LOS ANGELES WORLD AIRPORTS RIDESHARE PROGRAM RECEIVES 14TH DIAMOND AWARD IN 12 YEARS

            (Los Angeles, California – September 20, 2010)  Los Angeles World Airports (LAWA) has received its 14th consecutive Rideshare Diamond Award in 12 years for having one of the best employee transportation programs in Southern California. This year’s award was in the Innovative Rideshare Strategy category.  

            The regional Rideshare Diamond Awards Program is sponsored by the Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority (Metro), the Ventura County Transportation Commission (VCTC) and the Orange County Transportation Authority (OCTA).

            LAWA Rideshare received an award this year for its successful transition of the program to SkyviewCenter, an office facility located near Los AngelesInternationalAirport that now houses approximately 350 airport personnel.  In addition to reducing LAWA’s long-term space needs and costs, the move to the new location consolidates three off-airport leases into one and allows staff with similar functions to be situated at fewer locations on and off the airport.

            The move, however, threatened to break up 36 vanpools and 12 carpools. Instead, LAWA Rideshare actively reorganized existing vanpool and carpool groups to serve the new building, changed transit passes to regional passes to accommodate the new bus routes and established a new office location atSkyviewCenter to assist employees working there.

             Twenty-two vanpool riders were asked to change vanpools, which enabled 11 groups to make one less stop, thereby saving time and fuel.  Currently, 21 vanpools stop at Skyview, providing 97 employees with an efficient ride to work choice.  In addition, 44 employees ride transit to Skyview. 

            In total, 141 of approximately 350 LAWA employees working at Skyview are in the LAWA Rideshare Program.   This represents 40 percent of the employees at that location.  Overall, approximately 25 percent of LAWA employees participate in the LAWA Rideshare program, while the national average of employees commuting via alternative transportation is only 10 percent.

            The LAWA Rideshare program saves over eight million commute miles each year.