From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Transportation demand management or travel demand management (both TDM) is the application of strategies and policies to reduce automobile travel demand, or to redistribute this demand in space or in time.[1][2]
In transport as in any network, managing demand can be a cost-effective alternative to increasing capacity. A demand management approach to transport also has the potential to deliver better environmental outcomes, improved public health and stronger communities, and more prosperous and livable cities. The techniques of TDM, applied by government transport agencies, link with and supports community movements for sustainable transport.
Background :
The term TDM has its origins in the United States in the 1970s and 1980s, and is linked to the economic impacts of the sharp increase in oil prices during the 1973 oil crisis and the 1979 energy crisis. As long lines appeared at gas stations, it became self-evident that alternatives to single occupancy commuter travel needed to be provided in order to save energy, improve air quality, and reduce peak period congestion.[3]
The concepts of TDM borrowed from mainstream transport planning in Europe, which had never been based on assumptions that the private car was the best or only solution for urban mobility. For example the Dutch Transport Structure Scheme has since the 1970s required that demand for additional vehicle capacity only be met "if the contribution to societal welfare is positive", and since 1990 has included an explicit target to halve the rate of growth in vehicle traffic.[4]
Some cities outside Europe have also consistently taken a demand management approach to transport and land use planning, notably Curitiba, Brazil, Portland, Oregon and Vancouver, Canada.
Relatively low and stable oil prices during the 1980's and 1990's led to significant increases in vehicle travel, both directly because people chose to travel by car more often and for greater distances, and indirectly because cities developed tracts of suburban housing, distant from shops and from workplaces, now referred to as urban sprawl. Trends in freight logistics, including a movement from rail and coastal shipping to road freight and a requirement for just in time deliveries, meant that freight traffic grew faster than general vehicle traffic.
Because vehicle travel was increasing rapidly from 1980-2000, it follows that (with a few exceptions) the techniques of demand management were not widely or successfully applied during this period. Small-scale projects to provide alternatives to single occupant commuter travel were common, but generally were led from outside the mainstream of transport planning. However many of the techniques in the demand management toolbox were developed during this period.
The British Government's marked a change in direction. In the introduction to the White Paper, Prime Minister Tony Blair stated that
We recognise that we cannot simply build our way out of the problems we face. It would be environmentally irresponsible - and would not work.
A companion document to the White Paper called Smarter Choices researched the potential to "scale up" the small and scattered demand management initiatives then occurring across Britain, and concluded that the comprehensive application of these techniques could reduce peak period car travel in urban areas by over 20%.[6]
A [7] by the United States Federal Highway Administration, was also released in 2004 and also concluded that a more proactive approach to transportation demand was an important component of overall national transport strategy.
Why manage travel demand?
The need to manage travel demand has now become urgent for a number of converging reasons.
Oil prices have now passed the previous peak in 1980, and 95% of all energy used in transport is oil. Vehicle travel in the United States, which has been rising steadily since records began, began to level out before the fuel price increases and is now in decline.[8]. Part of this decline is likely to be people making fewer trips, with potentially far-reaching economic and social consequences. Countries and cities where the car is one of many travel choices are more likely to prosper, as people can choose to drive less but are still able to travel by transit, cycle safely, walk to local shops and facilities, or choose to work or study from home.
Transport systems are responsible for 23% of energy-related greenhouse gas emissions, and are increasing at a faster rate than any other energy using sector.[9] Demand management is central to the effort to reduce greenhouse gas emissions from urban transportation,[10]
Increases in vehicle travel are linked to a range of health problems including poor urban air quality, road injuries and fatalities, and reduced physical activity. The World Health Organisation released a [11] in 2003, and stated that:
We are concerned that current patterns of transport, which are dominated by motorised road transport, have substantial adverse impacts on health.
The efficacy of expanded roadways in managing traffic congestion is increasingly under challenge. Much of the traffic on new or expanded roads has been shown to be induced.
A growing sustainable transport movement is mobilising public demand for investment in safer, more livable cities with a greater range of travel choices.
There is a broad range of TDM measures, including:
Transportation Management Associations: leverage public and private funds to increase the use of ridesharing and other commuting options that reduce traffic congestion and improve air quality.
Including or improving pedestrian-oriented design elements, such as short pedestrian crossings, wide sidewalks and street trees.
Requiring users of parking to pay the costs directly, as opposed to sharing the costs indirectly with others through increased rents and tax subsidies.
Including and improving public transportation infrastructure, such as subway entrances, bus stops and routes.
Subsidizing transit costs for employees or residents.
Bicycle-friendly facilities and environments, including secure bike storage areas and showers. See Bicycle transportation engineering
Providing active transportation (AT) facilities including bike lanes and multi-use trails.
