DATE:
June 11, 2024
CATEGORY:
Consent
DEPT.:
Public Works
TITLE: 2023-24 North Bayshore Trip Cap
Monitoring Reports
RECOMMENDATION
Review and accept the fall 2023 and spring 2024 North Bayshore Trip Cap Reports.
BACKGROUND
The City began monitoring the number of vehicle trips at each of the three North Bayshore gateways in February 2014 as part of the North Bayshore Precise Plan (NBPP). This monitoring occurs in the fall and spring of each year to ensure compliance with the maximum allowed number of trips during the peak period. Annual reports are generally submitted to the City Council in late spring. Past monitoring reports are available on the City’s North Bayshore Precise
Plan webpage.
North Bayshore Precise Plan
In December 2017, the City Council adopted an updated NBPP, including the following key policies:
• North Bayshore Gateway Peak-Hour Vehicle Trip Cap. The District Vehicle Trip Cap sets the maximum allowed number of trips at the three North Bayshore gateways (San Antonio Road, Rengstorff Avenue, and Shoreline Boulevard) during the a.m. and p.m. peak -hour periods. The trip cap include s both inbound and outbound trips. The Trip Cap was subsequently modified by the North Bayshore Circulation Study as discussed below.
• Vehicle Trip Cap Penalties . Based on the NBPP, if monitoring shows that the trip cap is exceeded at any of the three gateway locations for two consecutive monitoring periods, the City will not grant any new building permits for net new square footage in the NBPP area until the num ber of peak -hour vehicle trips is reduced below the trip cap, except as described in the next paragraph.
2023-24 North Bayshore Trip Cap Monitoring Reports
June 11, 2024
An application for new development may propose strategies, including, but not limited to, physical improvements to the transportation network and additional Transportation Demand Management (TDM) measures, along with transportation analysis demonstrating that the proposed strategies and/or improvements will comply with the District Vehicle Trip Cap prior to project occupancy. The proposed strategies and improvements shall be implemented prior to building occupancy, unless deemed otherwise by the City Council.
Council will consider applications proposing improvements to the transportation network and/or additional TDM measures according to the review process established by Council policy.
North Bayshore Circulation Feasibility Study
The North Bayshore Circulation Feasibility Study (Circulation Study) developed updated transportation strategies for the full development of the North Bayshore Precise Plan. The City Council reviewed Circulation Study recommendations on June 8, 2021 and approved the final
report and recommendations on December 7, 2021 . The Circulation Study recommendations manage vehicle capacity at the gateways through a combination of travel demand management, modal shift, and infrastructure. The recommendations included an updated list of Priority Transportation Improvement projects and a requirement that future office development achieve a lower single -occupancy vehicle (SOV) rate in the range of 35% to 40% for both existing and future employees, which is lower than the NBPP’s 45% SOV target.
The Circulation Study approved by Council also revised gateway trip cap policies related to the time period and locations for compliance, and gateway capacity estimates as follows:
• Continue the twice-yearly gateway monitoring program to track post-COVID traffic patterns and compliance trends. The monitoring should measure three -hour peak-period trips in both directions at each gateway and mode-share trends.
• Expand the monitoring program as new growth occurs to better understand characteristics of peak traffic, use of non-SOV modes, and trip characteristics of new residents.
• Measure compliance by comparing actual peak direction trips (a.m. inbound and p.m. outbound) with the gateway capacity for both the a.m. and p.m. three -hour peak periods as opposed to just the peak hour.
• Measure compliance by combining the Shoreline Boulevard and Rengstorff Avenue gateways. The San Antonio Road gateway should continue to be measured separately.
• Adjust the Shoreline Boulevard and Rengstorff Avenue gateway capacities as new infrastructure projects are completed.
2023-24 North Bayshore Trip Cap Monitoring Reports
June 11, 2024
On May 9, 2023, Council accepted the North Bayshore Trip Cap Monitoring Report for 2022 -23 and approved a professional services agreement with Fehr and Peers, Inc., to provide consultant services for the North Bayshore District Transportation Monitoring in the amount of $160,400.
