For the week of August 29 - September 4, 2001

City staff cancels 
470 car trips

Friendly competition 
improves awareness

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By GREG STAHL
Express Staff Writer

Ketchum City Hall staffers are leading by example—by pedaling, walking and carpooling to reduce traffic in our fair city.

As traffic congestion in Ketchum and on Highway 75 increases, city leaders have bought into alternative modes of transportation and carpooling as methods to reduce the number of single-occupancy vehicles on the highway and in the city.

During the months of July, August and September, Ketchum employees are holding a friendly competition among themselves to reduce single-occupancy vehicle trips by biking, walking or carpooling to work.

City hall first floor employees are competing against second floor employees. The floor that logs the most alternative transportation miles at the end of September will win.

In effect, staff members are putting the city’s money where its mouth is.

Ketchum Senior Planner Tory Canfield elaborated.

"During the month of July, the fifteen of us eliminated 470 cars from the streets and traveled the distance from here to Indiana, 1,801 miles," she wrote in a staff memo. "We had 100 percent participation, with everyone doing their part to reduce the number of single-occupancy cars on the road."

Canfield made 37 bicycle trips from East Fork totaling 365 miles.

Ketchum City Administrator Jim Jaquet made 30 bicycle trips from Hulen Meadows totaling 139 miles.

Ketchum’s competition is more than a city-instigated program, however. It’s part of Wood River Rideshare’s Smart Options Program "to make transportation options more available and attractive to employees," according to a program description.

Ten area businesses are participating, Rideshare Director Beth Callister said.

Additionally, Rideshare is sponsoring a summer-long, friendly competition among valley commuters called Move Yourself. In the Move Yourself competition, area employees who walk, jog or bike to work tally their trips and miles and submit logs to Rideshare to enter a drawing for prizes this fall.

Between 50 and 60 valley residents are participating in Move Yourself, Callister said.

But reducing single-occupancy vehicle trips appears to be only part of the appeal.

In Ketchum’s Smart Options competition, first floor employees have the edge, with 1,035 total miles logged. Second floor employees have logged 742 miles.

Another month will tell if the second floor staffers can squeak out a win.

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