Flex-time work schedules with employers to reduce congestion at peak times
Congestion pricing tolls during peak hours.
Road space rationing by restricting travel based on license plate number, at certain times and places.
Workplace travel plans.
Roadspace reallocation, aiming to re-balance provision between private cars which often predominate due to high spatial allocations for roadside parking, and for sustainable modes.
Time, Distance and Place (TDP) Road Pricing, where road users are charged based and when, where and how much they drive. Some transportation experts believe TDP pricing is an integral part of the next generation in transportation demand management.
Showing posts with label transportation tax benefits. Show all posts
Showing posts with label transportation tax benefits. Show all posts
Saturday, January 10, 2009
Friday, January 9, 2009
Virginia: Leading by Example
Telework is not just a flexible work arrangement, but a performance management strategy that can facilitate a new kind of outcomes-based government. So noted Aneesh Chopra, Secretary of Technology for the Commonwealth of Virginia, during his keynote address at the October 15 Telework Exchange Town Hall Meeting. Chopra explained that the Commonwealth's telework program is enabling state agencies to improve productivity significantly, slash turnover rates and excessive leave time, and save money.
"This is not just because of the good deeds of doing right by the environment or addressing our congestion issues - both of which are obvious priorities - this is good business sense," Chopra stated, adding that telework is something his state increasingly is turning to, even as the state faces an unexpected $2.5 billion budget shortfall in the wake of the recent economic slowdown.
Under Governor Tim Kaine's leadership, Virginia has taken a more progressive and highly-successful approach to government operations by putting the emphasis on results rather than traditional measures, such as the amount of time spent on a project. That strategy, not surprisingly, includes a strong emphasis on telework, which, Chopra says, came up early and frequently when the new administration took office in 2005.
"Governor Kaine immediately acknowledged that when it comes to managing by outcomes, the very natural question is: ‘Why do we care where you work?'" Chopra recalled, noting that one of the Governor's very first actions was to create an office to promote telework, managed by Karen Jackson, and he set an ambitious goal of enabling 20 percent of the Commonwealth's workforce to telework on a regular basis by 2010. "Telework became a very natural priority for us as we thought about outcomes-based government."
As part of its performance management approach, the new administration first required that all 95 state agencies sit down and document the key outcomes they needed to achieve during the next five to ten years. These objectives and related productivity measures were published on a public Web site, to "change the lexicon of our discussion," Chopra explained.
"Now when we have a budget discussion, we talk about it in terms of: ‘How much will an incremental investment in "X" yield in terms of outcome improvement?'" he explained. "So we have an outcome goal that we hold ourselves accountable for and we have a portfolio of programs and initiatives that we now can use to measure success against those goals."
When it came to telework, Governor Kaine took a multi-pronged approach to implementing a telework culture across the Commonwealth. Chopra and his team codified the definition of telework as working at least one day per week (or 32 hours per month) out of the office; changed the eligibility standard from an opt-in to an opt-out approach; established a cross-agency technology group to develop and post information on telework best practices and guidelines, including a telework roadmap; and encouraged private sector adoption by getting pledges from some of the largest employers in the state to match the Governor's telework goals.
Strategies also included leading by example and showing - not telling - agencies how effective telework is at improving government operations.
Kaine, for example, made it a policy for his Cabinet secretaries and their staffs to telework on a regular basis and required that Chopra and other executives provide details of all telework activity in their weekly priorities report to the Governor.
"This has rocked our culture," Chopra stated. "Prior to this, the attitude was, ‘Yeah, telework is important for the agencies because those people process paper, but we're really important people in the Cabinet. It's going to be hard for us to telework.' Gov. Kaine said, ‘Not in my administration.' Now, I must report weekly who teleworked and how many days, by name. That's leading by example."
The Tax Department, meanwhile, volunteered to conduct a telework pilot program, and the effort effectively illustrated telework's benefits - but with a few surprises, Chopra noted. Teleworkers who do mail processing achieved an 80 percent improvement in productivity when compared to the standard by which they're supposed to perform, while data-entry workers at home showed efficiency rates of 110 percent above the standard. In addition, employee turnover is considerably lower among full-time teleworkers at the Tax Department, just eight percent versus the overall agency average of 58 percent. This retention rate, coupled with productivity gains, translates into $141,000 in measurable decreases in retraining and job vacancy costs.
Today, the Virginia Tax Department's top executive teleworks, as do 62 percent of its eligible workers. All of this shows, Chopra told his audience, that telework "is not a nice-to-have but a need-to-have - especially in this budgetary environment. It's why more and more agencies are looking to telework as a strategy to meet the tough goals."
To view Aneesh Chopra's October 15 keynote presentation at the Fall 2008 Town Hall Meeting, please visit www.teleworkexchange.com.
