The County Planning and Development Services Department is creating a Transportation Demand Management (TDM) Ordinance to reduce the number of trips from people traveling from home to work within the unincorporated county. The ordinance will require that new projects reduce trips by implementing a suite of options that would encourage people to take alternative transportation, rideshare or work from home and will include specific actions to promote telecommuting, car sharing, vanpools, carpools, shuttle service, bicycle parking facilities, and transit subsidies.

When this measure is implemented, it will be expected to reduce vehicle miles traveled by over 11 million miles in 2030. The measure will reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 2,180 metric tons of carbon dioxide equivalent in 2030. Emissions reductions occur as more people use transit, ride a bike, or carpool to work instead of commuting from home to work by themselves in their personal vehicles. This measure also calculates reductions from telecommuting and alternative work schedules which reduce the number of days a person drives to the office.

Getting to work contributes to the County’s total transportation emissions, with residents traveling 25 miles, on average, to and from work five days a week. Over the course of about 50 weeks per year, even seemingly small improvements in transportation demand management such as installing bicycle lockers or providing preferential parking to carpoolers can result in a sizable impact over time. TDM measures also advance equity by ensuring workplaces offer services to help employees get to work especially if they have limited transportation options or don’t have access to a personal vehicle.