ensure that new development projects are built in a way that allows people to drive less. The goal is more communities where we can travel shorter distances during our daily routines, spending less time behind the wheel and more time doing the things we love. How this will make our state more connected and healthier for all.
New metrics and new considerations are required to evaluate Vehicle Miles Traveled (VMT). Reduction and mitigation resources are shown below. They are intended as useful tools and links for the process of identifying potential VMT-reducing measures. More citations will be added as they become available.
- VMT Technical Advisory: How to evaluate transportation impacts pdf
- Implementing guidelines (pp. 11-12)
- Connecting State Climate Goals and VMT
- Induced Travel Calculator
- Caltrans VMT Reduction Website
- Frequently Asked Questions
Key Video Resources
- Narrated Presentations: Updating the Metric of Transportation Impact
- Implementing 743 Webinar
- Office Hours
- The hidden traffic metric that makes cities worse
Key Resources on SB 743: Studies, Reports, Briefs, and Tools
This resource page will be updated as new resources become available. Last updated: June 22, 2020
Transportation Metrics: Disadvantages of LOS and Auto Delay
- Article, Institute of Transportation Engineers Journal: Biases inherent in the LOS metric (ITE Journal, Aug 2014, 5p): Decision, Values, and Data: Understanding Bias in Transportation Performance Measures
- Article, Institute of Transportation Engineers Journal: LOS-based transportation impact studies inhibit sustainable transportation (ITE Journal May 2014, 5p) Changing the Paradigm of Traffic Impact Studies: How Typical Traffic Studies Inhibit Sustainable Transportation
- Primer: The difference between accessibility and mobility (Susan Handy, Access Journal, 5p): Highway Blues: Nothing a Little Accessibility Can’t Cure
- Study: Pursuit of high LOS grades worsens transportation and lessens economic activity in Southern California (UCLA Lewis Center and UCLA Institute of Transportation Studies, 12p Executive Summary, 80p academic study): Congested Development: A Study of Traffic Delays, Access, and Economic Activity in Metropolitan
Los Angeles - Study: Pursuit of high LOS grades worsens transportation and lessens economic activity in Northern California (UCLA Lewis Center and UCLA Institute of Transportation Studies, 10p Executive Summary, 99p academic study) Not So Fast: A Study of Traffic Delays, Access, and Economic Activity in the San Francisco Bay Area
- Report: Problems with reliance on LOS, discussion of updated metrics (American Planning Association, 12p): Smart Transportation Metrics for Smart Growth
- Report: Problems with reliance on metrics of auto mobility and delay (Joe Cortright, Impresa and CEOs for Cities)
- Report: Potential to reduce petroleum reliance through updating LOS metric (Summary 1p, report 9p): Unraveling Petroleum: Use of Performance Measures that Prioritize Automobiles over Other Modes in Congested Areas
Environmental, Health, Fiscal Benefits of VMT Reduction
- Literature review: VMT effect on environment, human health, and finances (NCST White Paper, 21p): Cutting Greenhouse Gas Emissions Is Only the Beginning: A Literature Review of the Co-Benefits of Reducing Vehicle Miles Traveled
- Report: Quantification and monetization of health benefits of reducing VMT and increasing active transportation and transit use (California Department of Public Health, 1p Executive Summary, 1p Technical Abstract, 20p study): Increasing Walking, Cycling, and Transit: Improving Californians’ Health, Saving Costs, and Reducing Greenhouse Gases
- Report: VMT reduction for better fiscal and financial outcomes (Short Summary, 4p; Executive Summary 10p, Report 79p): Growing Wealthier: Smart Growth, Climate Change, and Prosperity
- Report: Benefits of physical activity and the role of the built environment and air pollution (California Air Resources Board, 63p): Physical Activity: Health Benefits, the Role of the Built Environment and Impacts of Air Pollution
- Report: Cataloging pavement maintenance backlog in California (Ron Milam, Fehr and Peers, 3p): Protecting Our Transportation Investment
- Study: Reduction in cardiovascular disease, cancer, and general mortality associated with commuting by active transit (British Medical Journal, 7p): Association between active commuting and incident cardiovascular disease, cancer, and mortality: prospective cohort study
VMT Reduction Strategies
- Manual: Implementing research on VMT and GHG reduction from various strategies (research and methods underlying the CalEEMod tool – California Air Pollution Control Officers’ Association (CAPCOA), see pp 155-331): Quantifying Greenhouse Gas Mitigation Measures (A Resource for Local Government to Assess Emission Reductions from Greenhouse Gas Mitigation Measures)
- Report: Review of research on the relationship between urban development, VMT, and transportation CO2; evidence of the need for VMT reduction; efficacy of compact development for achieving GHG reductions. (Executive Summary 11p, Report 135p) Growing Cooler: The Evidence on Urban Development and Climate Change
- Report: Quantification of transportation strategies for VMT and GHG reduction (Urban Land Institute and Cambridge Systematics, 160 p): Moving Cooler: An Analysis of Transportation strategies for reducing greenhouse gas emissions (Executive Summary, 9p)
- California Air Resources Board Briefs on GHG (and VMT) reductions from Carsharing, Parking Pricing, Road User Pricing, Employer-Based Trip Reduction Programs and Vanpools, Pedestrian Strategies, Bicycling Strategies, Transit Service Strategies, Telecommuting, Voluntary Travel Behavior Change Programs.
