DEPARTMENT: Transportation & Capital Improvements
DEPARTMENT HEAD: Mike Frisbie, P.E.
COUNCIL DISTRICTS IMPACTED: Citywide
SUBJECT: Transportation Demand Management
SUMMARY:
A briefing on the City of San Antonio’s Transportation Demand Management (TDM) initiative including the Transportation & Capital Improvements Department’s (TCI) continuing efforts to implement a TDM pilot in San Antonio, and Bexar County’s recent resolution on employee transportation alternatives.
BACKGROUND INFORMATION:
As a result of the September 12, 2017 Council Consideration Request (CCR) submitted by Councilmembers Rey Saldana (District 4) and Ana Sandoval (District 7), TCI recommended establishing a working group with partner agencies to review the feasibility of creating a TDM program for San Antonio. In addition, the working group was to examine existing challenges and opportunities as well as future coordination efforts and the additional resources needed for implementing a comprehensive TDM program in San Antonio. During the six month working group process, TCI reported initial progress in April 2018 to the City Council Transportation Committee with findings and recommendations in June 2018.
The TDM Working Group met three times and consisted of transportation professionals, professionals from influential San Antonio organizations, technology professionals, and several alternate commuters. As part of the process, many ideas and strategies were developed, consolidated, and prioritized to achieve the objective of reducing dependency on single occupancy vehicles. The ideas generally fall within three categories - Infrastructure/Investment, Policy/Regulation and Employee/Employer.
o Infrastructure/Investment - Focuses on better transit options to move more people, including dedicated lanes that would provide incentive to transit riders and carpoolers.
o Policy/Regulation - Includes tax incentives, removing minimum parking requirements, and unbundling parking costs from rent prices. These items would involve significant private sector developer discussions, as well as discussions regarding impact to public tax revenue.
o Employee/Employer - Focuses on building upon and enhancing existing practices such as the Commute Solutions Program through Alamo Area Council of Governments (AACOG) and Alamo Area Metropolitan Planning Organization (AAMPO).
In April 2018, TCI presented to the Transportation Committee sharing ideas and findings of the TDM Working Group with the intent on presenting final recommendations in June 2018. As a result of feedback and direction from the April 2018 Transportation Committee briefing, TCI met with select stakeholders to focus on developing a short-term TDM pilot program with key employer(s) located in Downtown San Antonio. Agency partners with experience in the practice of TDM were engaged to provide information on what tools and programs are working to enhance commutes for their employees. The intent of the small stakeholder meetings was to bring the identified strategies to Downtown employers to find an opportunity initiate a pilot program.
During the June 2018 Transportation Committee briefing, TCI recommended the implementation of a TDM pilot program with the City of San Antonio downtown employees. The current limited commuter benefits can be greatly enhanced by promoting additional programs such as carpool, VIA Vanpool, transit, and the education of employees regarding the options and availability of commuter alternatives. The intent of the TDM pilot is to learn first with City employees and use the findings as a model for expanding the commuter options for other Downtown employers.
ISSUE:
Since the June 2018 Transportation Committee briefing, TCI has partnered with the Human Resources Department to obtain a list of approximately 3,600 City of San Antonio downtown employees to better understand commuting patterns. Additionally, TCI has been working with VIA Metropolitan Transit (VIA) to perform a spatial analysis on the data to identify potential VIA Vanpool candidates. Factors such as proximity to fixed route transit service and commuter trip length may influence analysis results. The outcome of the analysis will determine a potential number of VIA Vanpool vehicles for the City to consider partially or fully subsidizing as part of the pilot.
In addition to the City of San Antonio’s focus on reducing dependency on single occupancy vehicles, Bexar County passed a resolution on August 24, 2018 directing the County Manager to issue a Request for Proposals (RFP) to study the following:
1) A comprehensive overview of existing employee transportation modes; and
2) A survey on employee attitudes toward using microtransit and bus transportation benefits if they were to be subsidized by the County; and
3) A survey of companies who may be interested in providing services for an expanded employee benefit program including, but not limited to: VIA, Lyft, Uber, taxicab companies, Bird, Lime, Blue Duck, rental car companies, Swellcycle, and Chariot; and
4) A detailed plan for the implementation of a multimodal demand-driven transportation benefit for Bexar County employees; and
5) A survey of large Bexar County employers and institutions to determine what transportation benefits they currently provide and what transportation benefits they would be willing to consider.
ALTERNATIVES:
There are no alternatives associated with this briefing.
FISCAL IMPACT:
There is no fiscal impact associated with this briefing.
RECOMMENDATION:
There is no action associated with this briefing.