The Tacoma-Pierce County Chamber and Downtown On the Go will host a luncheon next month to honor downtown businesses for their work in sustainable transportation and commute options by awarding the annual Transportation Innovator Awards. The awards acknowledge and celebrate work being done that helps meet the Downtown On the Go’s goal of reducing the number of single-occupancy vehicles by 11 per cent by 2015. The luncheon is an opportunity to honor the award recipients, hear from local transportation experts working to improve transportation in downtown Tacoma, and learn more about local agencies and their active transportation options and projects in Tacoma.

The Transportation Innovator Awards categories include:

Innovative Parking Solutions — Awarded to the business or individual who has made a difference through parking policy, promotion, pricing or education. Honoring businesses who have utilized creative partnerships or use of spaces. This can include parking for cars, carpools, vanpools, bicycles, motorcycles or scooters.

Live Downtown Program — Awarded to the business or individual who has gone above and beyond in promoting the Live Downtown program to incentivize living close to work.

Advocacy Award — Awarded to the business or individual who has made a difference for downtown Tacoma through transportation advocacy at the local, state or federal level.

Biking Strong — Awarded to the business or individual who is a leader year-round in promoting, education and encouraging bicycling as a commute mode; and creating opportunities for bicycling through the provision of bike parking for employees and customers, bike infrastructure, or showers. Honoring those who work to make downtown Tacoma more bike-friendly through their business or their work.

Bold Step/Big Program — Awarded to the business or individual who made a bold change in practice or policy to create opportunities for transportation options.

Past Transportation Innovator Awards recipients include:

2012
Columbia Bank
HomeStreet Bank
BLRB Architects
GeoEngineers
University of Washington Tacoma
Jennifer Burley, Employee Transportation Coordinator, University of Washington Tacoma

2011
BLRB Architects
Center for Urban Waters / City of Tacoma
US Geological Survey
Propel Insurance

2009
CH2M Hill
Columbia Bank
DaVita, Inc.
Propel Insurance
Regence BlueShield
University of Washington Tacoma

The Transportation Innovator Awards will be held on Fri., Oct. 11 between 11:30 a.m. and 1 p.m. at the Pacific Grill Events Center, located at 1530 Pacific Ave., in downtown Tacoma. For more information and to register online, click here.