Palo Alto Kicks Off Effort to Launch Transportation Association

From the City of Palo Alto:

As part of its multi-pronged approach to address issues including traffic congestion and parking demand, the City of Palo Alto is hosting a kick off community meeting to solicit input as it develops a Transportation Management Association (TMA) for downtown Palo Alto.

The public meeting will be held on Thursday, Jan. 29 from 6 to 8 p.m. in the new community room at City Hall.

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“The TMA will be the central organization to coordinate and promote transit options and solutions to reduce solo driving into our City’s downtown,” said Director of Planning and Community Environment Hillary Gitelman. “We know that TMAs have been very successful in other jurisdictions when it comes to reducing traffic and we are looking forward to replicating that in Palo Alto.”

The City Council approved the formation of a Transportation Management Association (TMA) at its meeting on Feb. 24, 2014 to cohesively develop strategies to address parking, traffic and greenhouse gas emission related to single occupancy driving.

The Palo Alto TMA will be a nonprofit organization comprised of businesses, employers and other organizations who will work to improve transit options around the City. TMA members will work together to offer programs and services to address local transportation needs. The goal set for the Palo Alto TMA is to reduce single-occupant vehicle trips by 30 percent by 2018. TMAs are typically funded by business membership dues and services fees. The association also provides education and information about travel options, as well as advocates for transportation improvements.

A steering committee of business representatives, community members and transit advocates will work throughout the year to set up the structure and operations of the TMA.

In addition to the TMA, the City is moving forward on a number of other key initiatives critical to addressing transportation and parking demand in the downtown area, including an expanded shuttle service, Caltrain Go Pass program, a rideshare app, as well as a Residential Preferential Parking program and garage technology systems. Finally, the TMA will complement the Business Registry program which launches this month, and together will provide current data on the number of businesses in Palo Alto, as well as the volume of employees traveling into the downtown area.

For more information, go to www.ourpaloalto.org/tma.

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