[9] Enhance Demand Management
Support
economic health by decreasing drive-alone, rush-hour trips.
Expected Benefits
Demonstrable service benefits accrue from a demand management
approach. Accident costs, emissions,
and energy consumption are reduced, together with congestion.
Implications
Demand management is an integral part of transportation system
management. Budget implications are
minor. There are significant
institutional challenges to implementation, however.
Actions
35) Continue and expand demand management initiatives.
Demand management is key to leveling off travel
growth in the region.
Commuter Register and Guaranteed Ride Home
CDTC staff has operated its Commuter
Register program since 1988. The
program included the circulation of a 30,000-copy, bimonthly newsprint
publication for its first ten years that contained transportation articles,
transit information and listings of individuals seeking carpool partners. In 1999, CDTC shifted the register to an
Internet-based service with on-line registry and matching. CDTC's continuous monitoring of the program
has documented its success in matching carpoolers, with a steady 33% success
rate among listers. Annual fuel usage
reductions are estimated at 150,000 gallons; over 3,700,000 vehicle miles are
eliminated annually.
The
program has also proven to be a strong complement to, rather than a competitor
to regular transit service. The Register serves a different market from
that of regular transit service. CDTC's
follow-up monitoring of carpool matching success indicates that the average
one-way commute trip length of successful carpoolers matched through the
Register is almost 30 miles -- in contrast to the typical transit trip of less
than five miles.
CDTC extended a "Guaranteed Ride Home" program to carpoolers,
walk, bike and non-CDTA transit travelers in January 1996. This complements CDTA's program for monthly
pass holders. If as successful as
similar programs in other parts of the country, it is expected that both
programs will be continued indefinitely.
In coming years, CDTC will continue the Commuter Register program and
seek ways of increasing its visibility and effectiveness. The Register program is an integral part of
the regional transit package.
Finally, CDTC and CDTA are willing to support vanpools should markets
develop. To date, markets have not
appeared. With average Commuter
Register carpools at 30 one-way miles in length, it can be anticipated that any
vanpool markets are a minimum of 40 miles in length. In the Capital District, commuter densities for point-to-point
trips for distances beyond 40 miles are quite low. Those that do exist are reasonably well served by cost-efficient
private bus operations.
Park-and-Ride
Expected suburban development calls for continued creation of
park-and-ride facilities, both for transit and carpool use. CDTC's Saratoga
County Park-and-Ride Lot Plan identifies short and long-range park-and-ride
lot locations along the Northway. Recent
TIP projects include new lots at Northway Exits 8 and 9 as well as in
Schodack. A setaside in the TIP
reserves funds for additional lots in Cohoes, Rotterdam and other locations. These projects will provide for an increase
of about 2,000 spaces in the Capital District.
Over the next twenty years further park-and-ride
lot development at a pace similar to that shown in the 1994-99 TIP is required
in order to give travelers the opportunity to conveniently form carpools or
access express bus service. Locations
should include the outlying areas along the Northway cited in the Saratoga County Park-and-Ride Lot Plan
and additional outlying areas near interchanges along I-88 in Schenectady
County, I-90 in Rensselaer County and the NYS Thruway.
Additionally, development activities within the urbanized area will
provide opportunities to negotiate agreements to allow park-and-ride use of
parking space at retail and office locations.
Both remote and peripheral lots can be of value in reducing vehicular
travel in congested corridors. Prime
locations for these remote or peripheral lots are those within the major
transit corridors identified in the market assessment performed for the fixed
guideway study. In addition to the
Interstate Highway corridors listed above, the prime arterial corridors
contained in the major transit markets include:
·
The US 20 corridor
from Albany west
·
The NY 5 corridor
between Albany and Schenectady
·
The US 4 corridor
in Rensselaer County
·
The NY 7 corridor
in Rensselaer County
Employer participation in transit promotion and financing
CDTA has been
successful in promoting the SWIPER pass program to employers, resulting in an
increase in monthly pass holders. The
future of transit may depend heavily on achieving even greater success. Support by employers for transit removes or
reduces the customer's out-of-pocket cost for transit use. Tax laws now allow employers to subsidize
transit passes as a tax-free employee benefit on an equal footing with
employer-provided parking.
However, few employers currently provide this benefit.
In
addition to continuing promotion and outreach efforts, new models of employer
pass programs can be explored. The most
promising model may be one that has been developed in Denver. Denver's "Ecopass" program
involves providing passes to employees on what could be considered a "site
license" rather than on a per-pass basis.
In this process, an employer that agrees to provide passes to all of its
employees receives a heavily discounted rate.
