CITY TO WEIGH COMMUTING PLANS; MONEY INCENTIVES, VARYING SCHEDULES AMONG PROPOSALS.

Byline: Teresa Jimenez / Daily News Staff Writer

Planning for a future in which fewer people drive solo to work, the city has drafted a list of programs it will consider to reduce the number of trips that residents and employees take around town.

The ideas are included in the city's draft traffic plan environmental impact report, called the General Plan Circulation Element EIR. Though still in the preliminary stages, the city's Planning Commission already has reviewed the concepts and will approve the ideas when it makes a recommendation this month to the City Council.

The circulation element was designed to provide a road development plan to move traffic between the Golden State and Antelope Valley freeways, but it also addresses how to solve future traffic backups.

``The first step is looking at whether it's something we even want to look at,'' said City Planner Laura Stotler. ``It will take time before we implement them. . . . A lot of the programs require the public to participate, and all you can do is provide the opportunity.''

Among the concepts suggested to reduce traffic on city roads in the future are a rideshare matching program with a financial incentive, which would help commuters from the same area find driving partners. The program would be offered to businesses with 25 to 100 employees.

Another plan would be to change work schedules so that some employees work 40 hours in perhaps a four-day workweek. Called compressed workweeks, the program would reduce the amount of traffic for different days of the week, as well as vary time patterns of commuters.

The city also could consider creating a telecommuting center, allowing residents to work at a satellite center.

The list of concepts also includes other familiar traffic reduction programs such as van-pool services, park-and-ride lots, bicycle lockers and money incentives to get people to use alternative means for getting to work.

The Planning Commission supports the programs as long as they allow employers and employees to participate voluntarily, Stotler said.

Louis Brathwaite, a planning commissioner, said the proposed programs may cost money to implement, but would save everyone money in the long run.

``Congestion also costs the city,'' Brathwaite said. ``So you have to trade it with programs that are less expensive.''

So far, the Planning Commission has voiced support for all of the plans except one. That program would have established a parking fee of $5 per vehicle for all businesses with more than 25 employees, where incentives and other trip reduction programs were in place.