Meeting_Body
REVISED
EXECUTIVE MANAGEMENT COMMITTEE
JUNE 20, 2018
Subject
SUBJECT: METRO VISION 2028 PLAN
Action
ACTION: APPROVE ADOPTION OF METRO VISION 2028 PLAN
Heading
RECOMMENDATION
Title
ADOPT the Metro Vision 2028 Plan.
Issue
ISSUE
Metro staff presents to the Board of Directors a bold and ambitious agency-wide strategic plan, the Metro Vision 2028 Plan (Plan) (Attachment A), that intends to marshal the creativity, resources, and political will to shape our mobility future and unleash Los Angeles County’s unparalleled economic and social promise over the next ten years. This report summarizes the content as well as the process undertaken to create this Plan and identifies the range and variety of roles that Metro will play to encourage, persuade, influence, and leader regional partners to transform mobility for the well-being of the people in LA County. The Plan establishes Metro’s mission, vision, and goals and sets the principles for Metro to make decisions and conduct business over the next ten years. The Metro Vision 2028 Plan will align all Metro plans, programs, and services under one umbrella to achieve a unified vision. Other plans, such as the Long Range Transportation Plan update and the NextGen Bus Study, will adopt the same mission, vision and goals and provide more details on how they will be operationalized.
LA County has a complex transportation ecosystem that is controlled by a patchwork of local, regional, state, and federal agencies. However, these intricacies and nuances should be invisible throughout the transportation user’s mobility experience. This Plan puts the customer at the heart of the journey to build a better transportation future for LA County. Successful implementation of the Plan will dramatically improve mobility, giving people more time to focus on the things that matter most to them.
Discussion
DISCUSSION
The Plan addresses the root cause of the transportation problem: population and economic growth are increasing travel demand on a congested transportation system with space-constrained capacity. The current system is congested because roadway space is inefficiently used: limited street space is largely given over to single-occupancy vehicles, which are too often stuck in traffic, while the most disadvantaged members of our community are confined to a patchwork of transportation options that frequently fail to meet their basic mobility needs. Better mobility in LA County can best be achieved by prioritizing the movement of people over vehicles. This means using our limited street space more effectively and giving everyone higher-quality options for getting around, regardless of how they choose to travel. We must create high-quality alternatives to solo driving so that individuals have reliable, convenient, and safe options for taking transit, walking, biking, sharing rides, and carpooling. By better managing roadway capacity, all users in LA County can have greater mobility.
Achievement of our mobility goals has long-term ramifications beyond the next ten years. Transportation accounts for nearly 40% of all greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions in California, and as demand for trips continues to increase due to population and economic growth, Metro’s ability to increase use of modes other than driving alone is integral to reaching the LA region’s and State of California’s ambitious climate goals. The impact of rising GHG emissions and dependence on driving on public health only raises the level of urgency to change our approach to mobility. By providing more convenient, efficient, and appealing transportation options, Metro can move more people while reducing GHG emissions for each trip taken, thereby significantly limiting the impact transportation has on the environment and public health. A more diverse, responsive, and resilient transportation system will also be better equipped to handle the adaptation challenges that will come with a warming climate.
The Plan outlines the agency’s strategic goals for 2018-2028 and the actions Metro will undertake to meet those goals. It explains what the public can expect from Metro over the next ten years and how Metro intends to deliver on those expectations. The Plan puts the user at the forefront of how we do business. Addressing the root cause of our transportation problem will require bold action and widespread support of the public. This is a collective effort requiring participation from many people in the region, making leadership and partnership essential to achieving these goals.
Mission
Metro’s mission is to provide a world-class transportation system that enhances quality of life for all who live, work, and play within Los Angeles County.
Vision
Metro’s vision is comprised of three parts:
• Increased prosperity for all by removing mobility barriers.
• Swift and easy mobility throughout Los Angeles County, anytime.
• Accommodatinge more trips through a variety of high-quality mobility options.
