Dealing with Growth

1
Dealing with Growth

• Vision St. Charles County Leadership

2
Traffic congestion is taking its toll

• Traffic congestion cost the nation 78 billion in
  1999 including
• -4.5 billion hours of lost time
• -36 hours annually caught in traffic (per person)
• -6.8 billion gallons of fuel wasted
• From 1982 through 1999
• -22 average growth in community population
• -70 increase in miles driven per day
• -235 increase in travel delays

3
Traffic congestion (cont.)

• Communities under 1 million people have greater
  increases in travel delays.
• It takes 32 longer to get somewhere during rush
  hour than non-rush hour.

4
Factors for Deciding Where to Live

• The 2004 American Communities Survey shows that
  large majorities prioritize a short commute and
  places to walk when considering the many aspects
  of a community.
• Below are five of those priorities
• Being within a 45-minute commute to work
• Easy access to the highway
• Sidewalks and places to take walks
• Being within walking distance to schools
• Being within walking distance of public
  transportation

5
Impact on Business

• Traffic congestion and travel delays are
  impacting the vitality of businesses and their
  employees.
• Job Satisfaction Employee Retention
• Employee Recruitment
• Employee Turnover
• Productivity
• Land Facility Costs

6
Impact on Business (cont.)

• Job Satisfaction Employee Retention. A
  stressful commute seriously impacts an employee's
  sense of job satisfactionnegatively affecting
  employee retention.
• Employee Recruitment. An efficient
  transportation network plays a significant role
  in a business' ability to attract good employees
  and access new labor markets.
• Employee Turnover. Commuting challenges can be a
  major factor in employee turnover, producing
  serious impacts to an organization's bottom line.

7
Impact on Business (cont.)

• Productivity. Employees arriving to work late, or
  stressed from the long commute, negatively impact
  overall productivity and the quality of the work
  environment.
• Land Facility Costs. Parking facilities are
  expensive to construct and maintain, and parking
  shortages affect an organization's ability to
  support continued expansion.

8
Impact on Communities

• Traffic congestion and travel delays are not only
  impacting businesses, they're impacting the
  vibrancy of communities.
• Quality of Life / Community Character
• Quality of Life / Community Character
• Air Quality
• Infrastructure Costs Construction Impacts
• Economic Development

9
Impact on Communities (cont.)

• Quality of Life / Community Character. The
  quality of the commute plays a significant role
  in the overall perception of quality of life in a
  community.
• Air Quality. Increased vehicle travel and
  worsening traffic congestion are major factors in
  deteriorating air quality, often with significant
  health implications.

10
Impact on Communities (cont.)

• Infrastructure Costs Construction Impacts.
  Communities all over the country are struggling
  to keep pace with the enormous costs of
  transportation infrastructure. Transportation
  projects take a long time to plan, and
  construction often creates additional impacts on
  traffic congestion and community character.
• Economic Development. Commuting challenges
  negatively impact a community's ability to
  attract new jobs and maintain overall economic
  health.

11
Solutions for Today

• Mode Choice
• Time Choice
• Route Choice
• Financial Benefits

12
Solutions for Today

• Mode Choice
• Whether taking mass transit or walking, commuters
  gravitate to travel options that best fit their
  individual lifestyle and personal preferences.
  Commuting alternatives include
• Transit
• Vanpool
• Carpool
• Bike / Walk / Skate
• RideFinders

13
Solutions for Today

• Mode Choice (cont.)
• Transit - traveling all or a portion of the
  commute on rail, ferries, buses or shuttles.
• Vanpool - commuter highway vehicles, driven by an
  employee, carrying 7-15 commuters to and from
  work.
• Carpool - 2-6 employees sharing a ride in a
  private vehicle.

14
Solutions for Today

• Mode Choice (cont.)
• Bike / Walk / Skate - Programs which support
  bicycling, walking and skating include parking
  cash out, guaranteed ride home and other support
  facilities (bike racks, lockers, showers, etc.).
• RideFinders (St. Louis regional rideshare
  program) - through an employers free
  participation in the program, they provide their
  employees with information on RideFinders free
  ridematching service to help them carpool or
  vanpool to work, and enable RideFinders to offer
  exclusive incentives to encourage employees to
  rideshare such as 10 in free gas and a free taxi
  ride home in an emergency.