This approach increases transit revenue and usage while providing a
significant discount to users. (A 50%
discount for 50 passes per month produces more income than a full-rate price
for 10 per month.) The high discount
also serves as a strong enticement to employer participation. Even if some of the costs were passed along
to employees, employer participation would represent a tangible benefit to the
employees through access to the discounted pass rate. The "Travel Demand Management" project on CDTC's
1997-2002 Transportation Improvement Program (TIP) can provide federal
Congestion Mitigation/Air Quality (CMAQ) funds for CDTA to initiate an Ecopass
program in the Capital District.
Further, CDTA is encouraged to work with employers to negotiate direct employer subsidy of new transit
service that is necessary to meet the employer's need for access to
workers. Shuttle and other feeder
services that link low-density suburban work locations to trunk transit routes
are prime candidates for direct employer participation in funding. Candidate locations include the RPI Tech
Park in North Greenbush; office locations along NY-146 in Clifton Park and
Halfmoon; Corporate Woods; the Wolf Road / Airport area and Pine Bush area of
Albany County; and the Balltown Road area of Niskayuna.
Travel Demand Management Initiative
In 1993, CDTC committed to what it perceived to be the most substantial
financial commitment to a voluntary demand management program in the nation,
with plans to accelerate current efforts to reach a $2.5 million annual budget
by 1998. Such an effort was estimated
to reduce peak-hour vehicle demand sufficiently to eliminate over 1,100 excess
vehicle-hours of delay (5-10% of the region's total) at a cost/benefit ratio of
11 to 1.
Much of that progress remains to be achieved. Prohibitions on the use of federal funds for many proposed
components of the program were only recently repealed as part of updated
federal guidance on extended eligibility in the Congestion Mitigation and Air
Quality (CMAQ) funding program. This TIP
project has been scaled back, but some initial successes have been achieved in
1999 -- with CDTA using the TIP funds to enroll Albany County into a
substantially-reduced transit pass program in lieu of offering free employee
parking in downtown Albany.
Technology as a Travel Substitute
To date, the
ability of communication to substitute for travel has been limited. Nationwide, the number of persons working at
home remains generally at modest levels.
Over the long term, however, it may be possible to make large strides
away from the industrial model of nine-to-five five-day workweeks. Flexible hours may allow commuters to avoid
the peak hours. The concept of
telecommuting -- working at home at least part of the week -- could allow
workers to physically commute only a few days a week.
Improvements in communications technology also
have the potential to reduce the number of shopping trips, banking trips,
education trips, and medical trips by allowing these functions to take place at
home. Each vehicle trip reduced results
in less traffic congestion, fuel consumption, safety costs, and pollutant
emissions. The impacts of telecommuting
on travel reduction will contribute to addressing transportation needs, as well
as providing other benefits for employers and employees.
36) Engage New York State as a full partner in parking management and transit promotion.
New York State is
in a unique position with regard to its responsibilities in the Capital
District. First, it is the region's
primary employer. Second, it is the
owner and operator of the highest function, most heavily traveled
highways. Third, it provides
significant financial assistance to CDTA and other transit providers and is
responsible for overseeing its effective use.
Fourth, it is responsible under federal law together with CDTC and CDTA
for providing a long-range transportation plan that meets the needs of the
region. Fifth, it holds primary
responsibility for meeting federal Clean Air Act requirements. Sixth, it is under obligation by the state
Clean Air Act to implement employer trip reduction actions at all large state
employment sites throughout the state.
Because of this unique position, New York State historically has
developed programs like its peripheral park-and-ride parking system. Albany is rare in having a formal
employer-based program of over 2,000 peripheral parking spaces and
employer-provided transit shuttle service to reduce downtown vehicular traffic
and to reduce downtown parking requirements.
In coming
years, New York State has an opportunity to help fulfill its multiple roles in
the Capital District with similar innovations.
The State's can act as an employer
to spread peak traffic loads; encourage ridesharing; walk, bike or transit use;
or increase telecommuting. These
actions all benefit its role as highway
provider and transit financier, and as
the primary agent responsible for an effective transportation plan and air
quality attainment.
Among the most significant transit-supporting actions that New York State
could take as an employer are to:
·
Better integrate
the OGS peripheral park-and-ride service (and the SUNYA shuttle service) with
CDTA's regional transit system to ensure effective use of all transit
resources;
·
Work with
CDTA and other providers to expand peripheral park-and-ride service to other
markets;
·
Include transit
passes, increased parking permit costs and a "transportation
allowance" in contract negotiations with employee bargaining units.
Adoption of increased permit costs and a transportation allowance has
been identified by CDTC as the most
effective demand management strategy that could be achieved with little
negative impact in the Capital District.
