Workforce Mobility Team

Who we are

The Workforce Mobility Team (the Team) is available to assist you and your business with connecting workers to jobs in Southeastern Wisconsin. The Team was developed cooperatively by MobiliSE (formerly the Regional Transit Leadership Council) and the Southeastern Wisconsin Regional Planning Commission in response to concerns from employers in the Region who experience challenges retaining and attracting workers as a result of those workers having limited or no commuting transportation options.

What we offer

Our goal is to increase residents’ access to jobs and businesses’ access to workers by coordinating workforce transportation efforts regionally and supporting the implementation of innovative solutions across the seven-county Region. Our services are summarized in this brochure. The Team is ready to:

Discuss your workforce transportation needs and concerns;
Provide you with information on current transit services in Southeastern Wisconsin;
Research and share with you national, regional, and local workforce transportation best practices;
Identify workforce mobility options that may benefit you and your employees;
Help you implement a particular workforce mobility solution for your business or group of businesses
Serve as a coordinator between multiple workforce mobility efforts throughout the Region.

Sample Workforce Mobility Options

There are a variety of workforce mobility strategies used nationally and locally that the Workforce Mobility Team may recommend based on your needs. In some cases, workforce mobility strategies may involve the entire “door-to-door” commuting trips between workers’ homes and their workplaces. In other cases, the strategies may involve a portion of workers’ commuting trips—typically the “first and last mile” trips between existing public transportation services and the workers’ homes and workplaces. A sample of potential strategies that could be sponsored by a single employer, a group of employers, or a public-private partnership are described below.

Vanpools, buses, and ridesharing providing workers long-distance, point-to-point commuting options. For example, for nearly 20 years Allen Edmonds, located in the City of Port Washington, contracted with a private transportation provider to offer a commuter bus service to its employees living in the City of Milwaukee.
- Carpool SEWRPC’s CommuteWISE Connect is a free website and app for commuters to find and share rides with individuals with similar commutes and work hours. Contact us for additional information on promoting carpooling at your business.
Shuttle buses providing “last mile” transportation between transit stations and participating businesses. An example is the Shuttle Bug Program, which was a public-private partnership between businesses and transit operators in suburban Chicago that served nearly 1,000 daily riders on 13 routes. note: this service was suspended due to the COVID-19 pandemic).
Transportation Network Company (e.g., Lyft, Uber) partnerships providing subsidized trips within a certain geographic area. The Pinellas Suncoast Transit Authority partners with Uber to address “last mile” transportation needs through their Direct Connect program. The Transit Authority pays the first $3.00 of the trip within a designated zone to or from a series of bus stops.
Travel Demant Management (TDM) strategies to encourage the use of alternative travel modes or times of travel. TDM typically involves providing information and incentives to promote the use of transit, carpools, biking, and walking. These measures can be implemented by local and State governments, as well as by businesses.

Longer-term options that the Team and businesses may consider include the following:

Transportation Management Associations, organized by a group of employers, allow members to collectively advocate for, and pool their resources to support, a variety of workforce mobility strategies. The Transportation Management Association of Lake-Cook, a not-for-profit business association, has provided commuting options in suburban Chicago for nearly 20 years.
Employer-sponsored commuter programs include efforts initiated by businesses to encourage employees to travel to work by carpooling, transit, walking, or biking, as opposed to driving alone. As an example, Seattle Children’s Hospital developed and marketed an incentive program to reduce drive-alone trips that includes a commute tracking website, a shuttle bus program, and an overhaul of their parking system that incentivizes employees’ use of modes of transportation other than driving alone. As a result of the program, the drive-alone rate of the hospital’s employees fell from 73% in 1995 to 38% in 2010.

Contact Information

For more information or to arrange a meeting to discuss your workforce mobility challenges, please contact us:

Email: mobility@sewrpc.org

SEWRPC Workforce Mobility Team contacts: