variety of benefits to employees. The application deadline for BWC designation is Nov. 30.

Organizations interested in enrolling in the Mobility Challenge are invited to text “atxmobility” to 31996 to schedule a call with Mobility Challenge program manager Aneka Patel.

Photo by John Flynn.

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