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Home My WebLink About1999-01-19 City Council (12)TO: City of Palo Alto City Manager’s Report HONORABLE CITY COUNCIL ATTENTION: FINANCE COMMITTEE 4 FROM:CITY MANAGER DEPARTMENT: HUMAN RESOURCES DATE: SUBJECT: JANUARY 19, 1999 CMR: 117:99 RECOMMENDATION FOR BUSINESS COMMUNITY COMMUTE COORDINATION PROGRAM RECOMMENDATION Staffrequests that the Finance Committee recommends to the Council approval in concept of a needs assessment to develop information about emPloyees working in City business districts, including commute patterns, modes, work schedules, program incentives, and program financing alternatives. If approved in concept, staffing and funding for this project would be included as part of the City Manager’s 1999-2001 Budget proposal. BACKGROUND In May 1998 (CMR:248:98) staff committed to return to Council with recommendations regarding a commute coordination program to serve the needs of employees working in the downtown area and other City business districts. Seven years ago the City’s Commute Altematives Program began with a simple bicycle discount incentive. Periodically new components were introduced, leading to a program that includes a variety of commute alternative elements such as bicycling, walking, carp0oling, public transit use, telecommuting, and alternative work week schedules. Additional elements of the program include a guaranteed ride home for all participants for emergency situations and the bicycle loaner program. City employees receive a subsidy of up to $20 a month for participating in the Commute Alternatives Program. They are required to use a commute alternative 60 percent of their scheduled days, including paid leave days, and be registered in the Commute Alternatives Program. DISCUSSION The impact of the City employee program has been measured over the years by tracking employee participation, vehicle/employee ratio and number of parking spaces made available in the Civic Center garage. There has been a steady increase in employee participation. CMR:117:99 Page 1 of 5 (Participation means qualifying for and receiving benefits under the program.) Participation has doubled in 4 years and currently includes 15 percent of City employees. Employee Participation 69 97 103 119 149 The current program has met, and in some years exceeded, the Bay Area Quality Control Management District (BAAQMD) performance objectives, established in response to a State regulation mandated in 1993. The mandate required employers to reduce the use of single occupancy vehicles according to a prescribed formula determining vehicle-employee ratio (VER). VER is calculated on the basis of employees who start work during the peak period of 6 a.m. through 10 a.m., Monday through Friday, and the number of vehicles they use to commute to and from their work place. AVER of.80 means 80 vehicles are used for every 100 employees arriving at a work site during the peak commute hours. Therefore, 20 vehicles for every 100 employees are replaced by use of various alternative commute modes. For the City, the VER in the chart is averaged between the Civic Center site and Municipal Service Center site. The Civic Center site has exceeded the BAAQMD objectives every year. In January 1996, the State mandate was rescinded. The City and some other Palo Alto employers voluntarily continued their commute alternative efforts, recognizing the importance of addressing local congestion and clean air issues. Vehicle/Employee Ratio (VER) Comparisons .87 .83 n/a .82 .80 .79 .77 .73 * City Hall met the BAAQMD objective of.74, the MSC’s VER was .78 The Civic Center Garage is used for parking by City employees, as well as other permit holders and members of the public. One objective of the Commute Program has been to make available parking spaces that might otherwise have been used by City employees. As a result of the program, the availability of parking spaces in the Civic Center Garage was increased by 23 spaces in 1994 and has continued to increase to a total of 41.5 this year. CMR: 117:99 Page 2 of 5 Increased Parking Spaces 23 31 31 Business Community Outreach In fiscal year 1997-1998, the City’s Commute Coordinator dedicated ten hours a week to provide information and support to downtown area employers developing commute alternative programs for their employees. This support included the following activities: ¯Providing monthly utility bill enclosures incorporating public transit web sites and providing information on contacting the City’s resource person, Providing Spare The Air information printed directly on utility bills, Providing commute information included on the Public Works notices about the downtown street repair progress, Providing bicycling information in the City’s Earth Day Newsletter distributed to all residences, ¯Arranging for a special "Spare The Air" postage meter ad for the City’s mailings. ¯Meeting with the Chamber of Commerce to discuss joint efforts for commute programming. ¯Collecting data on the employers in the downtown area in order to define the target audience. Obtaining a grant from the Peninsula Joint Powers Board and the Bay Area Air Quality Management Board to provide for a shuttle from the CalTrain station to worksites in the Embarcadero Road/East Bayshore Road corridor. The impact of the current initiative (10 hour program) on downtown alternative commuting is difficult to measure in terms of VER reductions or increased parking. Some subjective results include several companies and a number of individuals who have requested commute alternatives information to start their own programs. CMR: 117:99 Page 3 of 5 Commute Altematives Programing in Other Communities Staff contacted other cities to determine the extent of city-supported commute incentive programming for employees and private employers. Of 17 local cities conducted, 7 had no commute programs, 7 had programs for City employees only, and 3 had programs for city employees and private employers. The following table summarizes the programs which included both city employees and private employer elements. City-Sponsored Commute Programs for City Employees and Private Employers Yes Yes 3/4 Trans. ¯ Evaluation of employer’s TDM program incorporated in the permit process. ¯Provides marketing and promotional materials. ¯Evaluates employer’s TDM programs Yes Yes 1 Trans.Work with business groups from five sur- ~rounding communities: Danville, Lafayette, Moraga and Blackhawk. Van pool and car pool incentives funded by grants from BAAQMD and Contra Costa Con- gestion Management Agency. Mgr.guaranteed ride home for employees of registered employers. CMR: 117:99 Page 4 6f 5 With current staffing and funding levels, staff will continue private employer commute program information support outreach. These efforts, however, will only be effective with those employers who come forward voluntarily to access City resources. If Council wishes a more aggressive program, staff recommends a project to conduct a needs assessment, make an inventory of resources, and make appropriate programming recommendations. This project would include development of information about employees working in City business districts, including commute patterns, modes and work schedules. The project would also include programming proposals to match employee commute needs and identification of funding resources. The completion of this project would form the basis for staffing and funding an ongoing program subject to future Council approval. The Chamber of Commerce has been interested in and cooperative with City commute programs. The needs assessment project would be greatly facilitated by cooperation with the Chamber. If the Finance Committee approves this project in concept, staffwill include the project for funding in the City Manager’s 1999-2001 Budget. Staff envisions proposing a contractor to perform the needs assessment project over a six to nine month period at a cost of approximately $50,000. Continued funding would likely be needed to hire an employee or contractor to staff the program on a continuing basis. RESOURCE IMPACT No resources are requested at this time. Estimated costs to be included in the 1999-2001 Budget are $50,000 for a project contractor and appropriate program staffing. POLICY IMPLICATIONS Staff recommendation would increase current City policy commitment in the area of providing commute program services to City business district employees. ENVIRONMENTAL REVIEW This is not a project under the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA). PREPARED BY: Kathy Lee, Co~aute Coordinator //_ DEPARTMENT HEAD: ~C~-~. ROUNDS/~ Director of Human Res/~ CMR: 117:99 Page 5 of 5