MOBILITY

ISSUES

Land use is often adapted to the types of transportation facilities that are available. When the choice of transportation modes is limited or lacking, the result can be to hinder or steer development in an unbalanced or undesirable way. Reliance on the auto for all trips increases the number of cars on the road, which in turn increases congestion and air pollution.

OBJECTIVES

There are four main objectives in providing adequate mobility:
  1. Create an efficient cost-effective multi-modal transportation system by focusing investment and development in designated transportation corridors.
  2. Integrate land use and transportation planning in order to ensure land use and supporting transportation patterns that facilitate safe, convenient and reasonably priced mobility of people and goods, and increased use of transit.
  3. Discourage long-distance, single-occupant automobile commuting while increasing resident access to employment, shopping, and recreation by transit or other alternatives to single-occupant vehicle use in order to reduce congestion, time lost to travel, and air pollution.
  4. Provide more streamlined transit service by establishing a unified and coordinated transit network consisting of all transportation agencies in the Bay Area.

POLICIES

The following subregional policies are intended to improve mobility. 		Choices given for Policies


TRANSIT-CENTERED DEVELOPMENT


  1. Encourage transit-compatible infill development or redevelopment near transit stations in central business districts, and intensify suburban business parks to create effective destination centers for transit.
  2. Promote pedestrian-oriented mixed-use centers, including residential, commercial and employment activities, easily accessible by foot, bicycle, or transit.
  3. Promote pedestrian activities in the immediate vicinity of transit stations by providing safe, direct, attractive pedestrian access between transit stations and neighboring development.
  4. Establish higher residential and commercial densities along transit routes and roadway arterials, near transit stops, transportation hubs and activity centers, and as part of mixed-use developments.
  5. Establish highest intensity office and other employment uses within convenient walking distance (1/4 mile) of existing or planned transit stations or transportation hubs to promote transit use, optimize transit investments and reduce the adverse auto impacts of development.
  6. Designate a hierarchy of housing and commercial densities that varies based on proximity to transit stations and corridors, with the highest densities located within convenient walking distance of transit stations and buslines, and densities decreasing as distance from existing or planned transit service increases.
  7. Establish incentives such as sliding scale development fee schedules that favor higher density transit-oriented development in order to discourage low density sprawl and encourage the production of transit-oriented development.


AUTO-ORIENTED DEVELOPMENT
  1. Discourage the development or expansion of major commercial, office and institutional centers in areas not adequately served by transit.
  2. Discourage projects that generate more than a set threshold of automobile traffic or exceed certain levels of service on local streets and arterials in areas not served by existing or future transit.

MIXED LAND USE
  1. Encourage neighborhood-serving commercial uses within walking distance (1/4 mile) of defined residential areas.
  2. Encourage local policies which promote and do not restrict home-based work opportunities. Moderate
  3. Promote mixed-use development that provides opportunities for residents to live and work in the same neighborhood or community.
  4. Facilitate the conversion of underused industrial sites for residential, mixed use or live/work activities
  5. Establish small scale neighborhood tele-commuting centers that provide fax machines, telephones, computers with networking capabilities, and other office equipment, allowing workers to work close to home.

NON-AUTO USE THROUGH SITE DESIGN
  1. Encourage transit connections between residential areas, commercial areas, and centers of employment.
  2. Encourage bicycle and pedestrian connections between employment centers and nearby personal services such as restaurants, stores, post offices and banks.
  3. Encourage direct, safe and convenient pedestrian and bicycle routes on residential streets in new subdivisions which provide convenient access to bus and rail service.
  4. Promote road networks and circulation patterns within subdivisions with multiple access points and other amenities that readily accommodate public transportation vehicles.
  5. Promote pedestrian and bicycle connections within residential neighborhoods and between residential areas and nearby transit stations or stops, commercial areas, centers of employment, and schools.
  6. Establish design guidelines that emphasize safe, attractive streetscapes in developments near transit and that maximize pedestrian and bicycle access to transit.
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cl 07/21/99