REPORT TO BICYCLE AND PEDESTRIAN ADVISORY COMMITTEE
SUBJECT
Title
Senate Bill 743/Vehicle Miles Traveled (Mack)
Report
BACKGROUND
In 2013, Governor Brown signed Senate Bill 743 mandating that Level of Service (LOS) or congestion could no longer be used to measure transportation environmental impacts. In 2018, the State of California (State) adopted updates to the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) Guidelines that recommend Vehicle Miles Traveled (VMT) as the most appropriate measure of transportation environmental impacts. The goal of the State is to reduce Green House Gas (GHG) emissions by reducing drive alone travel, encouraging diversified or mixed land uses that are closer to transit, and focusing on building out the multimodal (i.e. bicycle, pedestrian, transit, and vehicular modes of travel) environment.
VMT measures the amount and distance of vehicle travel a new project will generate. Based on a City’s transportation policy related to VMT, mitigation may be required if a project’s VMT is beyond the thresholds allowed by that City. Mitigation for VMT impacts can include improvements to the multimodal transportation network to encourage transit, walking, biking and the development of Travel Demand Management (TDM) Programs that aim to reduce driving alone.
California cities have until July 1, 2020 to adopt a new transportation policy that adheres to Senate Bill 743. The City currently has a webpage that provides information regarding VMT. Staff has conducted two community meetings on October 24, 2019 and October 30, 2019. Additionally, staff presented at study sessions for the Planning Commission and City Council on December 11, 2019 and November 5, 2019, respectively. Staff is targeting to adopt a new transportation policy by June 2020. At the January 27, 2020 Bicycle and Pedestrian Advisory Committee (BPAC) meeting, staff will provide a presentation to the BPAC on this subject.
Staff
Reviewed by: Carol Shariat, Principal Transportation Planner, Public Works
Approved by: Michael Liw, Assistant Director/City Engineer, Public Works