As an example, in exchange for an increase of perhaps $30 per month in
the cost of State Office Campus and downtown state parking permits, the state
would provide a $30 per month parking allowance to each employee. Those employees wishing to continue parking
would have no net gain or loss; those employees wishing to walk, bike, carpool
or take transit would gain financially over the present situation. Based on experience in other areas, a
subsidy as small as $1 per day can be expected to reduce vehicular trips by 5%
or more.[1]
This is
essentially a "cash out" program implemented in a situation in which
the employer owns and operates the parking system through a permit
program. Because the State is among the
primary beneficiaries of the increased transportation system efficiency, the
minor net cost to the state as employer can be viewed as being offset by
savings to the state as transportation provider. Ideally, the program would be included in the package of employee
compensation. Benefits negotiated with
bargaining units could be offered in place of other employee benefits with less
transportation impact.[2] If
pursued, this program would be similar to Cornell University's, reflecting the
university's commitment to the Ithaca community.
The State's involvement in such a program would also serve as a model in
the Capital District. It would open the
door to similar programs by other private and public employers who own their
own parking facilities or receive parking as part of commercial office leases.
37) Consider highway pricing (particularly congestion pricing) and broad parking policies (including cashing out).
CDTC's report entitled Estimated
Marginal Monetary Costs of Travel in the Capital District (April 1995)
includes estimates of the change in travel costs in the Capital District
between 1990 and 2015. The monetary
user, governmental and societal costs of Capital District travel are expected
to increase by $1.3 billion per year over 1990 levels. In addition, travel time increases are
valued at $450 million per year. In the
face of these significant costs, it is reasonable to consider pricing
mechanisms that have the effect of lowering user, governmental and societal
costs of travel.
In the context of examining fixed guideway options, CDTC tested the
impacts of a large-scale pricing program that would effectively double the
out-of-pocket cost of driving and parking.
This pricing program, combined with pervasive bus service, was estimated
to reduce total monetary costs by $450 million and save $150 million in travel
time value annually by the year 2015 because of reduced vehicular usage. These savings would be net savings after accounting for the increased
out-of-pocket cost of auto travel.
While there does not appear to be popular support
for pricing programs of the scale described above, programs that are more
modest may be achievable and have some of the benefits of a more ambitious
program. Congestion pricing on major facilities is one feasible option. As the Thruway's electronic toll collection
technology matures, it is a relatively small step to vary the toll by time of day
or by carpool status, or to extend tolls to other facilities (such as the
Northway). By adding a surcharge for
peak hour usage, customers are encouraged to either shift mode or shift the
time of travel, resulting in reduced congestion, reduced emissions, and lower
overall costs of travel.
Peak period pricing is a concept already widely used in the private
sector. Perhaps the most familiar
example is long distance telephone usage, where it is more expensive to call
during periods of highest usage. If it
costs more to travel during congested peak periods, discretionary trips would
be encouraged to shift to off-peak periods.
Congestion pricing would also encourage flextime (shifting work hours so
that commuting takes place before or after the peak period) and shifts to
transit or carpooling. The primary
benefit of congestion pricing is better management of existing highway
resources and reduced need for highway widening. However, the modest shift in demand to transit service warrants a
recommendation for consideration of pricing strategies from the transit
perspective alone.
Broad parking policies incorporate employer
cash out and transportation allowance programs described under other actions,
but go beyond. All of the fixed
guideway options evaluated by CDTC, for example, include an assumption of
increased parking costs in downtown Albany through a parking surcharge or other
means. Transit usage for work trips is highly correlated with the availability
and cost of parking. Transit's share of the commuter market to
downtown Albany exceeded 13% of total commuters in 1990, compared to only 4.5%
of the commuter market region-wide.
Much of that difference can be attributed to the cost and supply of
parking in downtown Albany.
Further, should the City of Albany, the City of Troy or other urban
communities successfully obtain authority to create residential parking permit
programs, the free on-street parking supply for commuters may drop
significantly. Demand for, and market
prices for commercial space would then rise.
Residential parking programs adopted to meet residents' needs should be
folded into a parking management program.
Such a program would accommodate the loss in downtown parking through
increased peripheral and remote parking, increased employer participation in
transit pass programs and other transit service actions (as described above).
The Capital District has fewer employers that rely on paid, commercial
parking for employees than most metropolitan areas. This is largely due to the presence of state government as the
primary downtown employer and the fact that it provides for its own parking
facilities. Even so, there would be
value in adoption of parking "cash out" legislation such as that in
place in California and other areas.
Cash out
legislation requires any employer that purchases commercial parking spaces for
employees to offer the cash value of the parking space directly to the employee
as an alternative. This allows the
employee the option of foregoing the parking space and applying the cash
towards transit. Alternatively, the
cost of a parking space could be shared with a carpool partner and the savings
pocketed. The entire cash allowance
could be retained by walking or biking to work. Cash out programs do not increase employer costs or prevent
employer-subsidized parking.