Visionary Outcomes
Metro aims to double the total percent usage of transportation modes other than solo driving, including taking transit, walking, biking, sharing rides, and carpooling by accomplishing the following:
• Ensuring that all County residents have access to high-quality mobility options within a 10-minute walk or roll from home.
• Reducing maximum wait times for any trip to 15 minutes during at any time of the day.
• Improving average travel speeds on the County’s bus network by 30 percent.
• Providing reliable and convenient options for users to manage their travel time bypass congestion.
Strategic Plan Process
Staff conducted a comprehensive information-gathering exercise to identify key trends, issues, opportunities, and challenges for the region and to learn how Metro can meet those challenges. An overview of stakeholder outreach is provided in the Stakeholder Outreach Matrix (Attachment B). Stakeholder engagement included:
• Conducted over 130 meetings to seek input on the major trends affecting transportation in LA County. External and internal stakeholder participants included Metro Board members and deputies, partner agencies, advocacy organizations, community groups, businesses, Metro departments, academia, and key influencers.
• Surveyed over 18,000 LA County residents and workers to better understand their transportation needs and concerns.
• Surveyed Metro employees to assess their readiness to implement the strategic vision of the organization. More than 4,700 employees responded to the survey.
• Released the draft Plan for public review on April 27, 2018. A summary of stakeholder input to the draft Plan and staff’s response is provided in the Public Comments and Metro’s Response Matrix (Attachment C).
• Convened a stakeholder summit on May 7, 2018, to solicit input after the release of the draft Plan. Over 150 participants attended to provide further input to the draft Plan.
• Presented the draft Plan at stakeholder meetings and met one-on-one with interested stakeholders to solicit additional input, during and beyond the public review period, as noted in Attachment B.
Key Trends
Based on outreach to stakeholders, transportation system users, and staff, we identified the following key trends that describe the challenges and complexities of delivering efficient and effective mobility to the people of LA County:
1. Continued growth in demand is straining an already oversubscribed transportation system.
2. The challenges of meeting the mobility needs and expectations of a diverse region are becoming increasingly complex.
3. Technological innovations are changing the mobility landscape.
4. A shortage of affordable housing across the region exacerbates transportation challenges.
5. Failure to reform policies that favor solo driving will continue to add congestion and reduce mobility.
Goals
The Plan is organized around five goals that together advance our vision for a world-class transportation system that will efficiently, effectively, and equitably serve the mobility needs of people and businesses in LA County:
1. Provide high-quality mobility options that enable people to spend less time traveling;
2. Deliver outstanding trip experiences for all users of the transportation system;
3. Enhance communities and lives through mobility and access to opportunity;
4. Transform Los Angeles County through regional collaboration and national leadership; and
5. Provide responsive, accountable, and trustworthy governance within the Metro organization.
The Plan describes the specific initiatives and actions we have identified for achieving each of these goals, including, where applicable, benchmarks and targets that will help Metro measure progress. The goals themselves and the action items identified to achieve those goals reflect input gathered through the outreach process described previously.
There are many important current and short-term initiatives underway at Metro that are not directly referenced in this Plan because they are already on a path towards implementation. The Plan focuses on initiatives that go beyond the status quo and the aggressive, strategic actions required to meet the region’s ambitious mobility goals.
Stakeholder Outreach
Metro officially opened a formal public review period to collect feedback on the Vision 2028 Plan on April 276. The review period closed on May 24, 2018. To share the contents of the Vision 2028 Plan, staff held a stakeholder summit on Monday, May 7, 2018 to provide an additional forum for sharing the vision and goals of the plan, collect feedback, and answer questions. Approximately 127 Over 150 participants attended, representing 72 organizations as well as individual interests attended.
The Summit opened with attendees sharing stories of their transportation experiences to provide background and context for the overview of the draft Metro Vision 2028 plan. The overview presentation was followed by a question and answer period. The presentation portion of the Summit closed with an open house for one-on-one discussions regarding specific goals of the Plan.
