Honorable Council Members, I am glad to see that the city is looking to move ahead with a Transportation Management Association feasibility study. Having TMA programs can help reduce car trips and congestion by more efficiently providing alternatives for commuters. However, there is a small tweak in the proposed scope of work to help the options be more effective. The two focused options are: "A small-business TMA would focus on smaller downtown businesses, such as the Palo Alto TMA model. A large-business TMA would focus on larger businesses, such as those in the Bayfront area or Sand Hill Road corridor, similar to how the Mountain View TMA has larger corporations such as Google and LinkedIn as members." The option for a downtown small-business TMA makes sense, because the businesses in the downtown area are small to mid-sized businesses that typically are not large enough to offer transportation benefits. However, conflating the idea of a "large-business TMA" and serving the Bayfront area leaves out the population of small to mid-sized businesses in the Bayfront area. The analogy to Mountain View does not fully hold. In Mountain View's North Bayshore area, there are 7 large companies and almost no small businesses. In Menlo Park's Bayfront area, there are start-ups and other smaller businesses that typically do not provide transportation benefits. In addition, there are nonprofits, residential developments, and neighborhoods. For a TMA operating area in the Bayfront, the city should consider providing benefits to large and small businesses, and possibly residential as well. It should certainly not restrict service only to the large companies that already provide transportation benefits. Also, if the city chooses a citywide or regional approach, it will remain important to have geographical operating areas, since geographies have distinct needs, e.g. Bayfront needs connecting shuttles to transit, while downtown is walking distance from major transit. Thank you for your consideration, - Adina Adina Levin 650-646-4344 Received on Sun Jul 14 2019 - 11:15:09 PDT
