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Have you heard of The Golden Modes? This set of awards from GoTriangle recognizes transit users and companies each year who are helping move the concept of transit forward in our community. We spoke with Anne Galamb from the city of Raleigh and James Demby, the 2017 Golden Ticket recipient, to learn more.
Here is the list of the 2017 Golden Modes winners with descriptions of the categories and videos about each of them.
If you know someone who should be recognized with one of these awards, nominations are open! Here are the forms:
Commuter Awards (Golden Modes, Ticket, Spoke, etc.)
https://gotriangle.wufoo.com/forms/2018-golden-modes-commuter-award/
Employer Awards
https://gotriangle.wufoo.com/forms/2018-golden-modes-employer-commute-awards/
Community Impact Award
https://gotriangle.wufoo.com/forms/2018-golden-modes-community-impact/
Placemaker Award
https://gotriangle.wufoo.com/forms/2018-golden-modes-placemaker-award/
Here are the questions from our discussion with Anne and James:
- Anne, let’s start with some background for those who have never heard about this.
- How long have you been awarding the Golden Modes? Bit of history.
- Based on the website, it looks like there are five awards for commuters and three for employers. Can you explain each set?
- How do you find companies for the employer awards?
- How do you find people for the commuter awards?
- Are the qualifications just people who use that form of transit or do they also have to be out there encouraging others?
- Tell us about James and why he won the Golden Ticket.
- What do award recipients receive?
- The website has videos about the winners, which we’ll link to in the show notes. How long have you been doing those?
As we’ve said, James Demby was the 2017 Golden Ticket recipient.
- James, did you know about these awards before you were recognized with one?
- How did they tell you?
- Tell us about the awards ceremony. Red carpet, I presume? 🙂
- As Anne mentioned, your story is interesting. One thing I’ve often talked about on this show is the choices we make. People feel trapped into driving because they live in Raleigh and work in RTP, for example. But those are choices. In your case, you chose to be a one-car family and chose to live in a neighborhood because of transit options. Tell us more about that and why it was important to you.
- Besides work, where else do you take the bus?
- You were recognized for this award because you’re an avid bus rider. I think a lot of people are curious about the bus, but nervous about what to do. What advice do you offer for them?
Also, off air, we briefly discussed companies offering cashout programs. Some downtown companies pay employees who don’t park or give them a bus pass instead of paying for a parking space. This slide is from a presentation given by the DRA. We’ll be digging deeper into this topic soon!