Since the public release of the draft strategic plan, Metro staff members have presented the Vision 2028 Plan at a number of stakeholder meetings to collect feedback and answer questions on the content of the plan. Attachment B to this report lists the meetings and presentations completed or scheduled as of June 8, 2018. Staff will continue to make presentations as requested.
Through May 31, Metro received over 280 comments on the Vision 2028 Plan. Comment themes of particular interest are the following:
|
Comments Theme |
Metro Response |
|
Comments expressed concerns that there was not enough stakeholder engagement on the Plan. |
List of stakeholder meetings, interviews, and presentations included in Appendix B of the Plan. |
|
Comments expressed that sustainability, climate change, and resilience are not sufficiently addressed. Comments expressed a desire for more emphasis on GHGs, sustainability, and resiliency to ensure that Metro continues to be eligible for funding and support. |
Added more explicit language on sustainability and resilience and tie achievement of mobility goals to achievement of environmental and air quality goals throughout the document, particularly on pp. 16 and 34. |
|
Comments expressed interest in partnering with Metro to accomplish vision and goals. |
Comment noted. |
|
Comments expressed concerns about level of funding needed to accomplish vision and goals. |
Staff clarified for stakeholders that funding for initiatives will be determined later through other processes, such as LRTP, Strategic Budget Plan, discretionary grants, etc. Individual projects may be eligible for discretionary grant programs. Language has been added throughout the document to address the development of details in later plans. |
|
Comments asked for details about the data and metrics that will be used to measure progress on the goals in V28. |
Staff clarified for stakeholders that detailed data and metrics to measure progress on goals and initiatives will be determined later through other processes (e.g. LRTP, NextGen, BRT Vision & Principles Study, etc.). Language has been added throughout the document to address the development of details in later plans. |
|
Comments expressed support for the vision, but requested more details about how the vision will be accomplished. Comments expressed desire for more definition around the mode share measure and how we will measure the visionary outcomes. Comments expressed interest in understanding what data is available to determine mode share and requests to provide clarity on what types of trips (i.e. commuter vs. all) are included. |
Revised metric for mode share (p. 9) to use percentage rather than total number. Action Matrix describes actions to determine data to be used. |
|
Comments requested more specifics about equity, specifically regarding how outreach will engage underrepresented populations and how community engagement will be conducted. Comments suggested that Metro look at equity in terms of areas of highest need and not in terms of geographic equity (spreading money around). |
Comment noted - Defer to equity framework to provide more detail. |
|
Comments expressed both support for congestion pricing as well as some opposition. Opposition was more specific to congestion pricing on local streets. |
Comment noted. Clarified for stakeholders that managing demand is essential to the improving mobility, and Metro is open to ideas on how to do that without pricing. Language for Initiative 1.3 has been modified to reflect that Metro is not looking solely at pricing to manage demand. |
|
Comments expressed that there is not enough emphasis on goods movement and that highways and driving are ignored in V28. Comments expressed desire to acknowledge the need for new highway capacity for safety improvements and goods movement. |
Added language to clarify the role of passenger mobility in improving goods movement. Added language on state of good repair on roads, highways, and shared-use freight corridors. Also added language to clarify that additional new capacity must consider demand management as part of implementation. |
|
Comments requested acknowledgement that the term "safety" means different things to different people. |
Comment noted. Language in document reflects Metro's desire to work with the community to inform security efforts. |
|
Comments requested clarification that user experience initiatives applies to bus stops as much as rail stations. Comments expressed desire for consistency of experience for user, regardless of mode. |
Clarified for stakeholders that Metro's Transfers Design Guide includes bus stops. |
|
Comments requested removing reference to homeless populations from security initiative to avoid criminalizing homelessness. Comments asked V28 to address homelessness on the transit system. |
Removed reference to homeless populations from Initiative 2.1. Added Initiative 3.4 on homelessness (p. 32). |
|
Comments highlighted need for coordination with local municipalities, other transit operators, Caltrans, and other stakeholders to implement the plan. Comments requested clarity on who partners are and how they will be incentivized to partner with Metro on these initiatives. |
Added language in Initiative 4.1 to defer to specific efforts for detailed strategies on key partners and coordination approach, as each process has different needs (pp. 34-35). |
|
Comments requested clarity on what the term “incentives” means and how "incentives" will impact grant funding. |
Clarified for stakeholders that Metro intends to leverage and pool resources to achieve goals of V28. Details will be developed through additional plans such as LRTP. |
A full comments summary and Metro’s responses are provided in Attachment C to this Board report. In addition, a tracked version of the draft Vision 2028 Plan has been included as Attachment D to disclose the language changes in the Plan resulting from public comments received.
