Making An Impact Transportation Demand Management in Arlington County, Virginia ACT Canada Conference Toronto November 18, 2009.

Making An Impact

Transportation Demand

Managementin

Arlington County,

Virginia

ACT Canada Conference TorontoNovember 18, 2009

Arlington, Virginia USA

•66 sq. km. (26 sq. miles) in area 66 sq. km. (26 sq. miles) in area including federal landsincluding federal lands•Located in the core of the Located in the core of the Washington region (over 5 million Washington region (over 5 million residents, 3 million jobs and residents, 3 million jobs and 3,000 sq. km. of urbanized area) 3,000 sq. km. of urbanized area) •200,000 residents200,000 residents•200,000 workers200,000 workers•Location for significant regional Location for significant regional and federal facilities such as and federal facilities such as National Airport and the PentagonNational Airport and the Pentagon

Three Rreasons for Our Success:

TDM is the Software that Makes the County’s Transportation Hardware

Work

Smart Growth High Density TOD

Transportation Facilities & Services

TDM: Information, Assistance,

and Incentives

Smart Growth in the R-B Smart Growth in the R-B CorridorCorridor

Smart growth encourages development around transit stations

M

M

M

M

M

Lower Density ZoningLower Density Zoning

Each Day Arlington County Commuter Services

Removes 38,000 Vehicles from the Region’s Roads

19,000 trips each way are shifted to transit, carpool, vanpool, telework, biking and walking

• For comparisons of scale:– VRE (heavy rail) = 8,000 Trips each

way– MARC (heavy rail) = 16,800 Trips

each way

How Arlington Practices

TDM

We make it EASY to chose alternatives to driving alone

7

Arlington County Commuter Services (ACCS)

• Single TMA operated by Arlington County

• 3 full-time County employees

• 45 full-time contracted employees

We operate 4 fixed Commuter Stores® and

1 Mobile Commuter Store

8

We operate a Commuter Information Center that did $13 million in sales in

2008, fulfilling 29,000 information requests.

9

10

Arlington Transportation Partners (ATP) is our employer services outreach. They reach: •582 businesses•124,000 employees•62% of employees in Arlington

We run award winning marketing campaigns each year to promote TDM

awareness

11

Internet Services:We run 15 websites and blogs that

reach 3500 people each day

We have a warehouse that distributes all of the regional transportation

information. We put bus schedules, maps and information at all bus stops.

Special Initiatives

Real-time schedule displaysCar Sharing

WalkArlingt

on

BikeArlingt

on

ACCS FundingACCS budget in 2008 - $6.5 M

• Revenues: 48% Federal CMAQ, 26% State grants, 13% County, 13% ACCS sales

• Expenditures:

17%

14%

23%

17%

9%

5%

6%

5%

4%

Marketing - 17%

Call/distribution - 14%

ATP - 23%

Retail - 17%

One-time projects - 9%

Bike/walk - 5%

Admin - 6%

Research - 5%

Web - 4%

Retail

ATP

Marketing

Call/dist

TDM for Development

TDM for Site Plan Development

• Site Plan Process:Arlington County’s mechanism for granting extra density in exchange for development proffers.

• Limited to areas with planned or good existing transit infrastructure.

• Goal: dense, walkable, mixed use, urban villages.

TDM for Use Permits

• TDM measures are required for use permits if the developer wants an exception to the zoning code such as reduced parking even if there is no increase in density.

TDM in Arlington is Based on Standard Measures

Rather than Performance.

• Saves money for the developer and the County

• Less cumbersome

Critical Elements for TDM

• Political support

• Enforceable language

• Frequent monitoring

Political Support

• Elected officials and citizen commissions must be willing, and have the vision, to back up TDM planning requests.

• Educate these key people to the goals of good planning policy for sustainable development.

Enforceable Language• It all starts with the language.

• Develop standards and apply them fairly to all development.

• Language should be precise; never use the word “May” when you mean “Shall or Will”.

• Any weakness will be exploited creating loopholes that will weaken the provisions.

Enforceable Language• Understand the process is collaborative

and adversarial at the same time.

• Never have any understandings that are not written down, lawyers will be interpreting them in the future without you.

• Maintain control in the provisions (i.e. you make the decisions, not the developer)

• TDM conditions should be valid for the life of the site plan or permit.

STRATEGIES CATEGORY A B C DI. Ridesharing Marketinga. information dissemination- distribute/display brochures, posters ...... x x x x- conduct employee transportation surveys..... x x x xb. operate a vanpool program ............. x xc. subsidize vanpool program- match State subsidy program ................ x x- double State subsidy program ............... x- backup, reserve maintenance vehicle ........ xd. employee transportation coordinator- designate a part-time ETC .................. 2 x x - designate a full-time ETC .................. x- on-site ride matching ...................... xe. contribute to a transit store or TMA- $8,369 per year ............................ 2 x - $16,739 per year............................ x - $25,108 per year............................ xf. locate/operate a transit store ........ xg. emergency ride home (taxi, bus) ........ 3 3 x

Three Sizes of Buildings1. Less than 100,000 sq. ft. gross floor area2. 100,000 - 200,000 sq. ft. gross floor area3. More than 200,000 sq. ft. gross floor area

Tool Kit / Typical Measures Provisions placed on building owners for the life

of the building.

• TMA membership

• Property /Employee Transportation Coordinator

• Contribution to sustain enforcement (30 years)

• Information kiosks

• On-site Construction (bike racks & showers, transit stores, Off-street loading docks, etc.

• Off-site Construction (bus stop improvements, sidewalks and trails, etc.

