Murals focus of Destination Downtown tour

Try describing the who, when, where and why of Vancouver’s Destination Downtown and run the risk of falling into a pot of bureaucratic alphabet soup: In 2006, state lawmakers passed the Commute Trip Reduction (CTR) Efficiency Act, under which local jurisdictions had to develop CTR plans. Cities could designate a Growth and Transportation Efficiency Center (GTEC) and implement policies aimed at reducing drive-alone trips. The money for Destination Downtown, Vancouver’s GTEC, comes from a $100,000 annual Congestion Mitigation and Air Quality (CMAQ) grant from the Federal Transit Administration (FTA).

Whew.

On Tuesday, it was simpler to just focus on the what: A 30-minute lunchtime walking tour of downtown murals.

For more information about Destination Downtown or to order your free commute kit, go to the Destination Downtown website.

The free event was led by Derek Hofbauer, Destination Downtown’s employer outreach coordinator who works for Alta Planning + Design, a Portland company that Vancouver contracts with to manage the program.

Last year Hofbauer led a tour of Uptown Village, which has been added to the Destination Downtown project boundary, but Tuesday was the first tour he’d given of downtown murals. His tour attracted about three dozen people, who were interested in hearing about the murals and exploring downtown, but they were mostly retired people who don’t work downtown and therefore don’t seem to fit the target audience for Destination Downtown.

But they were given a book with coupons for more than 70 downtown businesses. While walking to mural sites, Hofbauer not only explained the work being done by the Clark County Mural Society to help make downtown a more vibrant place. He also pointed out restaurants, bars, coffee shops and retail stores.

Such a show of support for local businesses encourages owners to let Hofbauer talk to employees and sign them up for Destination Downtown. In the program, employees are asked to consider carpooling, riding the bus or a bicycle or walking to work at least once a week.

“The walk is really about our partnerships, and reaching out to different people,” Hofbauer said.

The walking tour, along with the noon concert series Destination Downtown sponsored this summer at Esther Short Park, are two examples of outreach that Chad Eiken, Vancouver’s director of community and economic development, didn’t envision when the city started Destination Downtown in 2012 as a pilot project.

“Not at all,” Eiken said Tuesday. “I think that’s showing how it is evolving. Derek has great ideas; I would not have pictured the program doing cool things to showcase the great restaurants or businesses downtown.”

Eiken said he pictured Destination Downtown as a “dry” program, as dull as the bureaucratic language that created it, and thought outreach would be limited to talking to employees and asking them to consider alternatives to driving alone.

By coming up with more creative ways to promote the program, it’s more likely to stick with people than talking about road capacity and carbon emissions, Eiken said.

According to Destination Downtown’s 2013 report, local businesses such as Sweet Spot Skirts, Bad Monkey Bikes and The Source Climbing Gym have joined the fun, helping plan after-work bike rides, a bicycle scavenger hunt and donating free climbing lessons for weekly prize drawings. The Mighty Bowl food truck helped promote events and offered a referral program, in which participants would receive a free lunch if they brought a colleague to sign up.

Fun events, plus incentives such as bike rack installations, carpool matching services and walking/biking maps, have been valuable tools for expanding the program, Hofbauer said. Participants logging at least one commute trip a week by either bike, foot, transit or carpooling become eligible in weekly drawings for a $25 gift certificate to a local shop or restaurant. That has been a popular incentive, he said.

More than 600 people are in Destination Downtown’s database.

Survey results indicate participants have decreased drive-alone trips by nearly 10 percent. More than three-quarters of participants said Destination Downtown has encouraged them to visit downtown businesses other than where they work, and 69 percent said the information they received through the program has helped reduce their drive-alone trips.

Eiken acknowledged that it’s difficult to measure results.

The primary goal of the program, reducing drive-alone trips to downtown from an estimated 84 percent in 2008 to 65 percent by 2025, is significant, and it’s difficult to change people’s behavior, Hofbauer said. Raising awareness, even among people who don’t work downtown, helps.

“We want that kind of brand recognition,” Hofbauer said. “And the next time people hear about it, they’ll be more receptive about it.”