15
Solutions for Today

• Time Choice
• Commuters often adjust their travel schedules to
  avoid rush-hour or to work around childcare or
  school schedules. The following alternatives can
  reduce rush-hour congestion, mitigate worksite
  access problems and parking crunches and decrease
  commuter stress.
• Flextime
• Staggered Work Hours
• Compressed Work Weeks

16
Solutions for Today

• Route Choice
• Some commuters continually alter their travel
  route in order to avoid delays caused by
  congestion, incidents, weather or construction.
  Programs include
• Real-time Commuter Services - providing real-time
  congestion, accident and weather information to
  aid in day-to-day route planning.
• Advanced Route Planning - providing employees
  customized route planning (i.e., transit route
  and schedule information) to facilitate the use
  of commute alternatives or mitigate the impacts
  of road construction.

17
Solutions for Today

• Financial Benefits
• Financial incentives have a significant impact on
  commute decisions. In 1998, the Transportation
  Equity Act for the 21st Century (TEA-21) amended
  the federal tax code to create financial
  incentives related to commuter benefits for
  employers and employees.
• Employer-Paid Transportation Benefits
• Shared-Cost Transportation Benefits
• Parking Cash-Out

18
Solutions for Today

• Financial Benefits (cont.)
• Employer-Paid Transportation Benefits
• Employers can pay for their employees to commute
  by transit or vanpool, up to a limit of
  100/month. With this arrangement, employees get
  up to 100 in a tax-free transportation benefit.
  Employers get a tax deduction for the expense.

19
Solutions for Today

• Financial Benefits (cont.)
• Shared-Cost Transportation Benefits
• Employers can share the cost of transit or
  vanpool costs with employees and everyone can
  receive valuable tax savings. With this approach,
  employers can provide a portion of the cost of
  taking transit or vanpooling as a tax-free
  benefit and allow the employee to exchange
  taxable salary for a tax-free transit or vanpool
  benefit (up to the specified limits).
• Parking Cash-Out
• For employers who subsidize parking for
  employees, they could offer the option to cash
  out, receiving the money as additional salary or
  as a pre-tax transportation allowance.

20
Solutions for Tomorrow

• Live near your work
• Telework
• On-site services
• Work site location and design

21
Solutions for Tomorrow

• Live Near Your Work
• Programs providing incentives for employees to
  live near their place of employment.
• Down payment assistance
• Location-efficient mortgages
• Rent subsidies

22
Solutions for Tomorrow

• Telework
• Telework brings the job to the person rather than
  bringing the person to the job. In addition to
  eliminating the daily commute, teleworking can
  reduce the demand for office space and parking
  facilities.
• Teleworking eliminates the need for the commute
  altogether, even if it's just a few days a week.

23
Solutions for Tomorrow

• On-Site Services
• providing services for employees on-site to
  eliminate the need for employees to have their
  cars at work every day
• Cafes
• Daycare
• Banking/ATM
• Dry cleaning

24
Solutions for Tomorrow

• Worksite Location Design
• worksite location decisions can enhance job
  access and offer mode alternatives
• transit oriented development (TOD)
• locating jobs near services (banking, post
  office, etc.)
• locating jobs near other businesses
• Mixed-use development

25
What is Mixed-Use Development?
26
Mixed-Use Developments

• Mixed-use developments are generally
  characterized by
• Three or more uses that are mutually supporting
  in the same geographical area
• retail
• office
• residential
• hotel/motel
• entertainment/cultural/recreation

27
Mixed-Use Developments

• St. Charles County
• Winghaven
• New Town

28
Mixed-Use Developments

• Winghaven
• 1,200 acre community, including 500 acres of
  green space
• Country club
• Hiking/biking trails
• Free trolley
• 18 hole golf course
• 1,600 dwelling units
• 580 apartments
• Shops
• Restaurants

29
Mixed-Use Developments

• Winghaven Employs 5,000
• MasterCard
• Everest/GLA
• NORDYNE, Inc.
• Service industry

30
Mixed-Use Developments

• Winghaven Education
• Webster University
• Crossroads Elementary School
• Barat Academy (High School and Middle School -
  coming soon)

31
Mixed-Use Developments

• Winghaven Healthcare
• St. Lukes Hospital Patient Care Facility

32
Summary

• Growth in St. Charles County provides challenges
  to businesses and the public
• Alternative short-term and long-term solutions to
  commuting and community development can help us
  meet these challenges

33
Questions Answers