ANALYSIS
The following focuses on the key findings from the Fall 2023 and Spring 2024 North Bayshore District: Transportation Monitoring Report of gateway peak -hour and peak period vehicle trip volumes and SOV mode share. The main reports are included as Attachments 1 and 2, with appendices to the reports located on the City’s North Bayshore Precise Plan webpage .
Post-Pandemic Continued Observations
The fall 202 3 observations, collected during September and October 2023, continue to reflect changed travel patterns as compared to the pre-COVID conditions observed in spring 2020. Since monitoring activities resumed in fall 2021, the North Bayshore gateways have seen less travel demand. This may be associated with ongoing adoption of hybrid work models an d the associated lower proportion of employees who are on-site each weekday.
The spring 2024 observations, collected in January 2024 to February 2024, also reflected similar patterns as the fall, which are expected to continue into the next fiscal year as employers maintain and refine their hybrid work practices, and restructure organizations following recent staffing reductions in the technology sector.
For both fall and spring monitoring periods, the observed travel behavior includes a large number of employees who do not co me on-site regularly and a higher SOV rate than pre -COVID for employees who do commute to the workplace. While vehicle congestion is returning to Bay Area freeways, each of the three gateways were below their peak-period vehicle trip cap during both the morning and evening peak hour and peak periods. As post-pandemic travel patterns continue to stabilize, traffic volumes at the gateways have incrementally rebounded to nearly 80% of the pre-COVID baseline in spring 2020.
Combined Gateway Mode Share
Table 1 shows the historical trend for all modes of travel, including high -occupancy vehicles (HOV), transit, bicycle, and walking, since monitoring began in 2014. The gateway counts include Stevens Creek Trail and Permanente Creek Trail gateways into North Bayshore to determine mode shares.
2023-24 North Bayshore Trip Cap Monitoring Reports
June 11, 2024
Table 1: Inbound Morning Peak-Hour Mode Split for Combined Gateways, 2014-20231
Key findings include:
• The morning inbound peak -hour SOV mode share has varied since monitoring began in 2014, ranging from 49% in fall 2017 to 70% in fall 2021. The spring 2024 observations reported an inbound a.m. peak hour SOV mode share of 63%, which is a 1% decrease from fall 2023 and still significantly more than pre -pandemic rates. Since monitoring activities resumed in fall 2021, the morning peak -hour SOV mode share has averaged 6 5%, which is well above (i.e., worse than) the North Bayshore Precise Plan’s 45% SOV mode share target.
• Although transit ridership declined significantly following the pandemic, transit mode share has incrementally increased since monitoring resumed t hree years ago —from a low of 11% in fall 2021, to 20% in fall 2023 and 16% this spring. Transit mode share has averaged 17% post-pandemic, which is less than what was observed pre-COVID in spring 2020 at 28%.
• Alongside a decline of transit utilization, HOV has risen to the second highest mode share at the gateways after SOV. For example, in spring 2024, HOV mode share was 17% , which has only been observed once during pre -pandemic monitoring periods in spring 2016. In
1 * The City started monitoring Transportation Network Company ( TNC) movements (such as Uber and Lyft) in spring 2019. At that time, one-person TNC (driver only) was included in the SOV category, while two -or-more- person TNC (driver plus passenger(s)) vehicles were categorized as HOV. ** Since fall 2019, TNC drivers have been excluded from the mode- share summary, so both one- and two-person TNCs are categorized as SOVs since the driver does not have an origin or destination in North Bayshore. *** Due to COVID-19 and the dramatic decrease in traffic in Mountain View , and throughout the Bay Area , during this period, the City did not prepare monitoring reports for fall 2020 and spring 2021.
