A communication transmitted from Louis A. DePasquale, City Manager, relative to Awaiting Report Item Number 19-36, regarding the PTDM Ordinance

C I T Y O F C A M B R I D G E Community Development Department IRAM FAROOQ Assistant City Manager for Community Development SANDRA CLARKE Deputy Director Chief of Administration KHALIL MOGASSABI Deputy Director Chief Planner 344 Broadway Cambridge, MA 02139 Voice: [phone removed] Fax: [phone removed] TTY: [phone removed] www.cambridgema.gov TO: Louis DePasquale, City Manager FROM: Iram Farooq, Assistant City Manager for Community Development SUBJECT: Awaiting Report #19-36 dated 3/18/19, regarding the Parking and Transportation Demand Management (PTDM) Ordinance DATE: July 22, 2019 In response to Awaiting Report Item Number 19-36 dated March 18, 2019, regarding a recap report on how the Parking and Transportation Demand Management (PTDM) Ordinance is being used anecdotally, what the participation rates and trends are, and how it’s administered, we report the following. Adopted in 1998, the PTDM Ordinance was designed to improve mobility and access, reduce traffic congestion and air pollution, and increase safety by promoting walking, bicycling, public transit, and other sustainable modes. Any non-residential project that has created 5-19 new parking spaces (Small Projects), or created 20 or more new parking spaces (Large Projects) has been subject to the PTDM Ordinance. The ordinance requires Large Projects to create a PTDM plan, to be approved by the City. Large Project PTDM plans must include a commitment for a numeric reduction in the percent of people accessing the project via single occupant vehicle (SOV); a plan typically requires the use of several transportation demand management measures. Monitoring and reporting are requirements of all Large Projects: this begins approximately one year after the new facility is occupied, to show whether the SOV mode-split commitment has been achieved. Small Project PTDM Plans require a commitment to implement three transportation demand management measures, but there is no SOV mode-split commitment or annual monitoring. A wide variety of measures have been implemented to meet these mode split goals. While all PTDM plans include measures to promote walk, bike, transit, and carpool travel, the ordinance allows property owners and employers some flexibility in determining which measures best fit their particular circumstances. Measures typically implemented include MBTA pass subsidies of varying levels, reserved parking for carpools, showers and changing facilities for walk/bike commuters, employee-paid parking, and shuttles to transit stations. Some projects have also employed techniques such as providing financial incentives for walking and biking, offering commuters who usually don’t drive to work the opportunity to park occasionally, and providing annual Bluebikes memberships. Owners of Large Project PTDM properties conduct a travel-habit and mode-split survey of all people who are eligible to the parking facility and submit findings for

Page 2 of 2 monitoring by the City. In 2018, the city received reports for41 Large Projects that represent approximately 20,000 parking spaces. These projects include approximately 30 million square feet of commercial and institutional development. PTDM projects now cover the commuting activities of nearly 40,000 employees (or 30% of all employees in Cambridge) and approximately 10,000 graduate and primary school students. Examples of project types monitored in 2018 include a hospital, the retail and office portions of mixed-used buildings, educational facilities, a city library, and a large, multi-building office/R&D development. There were sixteen Small Projects that did not require monitoring. All monitored projects conducted mode-split surveys and had response rates of 60% or greater. The strong response rate, coupled with required bi-annual driveway/parking utilization monitoring, gives us confidence that the results are reliable. Thirty-six of the monitored projects, or 88%, met their PTDM mode-split commitments for 2018. Projects meeting their mode-split commitments all showed SOV driving rates of less than those projected. The single-occupancy vehicle rate includes people who take a ride-hail service, such as Uber, Lyft, or taxi, as a solo passenger. People who use a pooled service such as UberPool or LyftLine to ride with other passengers are counted as a carpool. Several factors contributed to the challenges faced by the 5 projects that did not meet their mode-split commitments. An excess of parking spaces leads to an imbalance in the employee-to-parking space ratio, which appears to confirm national research that an over-supply of parking contributes to higher SOV rates. Other factors in failing an SOV mode-split commitment include locations that are at least a half-mile from rapid transit, or being in the first year of monitoring with the expectation of making progress after gaining more experience implementing the PTDM Plan. Projects receive monitoring response letters noting project compliance status and offering technical assistance for non-compliant projects. In some cases when a property has implemented all of its plan-required TDM elements and still does not achieve desired SOV levels, staff engages owners to develop additional reasonable TDM measures to promote non-SOV travel. This has been a mutually cooperative process, prior to utilization of any enforcement provisions contained within the PTDM ordinance.