ALIGN: CEQA Reform

On March 3, 2016, the San Francisco Planning Commission adopted a resolution to move forward with state-proposed guidelines that modernize the way City officials measure the transportation impacts of new development. This will remove automobile delay as a significant impact on the environment and replace it with a vehicle miles traveled threshold for all CEQA environmental determinations, including active projects, going forward.
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Since the 1950's, analysis of transportation impacts was often determined solely by something called Level of Service (LOS). Developed largely for analyzing traffic capacity on highways as opposed to environmental effects, LOS is an outdated and flawed approach that was expensive to calculate, did little to benefit the environment, and promoted urban sprawl rather than smart infill growth.

California and San Francisco set out to establish a modernized environmental planning process that takes a more universal approach to how we calculate the effects of transportation. This will ensure that when we assess the impacts of projects, we are better equipped to recognize the effects they have on the transportation system and associated outcomes, such as whether a project encourages more people to travel long distances in a car, or if it provides safe and effective alternatives to driving.

On March 3, 2016, the San Francisco Planning Commission adopted a resolution to replace LOS with a vehicle miles traveled threshold for all CEQA environmental determinations. The resolution allows San Francisco to immediately implement changes to how it analyzes environmental impacts of development and transportation projects rather than wait for state adoption. 

Vehicle Miles Traveled

 

Click to enlarge.
chart of vehicle miles travelled in San Francisco

Vehicle miles traveled per person (or per capita) is a measurement of the amount and distance that a resident, employee, or visitor drives, accounting for the number of passengers within a vehicle. Many interdependent factors affect the amount and distance a person might drive. In particular, the built environment affects how many places a person can access within a given distance, time, and cost, using different ways of travels (e.g., private vehicle, public transit, bicycling, walking, etc.). Typically, low-density development located at great distances from other land uses and in areas with few options for ways of travel provides less access than a location with high density, mix of land uses, and numerous ways of travel. Therefore, low-density development typically generates more VMT compared to development located in urban areas. 

 

 

Click to enlarge.
chart of vehicle miles travelled in Bay Area

Given these travel behavior factors, on average, persons living or working in San Francisco result in lower amounts of VMT per person than persons living or working elsewhere in the nine-county San Francisco Bay Area region. In addition, on average, persons living or working in some areas of San Francisco result in lower amounts of VMT per person than persons living or working elsewhere in San Francisco.

 

 

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