Officials approve exploring an
expanded shuttle system, new agency to manage traffic-reduction
After months
of debate about new garages and permit programs, Palo Alto officials shifted
gears on Monday in their search for parking solutions when they approved an
ambitious initiative aimed at getting drivers out of cars altogether.
Buoyed by
years of resident frustration over insufficient parking and a week of community
praise about the latest remedies proposed by staff, the City Council voted
unanimously to explore a series of "transportation demand management"
(TDM) initiatives aimed at getting commuters to switch from cars to other modes
of transportation. The package of proposals include exploring a downtown
Transportation Management Association; providing of Caltrain Go
Passes to City Hall workers willing to give up their parking
permits; soliciting bids to dramatically
expand of the city's shuttle program and implementing various car-share and
ride-share programs downtown.
The
council's vote authorizes staff to issue requests for proposals to the private
market for consulting services relating to the new association and for a
shuttle provider who could expand the existing two-bus program into a robust,
citywide system.
The fledgling
TDM program borrows heavily from similar efforts both in the private sector,
where companies like Google use large shuttle fleets to ferry employees, and
the public sector, where agencies like the City of San Mateo and Contra Costa
County have set up "transportation management associations" (TMA)
that coordinate traffic-reduction efforts. Much like elsewhere, the goal in
Palo Alto is to encourage downtown employees to switch to Caltrain, buses and
bicycles, thereby alleviating the city's worsening parking shortage. In staff's
parlance, the TDM effort is one leg in the city's "three-legged
stool" of initiatives aimed at addressing the most urgent issue of the
day: a parking shortage that has been frustrating residents for years and that
is expected to get dramatically worse as new developments come on line in the
coming months.
The other
two legs of the stool are an increase in parking supply (largely through
construction of new garages and lots) and a new "residential
parking permit program" that would set time limits for
commuters parking in downtown's congested residential districts. Unlike these
two stool legs, which aim to find new places for commuters to park, the TDM
effort strives to get them to scrap their cars entirely.
In a memo
issued last October, council members Gail Price, Greg Scharff, Nancy Shepherd
and Liz Kniss urged the city to adopt a TDM program that would reduce car trips
by at least 30 percent. They cited examples from neighboring agencies and
companies, including successful TDM initiatives set up by Google, Stanford
University and Contra Costa County. In the memo, the four council members noted
that the new permit program, parking garages and tougher parking requirements
for new developments "will not alone solve the issues of parking and
traffic."
"The
City needs a comprehensive TDM program that will reduce trips by at least 30
percent," the memo stated. "Stanford has reduced trips by 40 percent
or more through a comprehensive TDM program, and with the right focus and
attention Palo Alto could have similar results."
That view
was widely shared on Monday. Neilson Buchanan, a Downtown North resident who
has long urged the city to alleviate the worsening parking congestion in his
neighborhood, said he and other neighborhood leaders fully support the steps
outlined by staff.
"It
looks really good to all of us," Buchanan said. "As we know more about
it, it makes more and more sense."
Today, the
effort to lessen reliance on cars has some urgency. With the recently approved
residential-permit program scheduled to kick off early next year, commuters who
have long relied on free all-day parking spots on residential blocks will soon
lose that option.
For Charles
"Chop" Keenan, a downtown developer who has been heavily involved in
setting up downtown's existing parking assessment district, the measures
proposed by staff were key to making sure the permit program would work
smoothly. Keenan said he had been exploring the existing association in Contra
Costa, which consists of two full-time workers and a temp and which he said
succeeded in reducing car use by 30 percent. A similar structure could be set
up in Palo Alto, he said.
"Clearly
TDM and supply are predicate acts to having an effective RPPP (residential
parking permit program), where we don't just create chaos at the end of the
day," Keenan said.
Hal
Mickelson, representing the Chamber of Commerce, thanked city officials for
their continued outreach to the business community and asked them to focus on
encouragements, rather than penalties, in the new program.
"We
advocate carrots rather than sticks," Mickelson said. "The business
community believes that incentive and positive measures are going to work
better and be easier and cheaper to administer with less controversy than
measures that are prohibitory or restrictive."
The praise,
both oral and in written letters, came as a welcome respite for council
members, who have spent at least the past three years fending off a storm of
complaints from residents arguing that the city hasn't done enough to improve
the parking crisis downtown.
Councilwoman
Gail Price said Monday it was a "a real pleasure this week to get so many
positive emails" and called the new initiatives "exciting." It's
nice, Price said, to be going into a direction with which so many people in the
community concur. She noted that nonprofit transportation management
associations of the sort Palo Alto is considering are already up and running in
many communities, which should make it easier for the council to launch its own
program.
"So
much of it is already out there," Price said. "Using the experiences
that individuals and groups have already had, seems to me we can cut to the
chase a lot faster."
Vice Mayor
Liz Kniss agreed and said the amount of support she has heard from the
community has been "pretty stunning." The city, she said, is far
ahead of where it was a year ago when it comes to solving the problem of too
many cars downtown. In recent weeks, the council had given its blessing both to
the permit program that downtown residents have long clamored for and to the exploration
of new garages at several downtown locations.
"For
this three-legged stool to actually come into being is pretty
astonishing," Kniss said.
Once in
place, the Transportation Management Association would collect fees from
businesses in its assessment district and use the money to fund initiatives
that drive down the number of car commuters. The association would also be
charged with measuring the impact of its programs and possibly imposing
penalties for those businesses that fail to meet traffic-reduction targets.
But even
after Monday's vote, it could be years before such an association actually
takes shape in Palo Alto. Under staff's proposed timeline, the first phase of
the process would last about a year and would entail hiring a consultant,
forming a steering committee, collecting traffic data and conducting community
outreach. The committee and staff would then develop a work plan, come up with
regulations for new businesses, develop the actual programs and hash out the
details about the structure of the association, which would then be charged
with overseeing the city's newly expanded shuttle program.
Council
members had plenty of questions about the new association, as well as about
staff's proposal to expand the shuttle program, which currently consists of two
buses. Some, including Karen Holman, wondered whether the city would retain
control over the shuttle program even after the TMA takes the reign. Assistant
Planning Director Aaron Aknin said that the shuttle program would ultimately
fall under the association's authority, though the city would likely maintain a
presence on its steering committee and thus exercise some influence.
"The
ultimate goal is that the TMA is a self-sufficient association," Aknin
said. "If the shuttle system falls under that umbrella, they'd have more
of an independent authority. Until we get to that point, the city would have
the ability to make those decisions."
Other
council members stressed the urgency of having some programs in place before
January 2015, when the residential parking permit program is expected to make
its debut. Councilman Larry Klein urged staff to work backwards from the 2015
timeline rather than present long-term timelines.
"How do
we help people who will be running around and looking for parking?" Klein
asked, referring to the scheduled unveiling of the permit program.
Councilman
Greg Scharff agreed.
"We're
putting in an RPPP. We need to work backwards from that and have as many
options as possible," Scharff said.
The proposal
to expand the shuttle program also earned a unanimous vote, though Councilman
Pat Burt questioned staff's proposal for new routes and argued that the city
needs to do more analysis before deciding on where to send the new shuttles. He
pointed out that the "West Shuttle" route proposed by city planners
would overlap on El Camino Real with the existing bus system operated by the
Santa Clara Valley Transportation Authority.
"I
think there's more to (the decision) than laying out a bunch of routes and
presuming people will come," Burt said.