Induced VMT from Highway Capacity
- Tool: Induced Travel Calculator (National Center for Sustainable Transportation) Increasing Highway Capacity Unlikely to Relieve Traffic Congestion
- Academic Study: Assessment of past induced travel analyses in California (Volker et al., Transportation Research Record, Transportation Research Board, National Academy of Sciences, 12p): Induced Vehicle Travel in the Environmental Review Process
- Research Brief: Effects on VMT of adding roadway capacity (Caltrans/National Center for Sustainable Transportation, 2p): Increasing Highway Capacity Unlikely to Relieve Traffic Congestion
- Research Brief: Effects on VMT of adding roadway capacity (CA Air Resources Board, 10p): Impact of Highway Capacity and Induced Travel on Passenger Vehicle Use and Greenhouse Gas Emissions Policy Brief
- Research Brief Technical Background Document: Effects on VMT of adding roadway capacity (CA Air Resources Board, 10p): Impact of Highway Capacity and Induced Travel on Passenger Vehicle Use and Greenhouse Gas Emissions Technical Background Document
- Academic Article: History of the failure of transportation profession to account for induced VMT (The Planning Review, 8p) : “You Can’t Build Your Way Out of Congestion.” – Or Can you?
- Study: Recent major study on induced travel in the United States (American Economic Review, October 2011): The Fundamental Law of Road Congestion: Evidence from US Cities
- Article, Transportation Research Record: Background on improving methods for assessment of the VMT effects of roadway capacity projects (Milam et al., Transportation Research Record, Transportation Research Board, National Academy of Sciences, 6p): Closing the Induced Vehicle Travel Gap Between Research and Practice
- Article: Adding highway capacity is not a GHG reduction strategy (City Observatory, Joe Cortright, 6p) Urban myth busting: Congestion, idling, and carbon emissions
- Study: Recent major study on induced travel in the United States (Transport Policy, 2019): If you build it, they will drive: Measuring induced demand for vehicle travel in urban areas
Tools to measure VMT and Access to Destinations
- VMT Modeling Tool: CalEEMod
- Model website and download: California Emissions Estimator Model (CalEEMod)
- OPR recommendations for using CalEEMod for VMT assessment (Revised Proposal on Updates to the CEQA Guidelines on Evaluating Transportation Impacts in CEQA, case study pp. 47-52)
- California Statewide Travel Demand Model VMT and trip length data: Caltrans SB 743 VMT Impact Assessment webpage
- Report: Data sources for VMT (Federal Highway Administration pp. 54-92): Handbook for Estimating Transportation Greenhouse Gases for Integration into the Planning Process
- Accessibility Modeling Tool: GIS-based tool for measuring access to destinations, including assessing the effect of infrastructure investment options on accessibility. Citilabs Sugar Access
- Accessibility Assessment Tool: Maps existing accessibility. US EPA Smart Location Database
Housing Affordability and VMT
- White Paper: VMT reduction, affordable housing, and transit-oriented development (Policy Brief 2p; Report 20p): Affordable Housing in Transit-Oriented Developments: Impacts on Driving and Policy Approaches
- Tool: Index of combined affordability of transportation and housing (Center for Neighborhood Technology): Housing and Transportation Affordability Index
VMT Reduction in Rural Areas
- Report: Strategies for maintaining open space, helping towns thrive, and creating great new places in rural areas (32p): Putting Smart Growth to Work in Rural Communities
- Transportation Research Record Article: VMT reduction in rural areas (Miller et. al., 9p): Mitigating Vehicle-Miles Traveled in Rural Development
Roadway Pricing
- Article: Roadway congestion can be solved through pricing mechanisms (Access Magazine, Spring 2017, 4p): Traffic Congestion Is Counter-Intuitive, and Fixable
- Article: Equity of peak period road pricing (City Observatory, Joe Cortright, 4p): Transportation equity: Why peak period road pricing is fair
- Academic Study: Assessment of roadway pricing v. sales tax funding (Transportation November 2008, Volume 35, Issue 6): Just pricing: the distributional effects of congestion pricing and sales taxes (infographic)
- Literature Review: Roadway pricing and equity (RAND, summary 4p, study 39p): Equity and Congestion Pricing A Review of the Evidence
Traffic Safety
- Literature Review and Guidance: Systematic consideration of roadway safety (Governor’s Office of Planning and Research, 14p): General Plan Guidelines, Appendix B, SB 743 Safety Technical Advisory
- Academic Study: The need to reduce VMT in order to reduce traffic fatalities (Accident Analysis and Prevention, 9p) Automobile-Dependency as a Barrier to Vision Zero, Evidence from the State in the USA
Address any questions regarding the key resources to chris.ganson@opr.ca.gov.
