Triangle Transportation Choices/Transportation Demand Management (TDM) Program Update
Evan Koff, MPO Staff,
Jenna Kolling, CPRC Staff
The Triangle Transportation Choices program is a transportation demand management (TDM) grant program administered by the Central Pines Regional Council to provide funding on an annual basis for local and regional traditional TDM programs, innovative projects, and equity-based initiatives that encourage Triangle residents and workers to try, including but not limited to,: carpooling, vanpooling, transit, biking, walking, teleworking, alternative transportation modes, flexible work hours, and compressed workweeks. The Triangle Transportation Choices program, a TDM program, is a marketing and outreach effort that helps to promote alternative transportation in parts or all of seven counties in the Triangle region of central North Carolina: Wake, Durham, Orange, Chatham, Franklin, Johnston, and Granville. Through the program, Central Pines hopes to reduce commuter reliance on single-occupancy vehicles and help encourage residents to be healthier and more sustainable. Since its inception in 2008, the program’s outreach and marketing efforts have reduced over 750 million vehicle miles traveled (VMT) in the region.
TDM programs are consistent with the 7-Year TDM Plan, providing overall management and dispersal of TDM funds as approved by the Triangle TDM Oversight Committee, and coordinating evaluation and monitoring activities for the Program (surveys, annual impact reports, etc.). The program is constantly working towards continuous improvement by enhancing its evaluation and monitoring efforts, improving service-area prioritization models, and, most recently, expanding the program’s diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) outreach efforts.
The FY23 Annual Impact Report for the Triangle Transportation Choices program calculates reductions in vehicle trips, vehicle miles traveled, and vehicular emissions resulting from TDM programs funded during fiscal year 2023 (July 1, 2022 - June 30, 2023). In FY23, The Triangle Transportation Choices Program awarded 19 grants totaling $1.66 million. Six equity pilot grantees were awarded a total of $186,111 and 13 traditional grantees were awarded $1,474,496. In addition, the FY23 grantees were encouraged to conduct outreach events and education efforts in neighborhoods with high concentrations of inequities due to residents' race/ethnicity, income, and vehicle ownership. In FY 22, the program also hired a local DEI consultant for leading and facilitating a series of six interactive DEI sessions. This year, TDM staff and CAMPO Mobility Coordination Committee staff are continuing to work closely together to better align the two programs.
Requested Action: Action Receive as information