Assessing The Sustainability Of Your Community’s Transportation Management
The agencies involved in transportation management may have different names in each community. Generally they will fall under the following categories: regional transit authority, municipal transportation or traffic agency, regional or state air quality control agencies, and regional or state departments of transportation.
- Does your municipality have a travel demand management policy?
- If yes, list the programs your municipality has in place to help citizens reduce vehicle miles traveled (VMT) and auto emissions e.g., walking and bike paths, shuttle services, public transit system, car pooling/car sharing, auto inspections, etc.
- Describe why each program came into existence and its current goals.
- What have been the principal strategies used to achieve citizen participation? Which have been successful and why? Which have been unsuccessful and why?
- How is success measured? Include the numerical targets of the program. If there are no targets, how might targets be established?
- What percentage of citizens participate in each program?
- What percentage of VMT reduction is achieved through each program?
- What has been the participation in each program over the last three years? Have participation and VMT reduction rates increased, leveled off or decreased? Please explain what is causing this trend.
- Do certain neighborhoods have successful participation in VMT programs? Why is this? Please describe what has been learned.
- What incentives are there, if any, for VMT reduction, e.g. avoided municipal and state penalties for air quality compliance, increased revenues to transit authorities from fares, increased prosperity of the city through quality of life improvement from reduced traffic congestion and noise pollution, city ordinance offering incentives to citizens to participate in natural resource conservation as a principle of community sustainability, etc.?
- Which transportation agencies benefit from VMT reduction, e.g., transit agencies selling fares, transportation departments in avoided costs of road maintenance and new construction, traffic agencies responsible for improving traffic flow, etc.?
- If fiscal benefits are derived from reduced VMT how could these be calculated and projected over time, e.g., avoided penalties, increased fares, operational efficiencies of maintaining current roads, etc.?
- Are there any policies that these agencies have to reinvest these financial savings into creating greater VMT reduction? Please describe. If not, how might the municipality encourage the establishment of such a policy?
- What disincentives are there, if any, for VMT reduction, e.g., loss of revenues from toll collection, funding to particular agencies based on total automobiles serviced, etc.?
- Are there any municipal policies for assuring that incentives to VMT reduction are enhanced, and disincentives eliminated? If not, how might these be pursued?