As the Technical Advisory on Evaluating Transportation Impacts in CEQA states, “When a lead
agency identifies a significant impact [in an environmental document], it must identify feasible
mitigation measures that could avoid or substantially reduce that impact. (Pub. Resources
Code, § 21002.1, subd. (a).) Additionally, CEQA requires that an environmental impact report
identify feasible alternatives that could avoid or substantially reduce a project’s significant
environmental impacts.”
- Regulations, Policy and Guidance
a. 2019 CEQA Statutes and Guidelines
b. OPR Transportation Impacts Page
c. CARB 2017 Scoping Plan-Identified VMT Reductions and Relationship to State Climate
Goals
d. Governor’s Executive Order N-19-19 - Tools
a. Evaluation of Sketch-Level VMT Quantification Tools (Lee et al., 2017)
b. NCST Smart Growth Trip-Generation Adjustment Tool - Presentations
a. Webinar: Quantifying Vehicle Miles Traveled
b. SANDAG Webinar: A Shift to VMT Mitigating Transportation Impact
c. Training Course: Shifting from Maintaining LOS to Reducing VMT: Case Studies of
Analysis and Mitigation for Implementing SB 743 - Local and Regional resources
a. City of San Jose VMT metric
b. LA DOT Modernizing Transportation management
c. SANDAG TDM Planning Resources
d. SCAG TDM Strategic Plan
e. San Francisco County Transportation Authority TDM Evaluation Tool
f. SB 743 Vehicle Miles Traveled Implementation (Nevada County Transportation
Commission)
g. Western Riverside COG SB 743 Implementation Pathway and Screening Tool
Page 2
March 2020 - Research –final reports, white papers, and articles for various subject areas
• Policy
• Cutting Greenhouse Gas Emissions is Only the Beginning: A Literature Review of
the Co-Benefits of Reducing Vehicle Miles Traveled (Fang; Volker, 2017)
• A Framework for Projecting the Potential Statewide Vehicle Miles Traveled
(VMT) Reduction from State-Level Strategies in California (Handy; Boarnet, 2016)
• Leaving level-of-service behind: The implications of a shift to VMT impact metrics
(Lee; Handy, 2018)
• Measuring Incremental SB743 Progress: Accounting for Project Contributions
Towards Reducing VMT Under California’s Senate Bill 743 (Ferrell, 2019)
• Policy brief: Increasing Highway Capacity Unlikely to Relieve Traffic Congestion
(Handy, 2015)
• Synthesis
• Quantifying Greenhouse Gas Mitigation Measures: A Resource for Local
Government to Assess Emission Reductions from Greenhouse Gas Mitigation
Measures (California Air Pollution Control Officer’s Association, 2010)
• State-Level Strategies for Reducing Vehicle Miles of Travel (Byars et al., 2017)
• VMT Mitigation Banks
• Implementing SB 743: An Analysis of Vehicle Miles Traveled Banking and
Exchange Frameworks (Elkind et al., 2019)
• VMT Mitigation Through Banks and Exchanges: Understanding New Mitigation
Approaches (Fehr and Peers)
• VMT Reduction Measures
• Active Transportation
• Heightening Walking above its Pedestrian Status: Walking and Travel
Behavior in California (Blumenberg, et al. 2016)
• High Impact Prioritization of Bike Share Program Investment to Improve
Underserved Communities’ Access to Jobs and Essential Services (Qian,
Niemier, 2016)
• Making Bicycling Comfortable: Identifying Minimum Infrastructure Needs
by Population Segment using a Video Survey ( Handy; Fitch, 2019)
• An Overview of System Design Issues Related to Safety Aspects of Bicycle
Infrastructure (Botha, 2016)
• Toward Accurate and Valid Estimates of Greenhouse Gas Reductions
from Bikeway Projects (Matute et al., 2016)
• Forecast and Analysis
• From LOS to VMT, VHT and beyond through data fusion: application to
integrated corridor management (Bayen et al., 2016)
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March 2020
• Incorporating Long-Distance Travel into Transportation Planning in the
United States (Hall, 2018)
• Long Distance Travel in the California Household Travel Survey (CHTS)
and Social Media Augmentation (Goulias; Janowicz, 2017)
