Percent of development projects that meet or exceed drive alone trip targets
Status
The City of Austin sets drive alone trip reduction targets for development review cases that require a Transportation Impact Analysis (TIA) to be submitted. While those targets differ depending on the area of the city where a proposed development is located, the City has set a goal of meeting or exceeding them in 35% of all cases. The City is currently meeting that goal.
Transportation Demand Management (TDM) is a practical way of meeting the City’s mode split goals. However, 65% of new developments within the City that require a TIA are not providing adequate TDM provisions. The current Land Development Code (LDC) does not require developments to formally address TDM; however, most applicants are willing to incorporate TDM measures as a way to reduce the number of site-generated single-occupancy vehicle trips. The Transportation Criteria Manual (TCM) which was adopted in 2021 and goes live mid-2022, will require that all TIAs and Transportation Assessments (a new impact analysis document) provide TDM plans and implement measures to address the City’s mode split goals.
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Historically, drive alone trips targets have been upheld by developments that are forward thinking or would like to market to potential patrons that they are taking steps to reduce drive alone trips to and from their site. Progress has largely relied on voluntary participation from the development community because TDM is not codified, which was the biggest barrier to reaching the City Council adopted goal of a 50/50 mode share by 2039. This 50/50 mode share goal means that 50% of trips taken within the City are by a mode other than a person driving alone in a car.
Note: To see the underlying data for this chart, please select the "View Source Data" link.
Without a change in City Code or a way to require new development in Austin to take a more aggressive approach to incentivizing the use of alternative modes of transportation, the measure is bound to remain lower than the goals envisioned by City Council. A City Code requirement would allow the Austin Transportation Department (ATD) to enforce TDM measures with each individual development that is proposed so that the City’s 50/50 mode share target can be reached. With the TCM update which was adopted, TDM will now be required on large-scale developments, which will help this metric to be met more consistently.
ATD will continue to give incentives to incoming developments to make implementing a TDM plan more appealing. A combination of this direction from ATD and the new TCM will likely be needed to enforce TDM and meet the 50/50 mode share goals of the City.
Additional Measure Insights
The drive alone trip reduction target areas are broken into the following contexts with the following reduction targets: City Core (40%), Urban Core (25%), Urban (20%), and Suburban (10%). These targets speak to the number of drive alone trips that a development can reduce by implementing TDM measures with their site. Some of these measures include: providing bus passes to residents, reducing parking, requiring that parking be an added cost to residents, implementing shared micromobility (scooters and bikes), adding a MetroBike (formerly B-Cycle) station to the development, and other strategies to encourage use of transit, walking, biking, or carpooling.
The success of this measure will directly correlate to the reduction of vehicles from the transportation network and will help to spur the use of transportation methods which do not rely on a single occupant (driver) per vehicle on the road. Every vehicle that ATD can replace with another mode of travel, or consolidate into less vehicles, will result in reduced strain on the transportation network and will allow for residents to get to and from their destination safely and efficiently. This measure helps to underscore the basic function of the Transportation Department and will aid in the effort to keep Austin streets safe and operational.
Measure Details and Definition
1) Definition: This is a measure of how many developments that submit Transportation Impact Analyses (TIAs) meet or exceed their goal for reducing single occupant vehicle trips through Transportation Demand Management (TDM) measures.
2) Calculation method: This measure was calculated by the following formula: The number of developments that met their TDM reduction targets divided by the total number of developments that submitted a TIA.
3) Data Collection Process: Data is obtained from ATD’s TIA tracking list to get the total number of developments. TDM requirements are tracked in the scopes for each individual TIA.
4) Measure Target Calculation: The target was calculated based on ATD’s TDM plan, which aims to address the Council-approved goal of a 50/50 mode share. The target shows how many developments ATD has negotiated with to meet their drive alone trip reduction goals.
5) Frequency Measure is Reported: Annually (Fiscal Year)
Date page was last updated: May 2022