|
An effective transportation system provides
an important service to our city, region, and nation.
Increasingly, however, the day-to-day operation of our
transportation system is becoming a concern to elected
officials, planners, the business community, and residents.
Some of these concerns are:
·
Commuter traffic cutting through neighborhood
roads
·
Congestion on roads seemingly at all hours of the
day
·
Poor air quality due to vehicle exhausts
Many of our communities have experienced
tremendous growth over the past several decades.
This growth has occurred in suburban areas without access
to mass transit causing a corresponding increase in traffic
congestion.
In the past, the popular solution to the
rising levels of congestion was to build new and bigger roads.
However, this encouraged additional growth to occur in
these areas of now higher and better accessibility, which once
again resulted in increased congestion.
Although road improvements will continue to be an
important strategy for providing mobility, many communities no
longer:
·
Have the financial resources to build many new
roads
·
Would likely face serious environmental problems
·
Encounter strong public opposition
In addition, for urban areas not in
compliance with the federal clean air standards, federal law
places substantial constraints on the type and magnitude of road
expansion that can be undertaken.
In many of these areas, state/local
officials and employers are turning to a new approach for
providing transportation mobility that does not suffer from
these problems-Travel Demand Management (TDM).
Quite simply, TDM programs are designed to
maximize the people-moving capability of the transportation
system by increasing the number of persons in a vehicle, or by
influencing the time of, or need for, travel.
To accomplish these types of changes, TDM programs must
rely on incentives or disincentives that make these shifts in
behavior attractive.
The term TDM means alternatives to driving
alone and the techniques or strategies that encourage the use of
these alternatives. The
application of such TDM alternatives and the implementation of
supporting strategies can occur at different levels under the
direction of a variety of groups.
Certainly, one level of application found in many parts
of the country is at individual employer sites, or at locations
where there are many employers grouped together.
In this situation, the employers become the important
implementers of the TDM actions, even though they may be
responding to a government mandate to do so.
The primary purpose of TDM is to reduce the
number of vehicles using the road system while providing a wide
variety of alternatives to those who wish to travel.
Another level of application is on an
area-wide basis where government agencies often direct the
initiative. In this type of application, the primary focus of the TDM
program is to affect as many travelers as possible within an
area-wide travel system. However,
experience has shown that the effectiveness of area-wide TDM
programs depends greatly on the type and level of participation
of employers. The
development of effective TDM programs therefore should be
approached from the perspective of how public officials and
local employers can work together to meet the goals of providing
mobility.
In March 1996, the Salt Lake Area Chamber
of Commerce appointed a Transportation Task Force to evaluate
all modes of transportation and alternatives in the valley and
how they impact businesses.
The task force determined that the greatest impact and
short term need was congestion mitigating traffic associated
with the proposed I-15 corridor improvements.
They also identified the need for continuous long-range
strategic planning to deal with projected growth.
The Chamber of Commerce determined it was critical to
forge a partnership between business and government to create a
workable transportation system to meet the needs of the state
into the next century.
The Transportation Task Force concluded
that a relationship exists between state’s population growth,
capacity to deal with it and quality of life.
It also concluded that the business community should
become a partner with government in dealing with these issues.
The most effective way to accomplish this was to build a
coalition of all representative users of our transportation
system, inventory our assets, identify our challenges, engage
the talents, energy and resources of our clients and seek
strategic solutions to transportation problems.
Therefore, the Salt Lake Area Chamber of
Commerce proposed the organization of the Transportation
Management Association, a public/private partnership comprised
of a broad-based coalition of business and transportation users
that could work jointly with government transportation planners
to cooperatively and collectively address current and future
transportation related issues, impacts and challenges affecting
our community.
The general mission of the TMA of Utah is
better management of transportation - related demand and supply
through an improved coordinated planning process, more efficient
use of our transportation infrastructure and promotion of
TRANSPORTATION DEMAND MANAGEMENT (TDM) strategies.
The specific goals of the association incorporate both
short-range strategies to address immediate needs and long-range
(TDM) strategies to help meet future growth needs.
The TMA will serve as the primary I-15
information resource to the business community and in
conjunction with Wasatch Constructors will proactively provide
large employers with I-15 Reconstruction Project collateral
material including:
·
Quarterly newsletters
·
Interchange closure fact sheets
·
Camera ready and printed interchange maps
·
Updates to the master project schedule
·
TDM printed and camera ready
posters and paycheck stuffers
The TMA will manage distribution of these materials to large
businesses along with Wasatch Constructors who will also provide
this service if a company prefers.
To reach a TMA representative please call 363-5646
|
