Getting to Work: Testing New Transportation Solutions in South Bend
A new program, seeded by Bloomberg, aims to make transportation to & from work more accessible
The City of South Bend is always striving to ensure access to good jobs for its residents. Today, though, access to reliable transportation can be a significant barrier to employment . This is especially true for part-time and shift workers without regular, reliable access to a car.
A City partnership with employers is looking to change that. The Bloomberg Mayors Challenge has awarded the City $1 million to start a “transportation-as-a-benefit” program in partnership with regional employers over the next three years.
The Bloomberg Mayors Challenge
The project started in February 2018 when Bloomberg, as part of the Challenge’s Champion phase, awarded $100,000 to the City to pilot solutions to solve this transportation problem. A team led by the Department of Innovation & Technology worked with several employers — including the University of Notre Dame, Beacon Health System, and the City of South Bend’s Venues Parks & Arts — to provide rides using a ride-hailing service to employees who volunteered to participate. By the end of the 2018 pilot, over 1,000 rides were provided to and from work for local employees.
As a result of the Champion phase’s success, South Bend was declared one of the Challenge’s Winner cities in October 2018. In the Champion phase, the City tested a concept: can we make it easier for residents to get to work? Yes we can!
Now, over the next three years, the City will partner with employers and transportation providers to develop a financially sustainable model. The program will be structured like a local employer-offered benefit, similar to how employees may access healthcare through their workplace, with both employers and employees contributing to cover costs. The team will expand transportation provision with a number of providers across different modes of transportation potentially including ride-hailing services, dockless bike share, and on-demand transit vehicles.
No matter the ride type, the goal is a solution that benefits everyone — the employee increases take-home pay by being available for more time, the employer experiences less turnover and production loss, and the City gains a robust economy and a competitive edge over peer cities.
Meet the team
The successful Champion phase was led by the Department of Innovation and Technology, with support from the Department of Community Investment and the Mayor’s Office. Champion Phase leaders included Genevieve Miller, Brian Donoghue, Sonja Karnovsky, Antonius Northern, and Daniel Collins.
To lead the Winner phase of work in 2019 and beyond, the City recently hired Aaron Steiner to serve as the program’s Founding Director. He will build on the relationships and lessons from the pilot work and build toward a sustainable, cross-sector model with local employers. Jack Jacobs, an enFocus fellow, is contributing as Program Manager.
What’s coming next
The project team met with Mayor Pete Buttigieg in mid-May to review the approach to the next three years. They are expecting to begin a multi-phase implementation in early fall 2019, partnering with a select group of employers to offer a transportation-as-a-benefit service. The team expects to expand to additional employers and transportation providers in 2020 and beyond.
Read more:
- South Bend Tribune coverage of the 2018 pilot; May 22, 2018
- Mayors Challenge, Bloomberg Philanthropies
- The Creative City Report, Bloomberg Philanthropies
Please reach out to BMC@southbendin.gov with any questions or comments about this program.
Jack Jacobs is an enFous Fellow with the City of South Bend and the Project Manager for the Bloomberg Mayors Challenge.