Determination_Of_Safety_Impact
DETERMINATION OF SAFETY IMPACT
The Plan affirms and reinforces a strong safety culture throughout our operations and practices. A key element of the Plan will be to promote a transportation system that improves safety for travelers.
Financial_Impact
FINANCIAL IMPACT
We will leverage funding and staff resources to accelerate the achievement of goals and initiatives prioritized in this Plan. This includes aligning all of the agency’s business processes, resources, plans, and tools with our strategic vision, goals, and initiatives and ensuring that financial decisions, annual budgets, programs, services, and the update of Metro’s Long Range Transportation Plan support the Metro Vision 2028 Plan. It also means aligning human capital and financial resource decisions to reflect the Plan’s vision and priorities. This realignment will occur in a phased approach over the next several years to allow for the completion of initiatives that are already in progress. Financial allocations over the ten year life of the Plan will be described in the 10-year Strategic Budget Plan with appropriations through the annual budgeting process. Assessments of planning, capital, or operating costs associated with specific initiatives in the Plan may also be brought before the Board for action individually, or as part of a program or associated actions, as appropriate.
Impact to Budget
A 10-year Strategic Budget Plan will be developed to align with resource allocations to accomplish the initiatives in the Metro Vision 2028 Plan.
Alternatives_Considered
ALTERNATIVES CONSIDERED
The Board could decide to delay or forgo the adoption of the Plan. This alternative is not recommended. A strategic plan is critical to achieving mobility goals for LA County. Over the coming decades, the Los Angeles County region will undertake one of the largest transportation infrastructure investments in the western hemisphere. As LA Metro works with public, community, and private sector partners to build out this infrastructure for the future, we are also seizing opportunities to improve mobility now, for the over 1.2 million people who rely directly on our bus and train service today and more than 10 million people whose quality of life is affected by our ability to implement transportation solutions that successfully meet their mobility needs in the next ten years. The Board’s adoption of the Plan will provide support and direction for a comprehensive approach from our agency and spur the collective actions necessary to advance our vision for a world-class transportation system that will efficiently, effectively, and equitably serve the mobility needs of people who live, work, and play within LA County.
Next_Steps
NEXT STEPS
Upon approval, staff will initiate implementation of the steps identified in the Plan, including the identification and selection of parameters and data sources for benchmarking non-solo driving mode share, development of a 10-year Strategic Budget Plan, assignment of staff to oversee the customer experience, and developing a framework for the performance management and continuous improvement program. Staff will provide periodic updates to the Board on the status of Plan implementation.
Attachments
ATTACHMENTS
Attachment A - Metro Vision 2028 Plan
Attachment B - Stakeholder Outreach Matrix
Attachment C - Summary of Public Comments Received by May 31, 2018
Attachment D - Metro Vision 2028 Plan - Tracked Version
Attachment E - Appendices to Metro Vision 2028 Plan
Prepared_by
Prepared by: Tham Nguyen, Senior Manager, Transportation Planning, (213) 922-2606
Nadine Lee, Deputy Executive Officer, Innovation, (213) 418-3347
Reviewed_By
Reviewed by: Joshua Schank, Chief Innovation Officer, (213) 418-3345