"This is not just because of the good deeds of doing right by the environment or addressing our congestion issues - both of which are obvious priorities - this is good business sense," Chopra stated, adding that telework is something his state increasingly is turning to, even as the state faces an unexpected $2.5 billion budget shortfall in the wake of the recent economic slowdown.
Under Governor Tim Kaine's leadership, Virginia has taken a more progressive and highly-successful approach to government operations by putting the emphasis on results rather than traditional measures, such as the amount of time spent on a project. That strategy, not surprisingly, includes a strong emphasis on telework, which, Chopra says, came up early and frequently when the new administration took office in 2005.
"Governor Kaine immediately acknowledged that when it comes to managing by outcomes, the very natural question is: ‘Why do we care where you work?'" Chopra recalled, noting that one of the Governor's very first actions was to create an office to promote telework, managed by Karen Jackson, and he set an ambitious goal of enabling 20 percent of the Commonwealth's workforce to telework on a regular basis by 2010. "Telework became a very natural priority for us as we thought about outcomes-based government."
As part of its performance management approach, the new administration first required that all 95 state agencies sit down and document the key outcomes they needed to achieve during the next five to ten years. These objectives and related productivity measures were published on a public Web site, to "change the lexicon of our discussion," Chopra explained.
"Now when we have a budget discussion, we talk about it in terms of: ‘How much will an incremental investment in "X" yield in terms of outcome improvement?'" he explained. "So we have an outcome goal that we hold ourselves accountable for and we have a portfolio of programs and initiatives that we now can use to measure success against those goals."
When it came to telework, Governor Kaine took a multi-pronged approach to implementing a telework culture across the Commonwealth. Chopra and his team codified the definition of telework as working at least one day per week (or 32 hours per month) out of the office; changed the eligibility standard from an opt-in to an opt-out approach; established a cross-agency technology group to develop and post information on telework best practices and guidelines, including a telework roadmap; and encouraged private sector adoption by getting pledges from some of the largest employers in the state to match the Governor's telework goals.
Strategies also included leading by example and showing - not telling - agencies how effective telework is at improving government operations.
Kaine, for example, made it a policy for his Cabinet secretaries and their staffs to telework on a regular basis and required that Chopra and other executives provide details of all telework activity in their weekly priorities report to the Governor.
"This has rocked our culture," Chopra stated. "Prior to this, the attitude was, ‘Yeah, telework is important for the agencies because those people process paper, but we're really important people in the Cabinet. It's going to be hard for us to telework.' Gov. Kaine said, ‘Not in my administration.' Now, I must report weekly who teleworked and how many days, by name. That's leading by example."
The Tax Department, meanwhile, volunteered to conduct a telework pilot program, and the effort effectively illustrated telework's benefits - but with a few surprises, Chopra noted. Teleworkers who do mail processing achieved an 80 percent improvement in productivity when compared to the standard by which they're supposed to perform, while data-entry workers at home showed efficiency rates of 110 percent above the standard. In addition, employee turnover is considerably lower among full-time teleworkers at the Tax Department, just eight percent versus the overall agency average of 58 percent. This retention rate, coupled with productivity gains, translates into $141,000 in measurable decreases in retraining and job vacancy costs.
Today, the Virginia Tax Department's top executive teleworks, as do 62 percent of its eligible workers. All of this shows, Chopra told his audience, that telework "is not a nice-to-have but a need-to-have - especially in this budgetary environment. It's why more and more agencies are looking to telework as a strategy to meet the tough goals."
To view Aneesh Chopra's October 15 keynote presentation at the Fall 2008 Town Hall Meeting, please visit www.teleworkexchange.com.
Bike Commuter Tax Benefit Passes Both House & Senate
New Benefit for 2009
After 7 years of being tossed back and forth, the bike commuter tax benefit has finally passed both House and Senate, as part of the $700B financial services bailout package. President Bush signed the legislation almost immediately, and it is now law.
What does this legislation mean?
The bottom line is, you can get up to $20/month tax-free from your employer, if he feels like giving it to you, to reimburse you for your bike commuting expenses. Your employer can write it off as a business expense. This benefit goes into effect at the beginning of the year 2009.
The reimbursement can be “for the purchase of a bicycle and bicycle improvements, repair, and storage, if such bicycle is regularly used for travel between the employee’s residence and place of employment.”
This is similar to the tax-free reimbursements offered to transit riders, and cannot be combined with those. Multimodal commuters already getting the transit benefit cannot get the bike benefit too.
Full text of the legislation follows, as the link we supplied earlier expires:
SEC. 211. TRANSPORTATION FRINGE BENEFIT TO BICYCLE COMMUTERS.
(a) In General- Paragraph (1) of section 132(f) is amended by adding at the end the following:
`(D) Any qualified bicycle commuting reimbursement.’.
