Commuters who live or work in Redmond are having a positive impact on the community with Go Redmond.

Last year was the first full year for the Go Redmond commute trip reduction program and users took more than 800,000 non-drive alone trips to work, which kept 8 million pounds of carbon dioxide from entering the atmosphere, according to a City of Redmond press release.

The release states that trips by biking, walking, carpooling, vanpooling, teleworking or taking the bus increased by 13 percent over the previous year. The most popular mode of travel was riding the bus, with 40 percent of Go Redmond users logging bus trips. Sharing the ride with a carpool or vanpool accounted for 35 percent of the commutes with Go Redmond and about 17 percent of people biked and walked to work in the program. Telecommuting quickly gained in popularity and made up eight percent of the Go Redmond commute trips.

Many residents, employees and businesses in Redmond took advantage of Go Redmond subsidies, grants and support to find a new way to work this past year. Go Redmond provides individuals a free one-month ORCA card to try the bus, one-year of vanpool subsidies to encourage new vanpoolers and personalized commute plans where commuters receive assistance identifying possible carpool partners, bus routes, bike routes and more. All this adds up to reduced congestion in and around Redmond, the release states.

In addition, Go Redmond provides Redmond employers grants that help support employee trip reduction programs. In the past year, 17 Redmond employers participated in the grant program, which included grants for things such as the installation of bike racks and providing bus passes to employees.

Explore the Go Redmond program at www.GoRedmond.com.