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Everything is bigger in Texas, even employer transit pass programs.
This past week, Movability, Central Texas’ transportation management association (TMA), hosted a gathering of business leaders, policy experts, and transit advocates at its Annual Summit to discuss Austin’s transportation future. Our Director of Product Partnerships, Ruth Miller, attended to speak about employer pass programs.
Lauren Mattern, Journey
Transit pass programs are an enormously effective tool for employers and developers to reduce traffic around their sites. The potential impact depends on the location and density of nearby transit service. While a downtown development in Austin might see as high as a 16% reduction in site-generated traffic, even a suburban area outside the urban core can expect as much as a four percent reduction.
Many cities require developers to consider how much traffic their development will generate and propose plans to mitigate their impact on the surrounding neighborhood. Austin developers might expect a limit to the amount of parking they’re allowed to build, or be required to build new sidewalks or bus shelters along the perimeter of their site. Transit passes for the future site’s employees and residents are among the most effective traffic mitigation strategies a developer can implement, though they require ongoing participation from the future tenant.
Austin’s TDM ordinance heavily rewards developers for committing to providing universal transit passes. Lauren Mattern, a local transportation policy advisor with Journey, crunched the numbers on several upcoming developments around Austin. She found that, conservatively, new developments already underway in Austin are committed to providing at least 28,000 free universal transit passes to new employees and residents.
Several cities around the United States also require employers to offer transit passes to their employees. Most programs require employers with at least 20 or 50 local employees to participate. If Austin just required participation from employees with 500 or more local employees, this would get another 420,000 free universal transit passes in the hands of Austin commuters.
Austin employers aren’t waiting for policy to support their employees. Several local employers, including Tesla, Amazon, and Google pay for their employees’ transit passes. As Austin continues competing for national businesses and those businesses compete for employees, and as it does so while minimizing the negative impacts of congestion on the people already in Austin, transit passes will continue being a powerful tool.
Derek Heino, CapMetro
Transit agencies play a central role in employer transit pass programs, since they’re often the ones who issue and manage the fare products being distributed. Beyond logistics, these partnerships help agencies boost ridership, reduce congestion, and expand access to affordable transportation.
CapMetro works hard to offer robust employer and student pass programs that meet the needs of the Austin community. Local organizations can:
Teghan Hahn, 5x local business owner
What’s it like to actually participate in CapMetro’s employer program today? Teghan owns and operates five local retail businesses in downtown Austin, and she shared how valuable transit passes are for hiring and recruitment.
“I had employees call me and quit on their first day because they couldn’t find parking.”
Teghan recognized that her employees needed help with transportation, so initially she simply offered to add the cost of a monthly bus pass to her employees’ pay. But she noticed some employees were still leaving throughout the day to move their cars, or coming in late citing car trouble. So she reached out to CapMetro and learned about their employer program. Now, she proudly lists free CapMetro passes among her employee benefits.
“I offer medical and even mental health care, and a 50% in-store discount, but it’s the bus pass that, when I tell them about it in their interview, I see their shoulders drop and they relax.”
Ruth Miller, Jawnt
Teghan’s experience is a dream commuter benefit scenario, but there’s always room for improvement, and improvements are coming to Austin later this year.
CapMetro has been building a new Tap-to-Pay, or “open loop”, fare collection system. When it launches, riders will be able to tap any debit or credit card in their wallet (even their Apple Wallet or Google Wallet) directly on the fare reader to pay for their trip. No more apps, no more separate passes. Buying a bus ride will be as easy as buying a cup of coffee.
Several cities around the United States, from New York and Washington DC to Las Vegas and San Diego, have launched Tap-to-Pay in the past few years. Austin is anticipating its new technology will be available by the end of 2025.
This new technology unlocks new options for employer transit passes. Instead of requiring employees to download an app or keep track of a separate physical card, employers will soon be able to distribute commuter debit cards that offer both new flexibility and control.
Tap-to-Pay will unlock new experiences for more than just employees. Residential transit pass programs can be enormously impactful, but managing a drawer full of physical passes can be a hassle for building managers. Imagine a QR code on the lobby’s transit display that can send a reloadable virtual card straight to residents’ Apple Wallet or Google Wallet.
Even seniors are starting to benefit from Tap-to-Pay in ways they couldn’t before. By design, every place we tap our debit/credit card charges everyone the same amount. Tap-to-Pay is the same, and by default charges every rider the same full-priced adult fare. Several transit agencies out west are experimenting with allowing special groups, including seniors, veterans, and soon students, to register their bank cards with the transit agency. When a registered debit or credit card taps the fare reader, the agency recognizes it as belonging to someone eligible for a discounted fare, and the rider is charged the appropriate fare.
The future of employer pass programs is here – it’s just not evenly distributed, and Austin is working to bring the best of it to its riders.
