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Nearly every business seeks to maximize income while
minimizing expenses. That’s a fundamental goal that affects a
company’s ability to survive and thrive.
It’s fair to say that, collectively, the South
Florida business community strives toward that goal from a broader
perspective: maximizing opportunities in the region while minimizing
the cost of the pursuit.
By any measure, South Florida’s business community
has succeeded in creating a thriving economy. New development is
streaming into urban centers, but how about the other side of the
ledger —minimizing costs?
A “cost” can be defined as a side effect to
success. Take traffic congestion, for example, which happens to be a
major side effect of conducting business in South Florida. The more
people attracted to an area — to live, to work, or to shop — the
more traffic created. Thus, the logical question becomes how do we
minimize this cost?
When faced with an accounting problem, call an
accounting firm. With a financial problem, dial up an investment
banker. Therefore, when confronted with a traffic problem, why not
call an organization that specializes in transportation alternatives.
Enter South Florida Commuter Services. Commuter
Services helps employers and commuters make the most of this region’s
transportation options.
Commuter Services approaches the challenges of
transportation demand management from two perspectives. The
organization provides direct services to commuters seeking a way out
of congestion. Commuter Services helps them connect with carpools,
vanpools, a convenient bus route, a guaranteed ride home program —
whatever it takes to assist their escape from solo driving.
Commuter Services’ other transportation demand
management perspective focuses on employers. South Florida Commuter
Services forms partnerships with employers to implement ridesharing,
telecommuting, compressed workweeks, and other traffic-fighting
strategies.
Many of those partnerships are formed on an individual
basis. Others are team efforts known as transportation management
initiatives (TMIs). TMIs involve alliances between businesses in a
particular geographic area, to which Commuter Services assigns staff
who pursue the specific objectives of that TMI — more transit,
employer shuttles, or traffic management measures, for example.
Two TMIs were formed in South Florida in 1998. The
Airport West TMI (AWTMI) serves the area including the Miami
International Airport and the surrounding commercial, hospitality, and
industrial complexes. The Downtown Miami TMI (DWTMI) serves the
downtown business core. Both can be contacted through South Florida
Commuter Services.
The collective impact of those and other actions taken
work to reduce traffic congestion, decrease air pollution, and
maximize the utility of our mobility infrastructure. A quick call to
South Florida Commuter Services at 1-800-234-RIDE opens the door to
lots of assistance for any company in this region.
All this might sound like transportation. But upon
second glance, it’s prosperity, it’s quality of life, it’s the
ability to pursue future opportunities, wisely protected by the
foresight and action of today’s business community.
James Murphy is the marketing coordinator for the
Airport West Transportation Management Initiative (AWTMI). The AWTMI
is a branch office of South Florida Commuter Services, a program of
the Florida Department of Transportation (FDOT).
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