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Since late 2010, advocates at St. Paul Smart Trips in Minnesota have been actively involved in the development of a Travel Demand Management (TDM) plan for the University of St. Thomas’s new Anderson Student Center. The completed plan, which includes pedestrian/vehicle safety initiatives, transit promotion, improved biking facilities and a user-friendly rideshare program, was approved by the city of St. Paul this summer.

“The ultimate goal of a TDM plan is to manage the demand for traveling to a specific site with a focus on decreasing drive-alone travel,” says Damien Goebel, Employer Outreach Specialist with St. Paul Smart Trips and one of the lead developers of the plan. While you might not have heard of a TDM plan before, they are becoming more common and, depending on the amount of traffic and parking spaces generated by the new construction, are often a required component of development or renovation.

According to Goebel, because this construction of the student center caused a loss of more than 100 parking spaces, Smart Trips was brought on to help identify ways the group could improve the effectiveness of the University’s overall traffic strategies. Work on the plan first consisted of determining the users of the new building, their mode of transportation, the infrastructure already in place, and the amenities provided by the university. The plan quickly became very comprehensive, growing from a fixed focus on the student center to a more robust plan encompassing the campus.

“As we started to dig into the nuts and bolts of the project, we realized that one building could not be uncoupled from the entirety of the campus, so the plan evolved from being specifically about the student center to reducing drive-alone traffic to the campus as a whole,” says Goebel.

The plan resulted in calling for 20 measurable objectives. While the university hosts a robust program for biking, walking, and transit, some of these objectives addressed how to maximize participation in these programs, including a pedestrian safety education campaign, evaluating campus wayfinding, increasing transit pass sales, and advancing seasonal bicycle commuting.

Including a bike-ped advocacy group in the work of this TDM plan is a big step towards the inclusion of bicycle and pedestrian elements in new construction. “Our work helped to heavily influence several of the decisions made regarding implementing programs for biking and walking,” says Goebel. “They may not have had access to that information without our assistance.”

Curious to know more about what it takes to craft an effective TDM plan? Contact Damian at .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) and be sure to subscribe to the organization’s newsletter for all the latest developments.

St. Paul Smart Trips held its second annual Transportation Summit on March 3. According to the organization, “Over 100 representatives of St. Paul workplaces and neighborhoods attended the two hour networking and informational event. Speaker highlights included:

Councilmember Russ Stark spoke about how a new transportation committee will address all modes of transportation and provide a more cohesive perspective on the needs of pedestrians, bicyclists, transit users, drivers, youth and the disabled.

Councilmember Melvin Carter spoke about the impacts of the three new Central Corridor light rail stations planned for the intersections of University Avenue at Western, Victoria and Hamline avenues.

Robin Caufman from the Central Corridor Project Office gave updates on the whole of the Central Corridor project including information about mitigating construction impacts on traffic and commerce.

Bruce Howard gave an overview of Metro Transit’s plans for the year including a sneak peak at a new website feature that allows users to track bus locations in real-time on a map.

Karri Plowman from the Saint Paul Area Chamber of Commerce / OnBoard Midwest spoke to the benefits of high speed rail and the Union Depot project.”

Learn more: Star Tribune article on the new transportation committee
View: Slides from the presentations (PDF 6.2mb)
View: Photos from the event
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