Regional body seeking to craft new transportation demand management study

When it comes to planning for future transportation needs, there are many different players. In addition to individual planning conducted by the University and area localities, there is also the Metropolitan Planning Organization.

That body is mandated by the federal government to make local decisions about federal funding. The MPO is staffed by the Thomas Jefferson Planning District Commission and overseen by a Policy Board made up of voting members from Albemarle, Charlottesville, and the Virginia Department of Transportation.

A subcommittee of the MPO Policy Board will meet Tuesday morning and one of the items on the agenda is the creation of something called a “transportation demand management (TDM) study.”

The first task will be to review previous plans and the second task will be to create something called an “origin-destination” analysis. This is intended to provide a sense of where people go when they travel and why.

“Using data sources such as StreetLight, Census OnTheMap, and OpenStreetMap, CA-MPO staff will conduct an origin-destination analysis to understand travel coming in and out of the MPO area and traveling within the MPO area,” reads a draft scope of work for the study.

The MPO area consists of all of Charlottesville and urbanized sections of Albemarle County. It does not include the other localities in the TJPDC. The MPO-Tech Committee meets tomorrow at 10 a.m. You may be able to find the meeting materials here.

A third task is to recommend ways to encourage people to shift away from private cars to other forms of transportation. A fourth is to conduct a survey. All of this will be wrapped into a final report.

This newsletter is called “Charlottesville Community Engagement” to provide information that may be relevant to such studies. Here are some previous studies to consider.

The University of Virginia commissioned the firm VHB to conduct a Transportation Demand Management Plan in 2007. This is the same firm hired by Albemarle County to conduct the work for the Three Notched Trail. (read the 2007 UVA TDM report)

“Transportation Demand Management (TDM) is the art of influencing travel behavior for the purpose of reducing the demand for single occupant vehicle use,” reads the executive summary of the 2007 plan.

Implementation included increasing the cost of parking for UVA employees and making sure the University Transit System and shuttle systems could move people around the area.

In 2019, UVA published a Parking and Transportation Plan that sought to strengthen the TDM but also recognized new parking spaces would need to be built.

“The Plan recognizes that while TDM strategies can help to alleviate the parking issue, they need to be coupled with strategies that increase the amount and efficiency of the parking supply,” reads page 15 of the plan. “This change in the University transportation philosophy also requires changes in its parking policy and funding model.”

Since then UVA has planned to build at least two new parking garages which are now under construction as I reported last week. UVA has also invested in the Afton Express and offers free rides to those who agree to forgo a parking pass. I reported that earlier this month.

Charlottesville does not have a TDM plan in place, according to a transportation narrative included in the appendix of the 2021 Comprehensive Plan. This document does note that TJPDC provided TDM functions through its RideShare program.

“We offer free carpool matching, vanpool coordination, and operate a Guaranteed Ride Home program to provide free rides home in an emergency,” reads the RideShare website. “RideShare also works with employers to develop and implement traffic reduction programs, and we market the region’s Park and Ride lots.”

Albemarle’s Comprehensive Plan is now ten years old having been adopted on June 10, 2015. The transportation chapter encouraged continued participation with RideShare and the MPO.

Before you go: This story was originally published in the June 16, 2025 primary and than posted here about an hour later. This is a Town Crier Productions production. What is that? Take a look here.