SANDAG issues State of the Commute report

The San Diego Association of Governments issued its first State of the Commute report, and in addition to accepting the report for distribution January 28 the SANDAG board also provided suggestions to reduce traffic congestion.

The purpose of the report is to provide a summary on the performance of the region’s transportation system. SANDAG staff had been collecting and analyzing regional transportation data since 2003, but there had been a lack of available data to measure regional performance. SANDAG staff compiled various performance measures and ideas for reporting performance and shared them with other transportation agencies, and several performance measures were considered for the report including transportation facility usage, border traffic, goods movement, and transit-supportive land use measures. Those measures were narrowed down in order to keep the report as brief and concise as possible, although some of the unused measures will be used in other regional performance monitoring activities, most notably the Regional Comprehensive Plan implementation.

The challenges quantified in the report include travel versus factors such as population, housing stock, employment, new highway miles, and transportation funding as well as the annual hours of traffic delay per traveler.

“The challenges in this report we know are not new to this group,” said Alex Estrella, an associate transportation planner for SANDAG.

Since 1980 travel has increased by approximately 140 percent while employment has increased by about 90 percent and the population and housing stock have each risen by about 60 percent. Highway travel has increased by about 160 percent while new highway miles have increased by about 80 percent and funding has increased by about 40 percent.

“People want to be where the jobs are,” Estrella said. “People are willing to travel longer distances due to the limited housing choices and affordability issues.”

The funding includes the TransNet sales tax approved by voters in November 1987 and effective in 1988; state highway funding has actually decreased about 40 percent since 1980.

“TransNet only represents a part of the funding picture,” Estrella said.

In 1982 the average traveler experienced approximately eight hours of annual delay during peak periods, and by 2004 that amount had increased to nearly 50 hours. A decline between 1990 and 1996 reflects the economic downturn during those years. “When the economy is bad, there are fewer jobs and fewer commuters,” Estrella said.

Estrella notes that other methods of reducing congestion are being sought. “A bad economy is not the solution to our traffic woes,” he said.

The solutions offered in the State of the Commute report include managed lanes to increase capacity, making transit more competitive with driving alone in terms of travel time, reducing cars on the road through the use of vanpooling, and improving highway capacity.

The Caltrans monitoring station at Interstate 15 and Mira Mesa Boulevard in San Diego indicates that 21 percent more people were moved on managed lanes between 3:00 and 5:00 p.m .; at 4:00 p.m. that equates to approximately 800 more people per hour. “Those lanes are designed to work by moving more people in fewer vehicles,” Estrella said.

While managing demand and increasing capacity are solutions, Estrella recognizes financial constraints. “With the funding challenges ahead we need to use our local tax dollars wisely,” he said.

The funding limitations place an increased emphasis on demand management. “Several years ago the concept of alternate work hours for businesses was a factor,” said El Cajon Mayor Mark Lewis, who is El Cajon’s representative on the SANDAG board. “When I ride the freeways on Sundays and holidays, it’s no problem.” Lewis suggested incentives for employers to encourage telecommuting and alternate work hours. “They still get the eight hours in, but just at different times,” Lewis said. “I’d rather have that alternative rather than let’s climb into a vanpool or let’s climb into a bus.”

La Mesa Mayor Art Madrid, who is that city’s SANDAG representative, proposed disincentives for employers who discourage telecommuting and alternative hours. “Somewhere along the line we have to be a little more assertive,” Madrid said.

“We’re losing credibility by just making a statement and recommending a tool,” Madrid said. “There are no disincentives for not applying.”

Coronado City Council member and SANDAG representative Phil Monroe noted that the term “improvement” of congestion might not be accurate since traffic will increase even though new roads are being built.

Monroe noted that the road construction plans will not accommodate the increased capacity. “I think we need to be honest,” he said of using words such as “reduce” and “improve.” “We need to develop a set of language that says that.”

SANDAG executive director Gary Gallegos noted that the congestion relief might not be spread equally. “You’re proposing to make your investments in the urban core where a lot of the people live,” he said.

Gallegos noted that residents in areas such as Temecula who commute to San Diego will not necessarily benefit from the improvements focusing on the urban core. “That’s what adds to the VMT,” he said. “Your plan absolutely doesn’t make it better for that person.”

VMT stands for vehicle miles traveled. “You can’t look at transportation in a vacuum and not look at land use decisions that you’re making,” Gallegos said.

SANDAG has worked with the Western Riverside Council of Governments on an Interregional Partnership which seeks to address the inequity between jobs and housing along the Interstate 15 corridor. “I do think you’re going to see some improvements,” Gallegos said.

