The Short Tale of How One City Got Its Citizens to Revamp Their Daily Commute

In 2013, 75 percent of Americans drove by themselves to work each day. In Chattanooga, Tenn., that figure was 90 percent, and the city had the poor air quality, high obesity rates and gridlock to show for it. Something needed to change, but how do you convince thousands of dedicated drivers to overhaul their method of getting to work?
Funded by a $600,000 Federal Highway Administration grant, GreenTrips launched in the southern city in June 2013. The program encourages residents to record each trip they make by foot, bike, bus or carpool and rewards them with swag, such as meals at burger joints and burrito restaurants, gift certificates to local florists and gyms, free bikeshare memberships and more. The hope is that great local incentives, along with a ridesharing app that encourages carpooling and a dashboard that shows how much a person saves on transportation, will motivate Chattanoogans to rethink how they travel.
“We felt like if we could get people to see there are other ways to get around, and make it easier for them to do so, we might not have some of the problems that we had,” says Melissa Taylor, director of strategic long-range planning for the Chattanooga-Hamilton County/North Georgia Transportation Planning Organization, the group overseeing the program.
So far, only 1,491 of Chattanooga’s 173,000 residents have enrolled, but the results are startling. In three years, more than 2.4 million miles of healthier, greener travel have been logged — that’s enough to save 82,552 gallons of gasoline and prevent 1.6 million pounds of pollution from entering the atmosphere. Additionally, participants have burned 14 million calories.
Especially satisfying is that what began as a program embraced by urban professionals has slowly expanded its reach, including many participants that reside in economically disadvantaged areas. “It’s not just the $1,000 urban biker. It’s a lot of people who are using carpools better to reduce some of their household costs,” explains Taylor.
Despite its success, challenges remain. GreenTrips needs to recruit more members and get another federal grant to extend the funding that ends at the end of this calendar year. But internal surveys have found that once people give new kinds of travel a try, they tend to do it again. “Not only are they receiving rewards for trips they’re already taking, but [GreenTrips] makes them more likely to take those kinds of trips in the future.”
In order to reduce this country’s greenhouse gas emissions, more Americans need to change their behavior. But as the results
MORE: Will Cars of the Future Run on Algae?

Rutgers University Admits Unlikely Student Body, Journalists Use Reporting to Urge Politicians to Act and More

 
A University That Prioritizes the Students Who Are Often Ignored, The Atlantic
Traditionally, America’s colleges seek to attract the best and brightest to their hallowed halls. Committed to cultivating local talent regardless of status, New Jersey’s Rutgers University is bucking that trend, recruiting low-income, public-school graduates with mediocre GPAs and test scores — the very students that other schools shun.
A Plan to Flood San Francisco With News on Homelessness, New York Times
Can journalists advocate for a cause while remaining unbiased in their reporting? Next month, writers and editors from 30 Bay Area media outlets plan to do just that while collaborating on coverage focused on San Francisco’s homeless problem. The goal: To serve as a catalyst for solutions to the seemingly intractable problem.
This City Is Giving Away Super-Fast Internet to Poor Students, CNN Money
No longer are the poorest families in Chattanooga, Tenn., forced to visit a fast-food restaurant so their children can access the Internet needed to complete their homework. Two new programs are bringing citizens online in the Southern city, where 22.5 percent of the population lives in poverty.
MORE: Only 1 in 5 New York City Students Graduate from College. This College Is Going to Change That

How Can One Nonprofit Solve Two Big Problems Facing Both Veterans and Low-Income Kids?

Bob Kincaid, co-founder of the Chattanooga, Tenn.-based Get Veterans Involved (GVI), has found that it’s possible to kill two birds with one stone. His nonprofit helps two groups — veterans who struggle when they return from service, and elementary school kids in need of mentors — at the same time.
How is that possible?
While veterans train for new jobs or attend college, the organization pays them to visit local elementary schools each week.
“They’ve got no mission. No purpose. The hope is to give them purpose,” Kincaid tells the Times Free Press. “If we can have these service members recognize these kids need them, we have a mission for them.”
Kincaid believes the program, which kicked off in five elementary schools this year, will help veterans feel connected to their community as they work to make a smooth transition into civilian life. Additionally, the work will help low-income kids in innumerable ways. “We mentor the kids, who then mentor the vets,” he adds.
Instead of having the vets come to the schools with a lesson to teach or a talk to give, GVI instructs them to simply help out in whatever way the classroom teachers need them to. One basic task the veterans assist with at Calvin Donaldson Elementary, for example, is helping kindergartners learn their ABCs.
Principal Cherrye Robertson says, “Right now all of my kindergartners know all of their letters, which is phenomenal. We’ve never had all the kindergartners in the whole building know all their letters at this time of year.”
With early successes, GVI is aiming to expand through funding and donations. GVI co-founder Ron White says, “The vision is for this one day to be in school districts around the country.”
MORE: For Female Veterans Experiencing Employment Woes, This Organization Offers Strong Advice