High-Impact Strategies

SOV Feebate

Single Occupancy Vehicle (SOV) Feebate is a high-impact, comprehensive low- or no-cost employer TDM strategy. The word “feebate” is a combination of “fee” and “rebate.” The Gates Foundation has implemented a daily $12/day SOV fee combined with a $3/day non-SOV rebate, transacted through employee paychecks, reducing SOV mode share to 36%. The Bay Area Metropolitan Transportation Commission’s (MTC) SHIFT Program accelerated the adoption of Employer Commute-Management Platforms, facilitating the implementation of SOV Feebate.

Some employers have adopted SOV Feebate in response to strong public sector TDM policies. Provided in the Research Memo below is a method for the City of East Palo Alto to gradually impose a low-cost-to-employer SOV Feebate on the Ravenswood Business District Specific Plan area. 

SOV Feebate can make the office real estate and ground transportation markets more efficient by internalizing negative externalities such as traffic, pollution, and greenhouse gas emissions. 

Traffic Reducing Housing Preference

For new apartments and condominiums, Traffic Reducing Housing Preference (TRHP) selects residents with fewer cars who will drive less. TRHP is the most cost-effective residential auto trip reduction policy, resulting in the largest commute mode shift from solo commuting. The policy is regularly used by Below Market Rate (BMR) projects such as Santa Barbara’s Casa de Las Fuentes (42 housing units require only 20 cars) and market-rate university apartments such as Stanford West Apartments (95.5% of 628 apartments have one or more commutes of less than two miles). The 800-condominium Redwood City Peninsula Park proposal (641 Turnbuckle Drive) offered market-rate TRHP as an enticement for entitlement, but the city did not accept the developer’s offer to set a national precedent. There is extensive legal guidance on how to craft housing preference policies that comply with the Fair Housing Act and avoid “discriminatory disparate impact disfavoring a protected category of persons.” Such guidance advises developers to have cities make findings of “manifest business purpose” in favor of TRHP. 

The housing and ground transportation markets are economically inefficient because negative externalities such as traffic, pollution, and greenhouse gas emissions are not accurately priced into each market. TRHP creates more efficient market pricing by internalizing the negative externalities.