Amtrak's Pacific Surfliner and Coaster trains provide service between San Diego and communities in North San Diego County.
Sometimes, ACT Midwest members feel like “voices crying out in the wilderness” when it comes to Transportation Demand Management (TDM) Programs in our part of the country. So I was pleased to receive a scholarship for the 2013 Association for Commuter Transportation International Conference in San Antonio, Tex. In addition to being a speaker and moderator for my session, “The Case for Chicago Area TDM,” I also found that this year’s conference was full of information that I can put to use in the Chicago area, which was held from July 27-31.
One session, “Integrating TDM into Your Long Range Transportation Plan,” was one I hadn’t originally planned to attend, but found to be quite valuable, especially in relation to the work Metropolitan Planning Council (MPC) is doing in the Chicago area regarding TDM.
Lisa Buchanan of Steer Davies Gleave (STG) in Denver spoke about the work they did with SANDAG (San Diego Association of Governments on the North Coast Corridor (San Diego area)TDM Plan. SANDAG is the San Diego area’s Metropolitan Planning Organization, and operates their Icommute TDM Program. The North Coast area includes the communities north of the city of San Diego from Del Mar to Oceanside, as well as the inland communities such as Fallbrook and Escondido. Most of the top 25 employers in San Diego are located in this area.
As with the work we’re doing in Chicago, Buchanan’s firm found that commuters’ top priority is convenience, and most employees drive alone to work 20 miles or more one way. In the Chicago area, we’ve found a similar trend with our Commute Options suburban employers. Most of the North Coast employers do not offer pretax transit benefits, but most employers are willing to provide transportation information to employees, and participate in a pretax transit program.
Steer Davies Gleave conducted a SWOT (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, Threats) Analysis to determine the current state of the Northern San Diego County market. They made a series of recommendations for the North Coast Corridor, which included:
- Prioritizing employer for TDM engagement based on employer size, location, use of non Single Occupancy Vehicle alternatives and expected disruption due to area road construction projects
- Forming a Transportation Solutions Team with dedicated staff to provide direct support to employer to implement TDM Programs
- Providing travel advisors available to provide customized travel planning information to employees
- Working with regional partners on campaigns to increase teleworking and flexible working, bike training and maintenance, and driver training for bicycle rules and rights
Based on STG’s findings, SANDAG will be testing some of these recommendations on a TDM Project related to construction mitigation.
The North Coast project provides some interesting concepts that can be a part of the an overall strategy to formalize TDM concepts in the Chicago area.