Tag Archives: TDM

Minneapolis Ends Parking Minimums for New Development

May 17, 2021 Kim Fernandez Leave a comment

A parking lot in Minneapolis, Minn. Citing sustainability goals and the potential for design flexibility, the Minneapolis, Minn., City Council voted unanimously Friday to end required parking minimums for new development in the city. The measure also increased minimums for bicycle parking and requires many new buildings, including residential, to incorporate transportation demand management (TDM) strategies in their development.

The city is the largest in the Midwest to do away with parking minimums in what looks to be a growing trend. Councilmembers said they hoped the change would help keep housing costs reasonable in the city and encourage people to use transit instead of single-occupant vehicles.

Considering a New TDM on Earth Day

April 22, 2021 Kim Fernandez Leave a comment

Illustration of different transportation modes against a green background The face of commuting has changed drastically since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic last March. Hesitancy toward transportation modes that put us close together with strangers in an enclosed space, a huge increase in working from home where possible, and even lower gas prices (for a time) have seen people reconsider the way they get from home to work and play. So what does that mean for transportation demand management (TDM)?

Stanford University still has demand for TDM. Vanpools are still running, transit is still in use, and while TDM budgets have been cut (along with so many others), there’s still a need for it, and that need will likely grow as life gets back to something resembling normal.

Brian Shaw, CAPP, executive director of parking and transportation services at the university, takes a hard look at how the commuting landscape has changed and what that means for TDM, now and looking ahead, in the current issue of Parking & Mobility. It’s a great read with lots to think about–and the perfect, sustainable kickoff to Earth Day for parking and mobility professionals. Check it out here.

IPMI Blog, Resources

Are Flexible Work Arrangements the New TDM Tool?

April 13, 2021 Kim Fernandez Leave a comment

By Perry Eggleston, CAPP, DPA

Rahm Emanuel said, “You never let a serious crisis go to waste. And what I mean by that it’s an opportunity to do things you think you could not do before.”

I started as executive director of UC Davis Transportation Services on January 2, 2020, and while I was still learning my way around the campus, the COVID crisis struck. The industry suddenly faced unprecedented difficulties that challenged the most senior mobility experts.

March 16 came and suddenly, there were discussions of campus closures, distance learning, and teleworking. Until that time, telework was a wish for many in the transportation industry but not considered plausible due to supervisor and management reluctance. Within a week, these discussions made campus-wide telework a reality. When this COVID thing lasted longer than a few weeks, the campus started to look at how we could use the lull to continue the momentum of flexible work arrangements (FWA–the term our campus now uses for telework and compressed work schedules), and our department pushed the campus to continue planning using them past the pandemic.

To address all the issues for making FWA an ongoing TDM strategy, I am co-chairing a university committee: “Reimagining the Workplace.” Stakeholders from human resources, technology, planning, safety and ergonomics, employee/union relations, communications, legal, and finance are all involved. The committee has already identified several advantages to FWA: recruiting the best talent, employee well-being, more campus space for students, and reducing traffic congestion and air pollution. However, there are challenges to be overcome to arrive at the advantages.

Join Ramon Zavala and me April 21 when we host the IPMI webinar, Teleworking: An Alternate Mobility Mode. We will look at what institutions should consider when creating their own FWA program and planning lessons learned.

Perry Eggleston, CAPP, DPA, is executive director, transportation services, at UC Davis. He and Ramon Zavala, the university’s transportation demand manager, will present on this topic during an IPMI webinar, April 21. Click here for details and to register.

IPMI Blog, Resources

TDM and COVID-19

December 16, 2020 Kim Fernandez Leave a comment

woman wearing medical mask boarding a bus. TDM–transportation demand management–is a concerted effort to get people to choose alternates to single-occupant vehicles (SOVs), including transit, micro-mobility, and shared rides, to get from place to place. When COVID-19 made social distancing a trend, TDM took a big hit. And now, with several vaccines in use around the world and a return to semi-normal living in sight, experts and leaders are planning for TDM’s recovery and seeing opportunity post-pandemic.

IPMI’s Sustainability Committee hosted a panel discussion with several leading experts in the field to talk about TDM’s future given the effects of COVID-19. And while crowded buses and trains may be a hard sell for a little while longer, the panelists saw plenty of opportunity to advance non-SOV transportation in and around cities and campuses going forward. They shared their thoughts and ideas in the December issue of Parking & Mobility magazine and it’s a great read. Check it out here and let us know on Forum–where do you think TDM is going?

Education & Training, Resources

On-Demand Training: TDM For the Win: Creating a More Sustainable Campus

October 16, 2020 Rachel Yoka Leave a comment

TDM For the Win: Creating a More Sustainable Campus

Arizona State University’s Parking & Transit staff recently embarked on the development of a campus wide TDM playbook and program intended to guide the university through a transitional growth period; they worked to position it for a more sustainable future that reduced dependence on single-occupant vehicles and leveraged recent investments in micro-mobility. This recorded presentation will focus on the development of the TDM program and early stages of implementation.

