BOULDER - Getting people out of cars and into mass transit and on bicycles is the key to transportation and emission problems, according to panelists during a breakout session at the Green Summit held June 4 in Boulder.

The daylong event, presented by the Boulder County Business Report at the Millennium Harvest Boulder, focused on blending business with the environment.

Dan Sturges' company, Intrago Corp. in Boulder, has been working on developing alternative types of transportation that are smaller, lighter and more eco-friendly. But Sturges, along with the rest of the panel, said the biggest hurdle is changing the mind-set of Americans to change their driving habits.

Dave Kinsbury, with marketing firm Crispin Porter + Bogusky and an advocate of mass transit and bicycling, said behavioral change is needed to meet goals of fewer cars on the road.

CP+B runs a bus for its employees, and it was difficult at first to lure workers to use it, Kingsbury said. "We call the bus the Disruptive Thinker, and not too many people were using it. But one night we called it the Disruptive Drinker and used it to shuttle employees for beer runs. Once they got onto the bus and saw what it was like, some changed their minds." Last year, employee ridership on the bus accounted for a reduction of 60,000 vehicle miles, he said.

Chris Hagelin, senior transportation planner for Go Boulder/city of Boulder, said the city is continuing to work on programs to take people out of vehicles into other modes of transportation. Besides buses and bikes, he said businesses could help affect change by allowing employees to telework from home.

Carl Lawrence, chief executive of Boulder-based EEtrex/Hybrids Plus, said technology continues to be developed to make better plug-in electric-powered cars that can be hooked into the electric power grid as an alternative to large gas-powered vehicles.
"We'll be seeing new cars in two to three years," he said. Fielding a question from the audience, Lawrence estimated that the technology for hydrogen fuel cell-powered cars is still 50 years away. "The cost is prohibitive," he said.

Panel moderator John Tayer, an RTD board member for the district that includes Boulder County, said FasTracks, a plan for improving mass transit with light commuter rail throughout the region, is facing a $2.2 billion funding gap created since the project was first passed in 2004. Tayer said RTD will pursue $1 billion in federal funding and is considering putting to the voters a 0.4 percent sales tax, possibly in 2010, to make up the gap. If the federal money is secured and the sales-tax increase is proposed and it passes, Tayer said the system could be completed by 2017. He said the project could create10,000 construction jobs.