(b) Limitation on Exclusion- Paragraph (2) of section 132(f) is amended by striking `and’ at the end of subparagraph (A), by striking the period at the end of subparagraph (B) and inserting `, and’, and by adding at the end the following new subparagraph:
`(C) the applicable annual limitation in the case of any qualified bicycle commuting reimbursement.’.
(c) Definitions- Paragraph (5) of section 132(f) is amended by adding at the end the following:
`(F) DEFINITIONS RELATED TO BICYCLE COMMUTING REIMBURSEMENT-
`(i) QUALIFIED BICYCLE COMMUTING REIMBURSEMENT- The term `qualified bicycle commuting reimbursement’ means, with respect to any calendar year, any employer reimbursement during the 15-month period beginning with the first day of such calendar year for reasonable expenses incurred by the employee during such calendar year for the purchase of a bicycle and bicycle improvements, repair, and storage, if such bicycle is regularly used for travel between the employee’s residence and place of employment.
`(ii) APPLICABLE ANNUAL LIMITATION- The term `applicable annual limitation’ means, with respect to any employee for any calendar year, the product of $20 multiplied by the number of qualified bicycle commuting months during such year.
`(iii) QUALIFIED BICYCLE COMMUTING MONTH- The term `qualified bicycle commuting month’ means, with respect to any employee, any month during which such employee–
`(I) regularly uses the bicycle for a substantial portion of the travel between the employee’s residence and place of employment, and
`(II) does not receive any benefit described in subparagraph (A), (B), or (C) of paragraph (1).’.
(d) Constructive Receipt of Benefit- Paragraph (4) of section 132(f) is amended by inserting `(other than a qualified bicycle commuting reimbursement)’ after `qualified transportation fringe’.
(e) Effective Date- The amendments made by this section shall apply to taxable years beginning after December 31, 2008.
After 7 years of being tossed back and forth, the bike commuter tax benefit has finally passed both House and Senate, as part of the $700B financial services bailout package. President Bush signed the legislation almost immediately, and it is now law.
What does this legislation mean?
The bottom line is, you can get up to $20/month tax-free from your employer, if he feels like giving it to you, to reimburse you for your bike commuting expenses. Your employer can write it off as a business expense. This benefit goes into effect at the beginning of the year 2009.
The reimbursement can be “for the purchase of a bicycle and bicycle improvements, repair, and storage, if such bicycle is regularly used for travel between the employee’s residence and place of employment.”
This is similar to the tax-free reimbursements offered to transit riders, and cannot be combined with those. Multimodal commuters already getting the transit benefit cannot get the bike benefit too.
Full text of the legislation follows, as the link we supplied earlier expires:
SEC. 211. TRANSPORTATION FRINGE BENEFIT TO BICYCLE COMMUTERS.
(a) In General- Paragraph (1) of section 132(f) is amended by adding at the end the following:
`(D) Any qualified bicycle commuting reimbursement.’.
(b) Limitation on Exclusion- Paragraph (2) of section 132(f) is amended by striking `and’ at the end of subparagraph (A), by striking the period at the end of subparagraph (B) and inserting `, and’, and by adding at the end the following new subparagraph:
`(C) the applicable annual limitation in the case of any qualified bicycle commuting reimbursement.’.
(c) Definitions- Paragraph (5) of section 132(f) is amended by adding at the end the following:
`(F) DEFINITIONS RELATED TO BICYCLE COMMUTING REIMBURSEMENT-
`(i) QUALIFIED BICYCLE COMMUTING REIMBURSEMENT- The term `qualified bicycle commuting reimbursement’ means, with respect to any calendar year, any employer reimbursement during the 15-month period beginning with the first day of such calendar year for reasonable expenses incurred by the employee during such calendar year for the purchase of a bicycle and bicycle improvements, repair, and storage, if such bicycle is regularly used for travel between the employee’s residence and place of employment.
`(ii) APPLICABLE ANNUAL LIMITATION- The term `applicable annual limitation’ means, with respect to any employee for any calendar year, the product of $20 multiplied by the number of qualified bicycle commuting months during such year.
`(iii) QUALIFIED BICYCLE COMMUTING MONTH- The term `qualified bicycle commuting month’ means, with respect to any employee, any month during which such employee–
`(I) regularly uses the bicycle for a substantial portion of the travel between the employee’s residence and place of employment, and
`(II) does not receive any benefit described in subparagraph (A), (B), or (C) of paragraph (1).’.
(d) Constructive Receipt of Benefit- Paragraph (4) of section 132(f) is amended by inserting `(other than a qualified bicycle commuting reimbursement)’ after `qualified transportation fringe’.
(e) Effective Date- The amendments made by this section shall apply to taxable years beginning after December 31, 2008.
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