2023-24 North Bayshore Trip Cap Monitoring Reports
June 11, 2024
addition to low ridership rates on Caltrain and , therefore, low uptake of shuttles that connect to Caltrain, anecdotal evidence suggests there may be a shift in some companies’ transportation benefit offering from larger shuttle services to carpool, vanpool, and micro- transit options.
• Bicycle mode share remained at the 3% rate seen before the pandemic for the counts from fall 202 3 through spring 2024. Starting in fall 2023, three additional days of bike and pedestrian counts were collected to better understand the evolving active transportation patterns. Additionally, due to rainy weather conditions during the data collection period in the spring, an additional week of data was collected to account for higher daily variation in trip counts among the modes.
The 2023-24 monitoring data reflects the normalization of return-to-office hybrid models that were implemented by large employers in 2021. The Mountain View Transportation Management Association (TMA), employers, and transit operators all recognize the importance of providing convenient and efficient service to bring commuters back to transit. In addition, employee layoffs have confounded the impact of remote work policies this fiscal year and will provide the basis for ongoing monitoring in North Bayshore.
Fall 2023 Combined and Individual Gateway Peak-Period Trip Cap Comparison
The fall 2023 total traffic volumes at the three gateways (San Antonio Road, Rengstorff Avenue, and Shoreline Boulevard) combined and individually are lower than the total gateway vehicle trip cap and comply with the North Bayshore Gateway Peak-Period Vehicle Trip Cap Policy (Table 2).
2023-24 North Bayshore Trip Cap Monitoring Reports
June 11, 2024
Table 2: Fall 2023 Gateway Trip Cap Performance—A.M. and P.M. Peak Period
Spring 2024 Combined and Individual Gateway Peak-Period Trip Cap Comparison
Total traffic volumes in spring 2024 increased by 25% from the fall 2023 during the morning peak period but remained below the gateway trip cap (Table 3 below). Since monitoring restarted in fall 2021, traffic volumes have increased by 154%, with current traffic volumes returning to 76% of pre-pandemic levels compared to spring 2020.
Furthermore, the spring traffic counts show that 60% of the total allowable gateway capacity in the morning was used, which is up 2% from the monitoring period last spring (2023) and 11% from fall 2023. The Fiscal Year 2024-25 monitoring reports will help to gauge travel patterns as they continue to stabilize following the pandemic and recent layoffs.
2023-24 North Bayshore Trip Cap Monitoring Reports
June 11, 2024
Table 3: Spring 2024 Gateway Trip Cap Policy Evaluation—A.M. and P.M. Peak Periods
FISCAL IMPACT
There is no fiscal impact associated with acceptance of the fall 2023 and spring 2024 Trip Cap Monitoring Reports.
CONCLUSION
The 2023-24 North Bayshore Trip Cap Monitoring Reports find that the observed North Bayshore gateway trip volumes complied with the North Bayshore Precise Plan and Circulation Study Trip Cap policies in Fiscal Year 2023 -24. Since late spring 2022, vehicle trip volumes and associated travel patterns have continued to shift as growing numbers of employees returned to work sites under hybrid work schedules and employer TDM programs pivoted their transportation strategies. During this transitionary period, the observed travel behavior indicated a higher-than- typical SOV rate at 63%, which has steadily fallen since its record high of 70% in fall 2021, when monitoring activities resumed.
ALTERNATIVES
1. Do not accept the 2023-24 North Bayshore Trip Cap reports.
2. Provide other direction.
2023-24 North Bayshore Trip Cap Monitoring Reports
June 11, 2024
PUBLIC NOTICING
Agenda posting and email notifications were sent to interested North Bayshore stakeholders.
Prepared by:
Ben Pacho
Transportation Planner
Reviewed by:
Ria Hutabarat Lo
Transportation Manager
Approved by:
Edward Arango
Acting Public Works Director
Audrey Seymour Ramberg
Assistant City Manager
BP/LL/4/CAM
979-06-11-24CR-1
204039
Attachments: 1. Fall 2023 NBS Monitoring Report
2. Spring 2024 NBS Monitoring Report