SANDAG’s long-term transportation plan is updated every three years. “It’s not a static plan. It’s a dynamic plan that you get a chance to look at and change,” Gallegos said.

“I don’t think we’re going to sit still,” Gallegos said. “Between now and 2030 you’re going to get ten more chances to look at that.”

Gallegos also expects technological improvements to make freeways more efficient in the future.

SANDAG board chair and Poway Mayor Mickey Cafagna notes that some improvements will occur before gradual returns to congestion. “You’re looking at a snapshot today and a snapshot of 2030,” he said of the long-term plan without intermediate quantifications.

County Supervisor Pam Slater-Price, who represents the unincorporated areas on the SANDAG board, suggested that large employers with multiple branches or offices can match location ZIP codes with employee ZIP codes to optimize employee location. That would also allow working mothers to be closer to their children and give parents shorter drives to their children’s after-school activities. “It seems like a natural thing we might look at,” she said.

The County of San Diego tried an alternate work schedule in the past with employees working four ten-hour days and having three days off. “In some cases the uses are limited,” Slater-Price said.

The 4/10 schedule was popular with employees but did not work well in some positions. “I do think it’s a good option if people do not have to meet with clients,” Slater-Price said.

Telecommuting posed similar problems. “Telecommuting can be offered on a limited scale,” Slater-Price said. “The rest of the time they really need to go in.”

Slater-Price acknowledged that telecommuting one or two days a week would improve congestion.

Slater-Price also noted that recent local road trends which have moved away from grid systems and toward “truck and branch” systems have contributed to the problem. “We have to address that in some way,” she said. “We cannot expect to load short trips onto freeways and expect them to operate as intended.”

Slater-Price proposed the possibility of incentives for grid systems and other local road systems which encourage the use of surface streets instead of freeways. “To me those are the things that have led to partially where we are today,” she said of the limited non-freeway options.

City Councilman Ron Morrison, who is National City’s SANDAG representative, noted that when businesses are open but schools are closed congestion is often minimal. “We need to start incorporating dialogue with them much more,” Morrison said of the schools.

Lewis notes that an El Cajon elementary school and a high school on the same street start at the same time, creating problems on the nearby roads.

San Diego City Councilman and SANDAG representative Jim Madaffer noted that some land use decisions may not be conducive to housing demand. “People that work here don’t necessarily live here,” he said. “They’re not living here, but they’re using our roads.”

Madaffer urged land use policies which would ensure that jobs are located close to available housing while housing would be available close to jobsites. “Locating jobs, housing in the same place; that obviously makes sense,” he said.

Madaffer also noted that the TransNet extension will only be part of the solution. “What’s really missing here is the funding issues. The state continually scams the people of San Diego and this region,” he said.

Madaffer also noted that congestion is minimal on government holidays. “There’s free-flowing traffic on Veteran’s Day because the government sectors are off,” he said.

“Why isn’t it starting right here with government to do a better job?” Madaffer said. “I think that really government could do a lot more.”

SANDAG once began its board meetings at 8:30 a.m. but later moved them to 9:00 a.m. Jerome Stocks, who is the North County Transit District advisory representative on the SANDAG board, favors an even later start. “Before we go down that road, we need to explain why the SANDAG meeting, which is not a customer-driven meeting, is at 9 a.m.,” he said in response to the possibility of disincentives. “Before we start penalizing private employers, we’d better lead by example.”

SANDAG Transportation Committee chair Joe Kellejian agrees that government as well as the private sector needs to contribute to demand management. Kellejian, who is a Solana Beach City Councilman, also spent 17 years as the owner of various 4-Day Tire stores and is experienced with the compressed workweek. “It’s good that we’re talking about it,” he said.

“We have these plans in place to take care of what our needs are in the future, but we need to have the funding for it,” Kellejian said. “We need to find other sources, new technologies, and a lot of other answers.”

Encinitas deputy mayor and SANDAG representative Christy Guerin urged a better explanation of the reasons for the problems. “I think it’s our responsibility to educate the citizens and the people in the region,” she said. “Building freeways isn’t a simple task of taking a cement truck and dumping cement.”

Guerin suggested adding comparisons between San Diego County and other counties and states and suggested explaining to the public the subsidies and other costs of transit and of building freeways.

Voluntary programs have been offered to employers; the vanpool program reduced 2004 trips by approximately 1.3 million. Regardless of employer solutions, employment will remain closely related to the problem, as Stocks pointed out that the recession led to a 20 percent decrease in average delay time between 1990 and 1994. “We need to acknowledge that at least a part of our problem we’re having is the result of a very successful, booming regional economy,” Stocks said.