File #: 2023-0520   
Type: Informational Report Status: Agenda Ready
File created: 8/7/2023 In control: Planning and Programming Committee
On agenda: 9/20/2023 Final action:
Title: RECEIVE AND FILE status report on Metro's Vehicle Miles Traveled (VMT) Mitigation Program.
Sponsors: Program Management (Department), Maria Luk
Indexes: Alignment, Bicycle lanes, California Environmental Quality Act, Capital Project, Complete streets, Grant Aid, Housing, Informational Report, Long Range Transportation Plan, Measure M, Measure R, Metro ExpressLanes, Metro Rail E Line, Metro Vision 2028 Plan, Mitigation, Multi County Goods Movement Action Plan, Multimodal, Multimodal transportation, Policy, Program, Project, Proposition A, Proposition C, Rail transit, Research, Resolution, Safety, Senate Bill 743, Shared mobility, Southern California Association Of Governments, SR-14, Strategic planning, Tolls, Traffic safety, Transit buses, Travel patterns, Vehicle miles of travel, Vehicle occupancy, Vehicle sharing
Attachments: 1. Attachment A - Strengths and Limitations of Caltrans Guidance and LA County-Specific Quantification Approach, 2. Attachment B - Grant Award Resolution, 3. Attachment C - VMT Regulatory and Policy Guidance Memorandum, 4. Attachment D - VMT Quantification Tools and Preferred Methodology, 5. Attachment E - Metro EFCs & TAZ VMT Data - Countywide, 6. Attachment F - Metro EFCs & Highway Projects & Programs - Countywide, 7. Presentation
Date Action ByActionResultAction DetailsMeeting DetailsAudio
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Meeting_Body
PLANNING AND PROGRAMMING COMMITTEE
SEPTEMBER 20, 2023


Subject
SUBJECT: STATUS REPORT ON METRO VMT MITIGATION PROGRAM

Action
ACTION: RECEIVE AND FILE

Heading
RECOMMENDATION

Title
RECEIVE AND FILE status report on Metro's Vehicle Miles Traveled (VMT) Mitigation Program.

Issue
ISSUE

Metro is developing a framework to mitigate induced Vehicle Miles Traveled (VMT) impacts from projects on the State Highway System (SHS). This work is being conducted in compliance with Caltrans' California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) transportation impact metric determination, pursuant to Senate Bill (SB) 743, an unfunded mandate. This framework will allow Metro to mitigate any potential induced VMT impacts by investing in our own Metro VMT-reducing operations, projects, and programs, or those of our public agency partners, including active transportation, bus-only lanes, bike share expansion, increased service frequency for our transit operations or those of our partner transit agencies, and affordable housing, among others.

This report builds on the July 2023 presentation to the Board of Directors and provides further updates on the development of this framework, including the preliminary project cost increases to satisfy compliance with SB 743, using either the current Caltrans Guidance (California Induced Travel Calculator) or the Los Angeles (LA) County-specific quantification approach, with a comparative summary of the strengths and limitations of both approaches included as Attachment A. This quantification approach will identify the mitigation obligation for individual projects as well as influence the broader mitigation framework development.

Background
BACKGROUND

In September 2020, Caltrans released statewide guidance for analyzing the CEQA VMT impacts of projects on the SHS. In response, Metro pursued and was awarded Fiscal Year (FY) 2021-22 Caltrans Sustainable Transportation Planning Grant Program funds, with the Board authorizing the ...

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