• Methodologies Used to Estimate and Forecast Vehicle Miles Traveled
(VMT) (Williams et al., 2017)
• Future Mobility
• Automated Vehicle Scenarios: Simulation of System-Level Travel Effects
Using Agent-Based Demand and Supply Models in the San Francisco Bay
Area (Rodier, 2018)
• Congestion Pricing in a World of Self-driving vehicles: an Analysis of
Different Strategies in Alternative Future Scenarios (Simoni et al., 2018)
• The Environmental Effects of New Mobility Services (Rodier, 2017)
• Estimation of Program Effects from Cross-Sectional Observational Surveys
– Case Studies of the Effect on Travel Behavior of the Adoption of (i)
Future Mobility Options like Carsharing, and (ii) Telecommuting (Mishra,
2017)
• Exploring the Relationships Among Travel Multimodality, Driving
Behavior, Use of Ridehailing and Energy Consumption (Circella; Lee;
Alemi, 2019)
• A Framework for Integrating Transportation Into Smart Cities (Shaheen et
al., 2019)
• Partnerships between Ridehailing Companies and Public Transit Agencies:
An Exploration of Inter-agency Learning about Pilot Programs (Pike;
Kazemian, 2019)
• Land Use/ Infill
• Affordable Housing Trip Generation Strategies and Rates (Clifton et al.
(2018)
• Housing and Mobility Toolkit for San Mateo County (Alexander et al.,
2019)
• Institutional Response to Transit Oriented Development in the Los
Angeles Metropolitan Area: Understanding Local Differences Through the
Prism of Density, Diversity, and Design (Banerjee; Bahl, 2018)
• The Potential for Shared Use Mobility in Affordable Housing Complexes in
Rural California (Pike; Rodier; Martinez, 2017)
• Tracking Land Use Changes that Support Sustainable Mobility (Sciara,
2017)
• The Effect of State and Federal Housing Policies on Vehicle Miles of Travel
(Niemier; Palm, 2017)
• Smart Growth Trip Generation (Handy, 2013)
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March 2020
• Urban Spatial Structure and the Potential for VMT Reduction (Boarnet,
2016)
• Parking
• Getting the Prices Right: An Evaluation of Pricing Parking by Demand in
San Francisco (Pierce; Shoup, 2013)
• Parking prices and the decision to drive to work: Evidence from California
(Khordagui, 2019)
• Sensors and the City: Urban Challenges for Parking Occupancy Detection
and Pricing (Dey et al., 2018)
• Pricing
• Assessing the net overall distributive effect of a congestion charge
(Anable; Goodwin, 2018)
• Congestion Pricing in a World of Self-driving vehicles: an Analysis of
Different Strategies in Alternative Future Scenarios (Simoni et al., 2018)
• Equity Effects of Congestion Charges: An Exploratory Analysis with
MATSim (Frietas et al., 2017)
• Influencing Factors in Congestion Pricing Acceptability: A Literature
Review (Selmoune et al. 2019)
• The potential of road pricing schemes to reduce carbon emissions
(Cavallaro et al., 2018)
• Reducing traffic externalities by multiple-cordon pricing (Tsai; Lu, 2018)
• Regulating dynamic congestion externalities with tradable credit
schemes: Does a unique equilibrium exist? (Bao et al., 2019)
• White Paper: Social Equity Impacts of Congestion Management Strategies
(Shaheen et al., 2019)
• Zone Pricing in Theory and Practice (Daganzo, 2016)
• Transportation Demand Management
• Effectiveness of Land Use and Demand Strategies in Reducing VMT and
GHG Emissions – Passenger (Salon, 2015)
• Exploring the Relationship between Travel Demand and Economic
Growth (FHWA, 2012)
• Transit
• Next-Generation Transit System Design Under Revolution of Shared Mobility
(Fan, 2018)
• Potential Greenhouse Gas Emissions Reductions from Optimizing Urban
Transit Networks (Madanat; Horvath, 2016)
• The Potential for Using Loyalty Rewards and Incentives Programs to
Encourage Transit Ridership and Regional Transportation and Land Use
Integration (Ferrell, 2019)
Page 5
March 2020 - Links to other sites
• CALCOG Policy Tracker
• MJ Bradley and Associates Transportation Policy Toolkit
• SB 743.org
• Victoria Transport Policy Institute – TDM Encyclopedia