Learn about the merits of successful TDM programs.
Define the steps to take the leap into a new TDM program.
Learn about the collaboration necessary to achieve success in a TDM program.

Available as part of the package of three webinars for $70 or purchase it individually for $35.

Presenters

Brett Wood, CAPP, PE

Brett has over 15 years of experience as a parking and mobility consultant, working throughout North America to help his clients find creative and implementable solutions. Brett’s passions include right-sized parking, data-driven solutions, and helping to shape a future for the industry that adapts well to the rapidly occurring disruptions around it. Brett serves as co-chair of the IPMI Research and Innovation Task Force, focusing on industry-leading projects around curb management, mobility, benchmarking, and more.

JC Porter, CAPP

JC Porter, CAPP, is Assistant Director for Commuter Services at Arizona State University, which includes oversight of the bicycle program, alternate transportation options, walk-only zones, permit sales and appeals on the Tempe campus, Poly Tech campus, West campus, and downtown campus. He received the city of Tempe Bike Hero of the year award for 2018 and the President’s Award for Sustainability in 2017 for his commitment to bicycling for ASU and the City of Tempe.

Gabe Mendez, CAPP

IPMI Blog, Resources, Transportation & Mobility

COVID’s Effect on TDM Programs

April 15, 2020 Rachel Yoka Leave a comment

By Perry Eggleston, CAPP, DPA

With the COVID-19 crisis in full effect, I started to look at the post-crisis impact on traditional transportation demand planning. I work on a large university campus with an active TDM program that’s been successful in the reduction of the number of single-occupant vehicle (SOV) trips. However, how will the COVID-19 crisis fears change the community’s perception of safety in using multi-passenger modes like mass transit and carpools?

When classes return to campus, I believe there may be a significant increase in SOV trips as affiliates want to travel in environments they control. If this spike occurs, how will campuses deal with the sudden vehicle increases, which were effectively reduced in the past, and how long will this “temporary” spike last?

With those questions in mind, I am taking this downtime to consider countermeasures. Keeping in mind the affiliate’s safety concerns, the campus administration’s desire to provide campus access, and maintaining carbon reduction mandates, how will we address what may be only a relatively temporary situation?

With the assistance of an industry expert on parking demand shifts, we are taking a serious look at addressing these potential SOV spikes when classes return to campus. Solutions being discussed are parking permit sales caps, prohibiting additional categories of students from purchasing permits (first-year students are not allowed to buy a permit at present), to reassessing our permit structures to include a zonal component that moves more parkers out of the campus core to its extremities. I found the zonal suggestion interesting as I was looking to implement this in about three years, but I am amazed how a sudden circumstance change requires its consideration now.

Perry Eggleston, CAPP, DPA, is executive director of transportation services with the University of California Davis.

IPMI Blog, Resources

Focus on Transportation Demand Management (TDM)

August 7, 2018 Kim Fernandez Leave a comment

By Isaiah Mouw, CAPP, LEED GA; and Brian Shaw, CAPP

Technology has and will continue to change the travel options and services made available to the traveling public. It is hard to predict with certainty the long-term effects of autonomous (self-driving) vehicles, alternative transportation services such as Uber or Lyft, the role that ride-matching services such as Scoop will play in influencing carpooling, or how people will choose to travel when they can use Mobility as a Service (MaaS) tools. What if one could monitor commuter behavior real-time and issue rewards for reducing driving and charge higher parking rates for frequent drivers? Sounds like science fiction, but technology exists today or will very soon to make this possible.

The transportation network companies (TNCs), Uber and Lyft, continue to impact millennial-generation members’ car use. Abandoning car ownership is a real option for a growing number of urbanites. As the millennial generation moves out into the work force and lives on their own, they are choosing at an increasing rate to forgo vehicle ownership. They are using TNCs because they are cost effective and simpler than owning and operating a vehicle in an urban environment. By combining their use of TNCs with car-sharing, some members of this group are able to live car-free, or at least car-lite. A portion of these millennials will continue to rely on TDM programs to support their chosen lifestyle and will likely choose to live and work where they can do so without owning a vehicle, at least for a period of years. What they may need is not a parking space, but rather pick-up/drop-off points for a TNC ride, access to public transit, and support for biking/walking. In addition, the advent of the autonomous vehicle will certainly have impacts on TDM strategies and planning, and these impacts remain unknown at this time.

This is excerpted from A Guide to Parking. To read the full chapter, check out the whole book here.

Isaiah Mouw, CAPP, LEED GA, is vice president, municipal division, with Citizens Lanier Holdings.

Brian Shaw, CAPP, is executive director, parking and transportation, with Stanford University.