• Parking cash out

• Car sharing

• Guaranteed ride home

• Carpool / Vanpool

• Transit contributions

• Employee transit subsidies

• Flextime

• Telework

• Compliance fines

• Parking Management plans

Enforcement Staff

• Just because it is written in the plan, doesn't mean it will get done.

• The toughest problem we face is the constant change in building management.

• A dedicated staff person is needed to visit and inform on a regular basis to maintain continuity of the programs.

Frequent Monitoring• Regular visits to the building to inform and

inspect the facilities. Physical facilities such as bike racks, information kiosks, and business centers are photographed.

Wall Kiosk Free-standing Kiosk

Residential Business Center

Frequent Monitoring• Annual reports are required from the

building managers about parking usage, commercial tenants, progress or problems.

Public Monitoring• Groundswell. Tenants are able to find out through our

website what the building is supposed to be giving them for transportation benefits and demand it directly from the building management.

How Arlington Gets Good

Bicycle Facilities

Gain control of the process

• Give design information to developers.

• Don’t let non-experts make the design decisions such as generic zoning reviewers.

• Make sure a bicycle expert has sign off on the plans and inspects installations.

• Change the condition language so the bike expert has the final say.

Show Them What You Want

90 Stack Racks

Ring racks under weather cover

Typical Residential Bike Room

Typical Lockers12”Wide -18”Deep- 36”Tall

53%

28%

23%

19%

14%

10%

2%

26%

0% 20% 40% 60% 80% 100%

Showers

Secured, enclosed racks

Connection to bike trails

Connection to bike lanes

Overnight lockers

Open weather protected racks

Unsheltered racks

None of these

Q2C: Which of these facilities influenced your decision to bike to work?

Showers at the Workplace Influenced More than 50% to

Bike to Work

Asked of those who said they

bike to work in Q1 and

had at least one

workplace biking

amenity

n = 266

Good Record Management

• Keep all records in electronic files.

• Scan paper documents into the files.

• Give logical names to documents so you can find them quickly when you are on the phone.

• Keep critical records on paper as well (invoices, payments, etc).

• All of this will save time when researching a question.

Good Record Management

• We use Intuit QuickBooks to produce and email invoices quarterly, and to reconcile payments.

• We use an Access database to keep up with contact info and items that will need to be counted and reported on (such as due dates for monitoring).

ACCS Research and EvaluationDoes it work? Yes.

TDM at Worksites Influences Employees’ Mode Choice

At Arlington sites where workers had access to TDM services: - CP/VP and Transit trips were 104% higher - Drive Alone trips were 28% lower

Respondents who

commute to a work location in Arlington

Co

Alt mode use (share of weekly trips)

- With TDM – 43%

- Without TDM – 21%

Q15 Now thinking about LAST week, how did you get to work each day.

88% of Arlington County Business Leaders

(CEO Level) Say Arlington County Is aGood Place to Locate a Business!

Source: 2007 ACCS Arlington Business Leaders StudyQ9: Considering all factors that are important to your organization as a place to locate your business, how would you rate Arlington County?

63%

25%

9%

2%

2%

0% 20% 40% 60% 80% 100%

5 - Very good

4

3

2

1 - Not very good

88%Give a Top-2 Box Rating

Transportation / Access Is the Number One Attribute Driving Business Leaders’

Ratings of the County as a Great Business Location

2007 Arlington Business Leaders StudyQ9A: Why did you give that rating? (OPEN END)

n = 98

27%

27%

24%

16%

20%

21%

13%

13%

12%

6%

7%

4%

29%

18%

19%

23%

12%

11%

16%

11%

11%

8%

6%

6%

0% 20% 40% 60% 80% 100%

Enhanced employee morale

Enhanced employee recruitment

Enhanced employee retention

Reduced need for parking

Attracted more qualified employees

Increased productivity

Reduced traffic congestion

Enhanced reputation

Reduced absenteeism

Reduced operating costs

Fulfilled building obligation

Reduced need for office space

4 5 - Great benefitSource: 2007 ATP Client Study QC14: Indicate how much your organization has benefited from offering transportation services. ASKED ONLY OF THOSE WHO ANSWERED “YES” IN Q9

Employers Saw an Increase in Employee Morale, and Enhanced Recruitment and

Retention Due to Transportation Benefits56%45

%43%39

%32%

29%24

%23%14

%13%10

%

32%

Employersn = 95 - 98

Arlington’s Integrated Program Impact

46%

46%

28%

26%

13%

15%

33%

28%

15%

13%

13%

8%

0% 20% 40% 60% 80% 100%

Enhanced tenantrecruitment

Enhanced tenantretention

Enhancedreputation

Fulfilled buildingobligation

Reduced need forparking

Reduced trafficcongestion

4 5 - Great benefitSource: 2007 ATP Client Study QC16: Indicate how much your organization has benefited from offering transportation services. ASKED ONLY OF THOSE WHO ANSWERED “YES” IN Q9

79% of Residential Property Managers Saw Enhanced Tenant Recruitment and

Retention Due to Transportation Services

79%

74%

43%

39%

26%

23%

Property Managers

n = 39

Arlington’s Integrated Program Impact

Residents Rate their Quality of Life Better due to the “Transportation System &

Services” in Arlington

85%94%

0%

20%

40%

60%

80%

100%

Less than very satisfied withtransportation system (rating of 1-4)

Very satisfied with transportationsystem (rating of 5)

C-1: How would you rate the overall quality of life in Arlington County?

9-point lift

The trans-portation system in Arlington County

makes it a better

place to live.

How to Read This

Chart:Proportions

reported are those rating the quality of

life favorably.

Example: 85% of

those less than very

satisfied w/ trans.

system rate quality of

life favorably.

Importance of Trans-portation

Contact Information:John Durham, TDM PlannerArlington County, [email protected]

Thank You!