The Sonoma County Board of Supervisors has agreed to upgrade a program that allows county employees to ride public transportation for free.
The board voted Tuesday to expand the county’s Clean Commute Employee Benefit Program. Under the expansion, county employees can ride on the Santa Rosa CityBus system and city employees can travel on Sonoma County Transit buses for free.
Employees just need to show their employee ID badges starting in January, county officials said.
The expanded program will also provide county employees with free electric vehicle charging for up to three hours at 46 different county-operated charging station ports and free bike parking at 28 bike storage lockers located on the county campus.
County employees also will receive an increase in the monthly incentive for Clean Commute program participants from $40 to $100, county officials said.
The expansion will need approval from the Santa Rosa City Council, which will hold a meeting on Nov. 14.
Since the inception of an online trip tracker in 2022 to monitor the program’s progress, over 1,600 county employees have logged 163,426 trips, saving 833 metric tons of carbon dioxide, according to county officials.