HOUSE BILL REPORT
HB 3089
As Reported by House Committee On:
Transportation
Title: An act relating to commute trip reduction.
Brief Description: Revising commute trip reduction provisions.
Sponsors: Representatives Murray, Clibborn, Woods, Simpson and Linville; by request of Department of Transportation.
Brief History:
Transportation: 1/30/06, 2/3/06 [DPS].
Brief Summary of Substitute Bill |
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HOUSE COMMITTEE ON TRANSPORTATION
Majority Report: The substitute bill be substituted therefor and the substitute bill do pass. Signed by 26 members: Representatives Murray, Chair; Wallace, Vice Chair; Woods, Ranking Minority Member; Skinner, Assistant Ranking Minority Member; Appleton, Campbell, Clibborn, Curtis, Dickerson, Ericksen, Flannigan, Hankins, Holmquist, Hudgins, Jarrett, Kilmer, Lovick, Nixon, Rodne, Sells, Shabro, Simpson, B. Sullivan, Takko, Upthegrove and Wood.
Staff: David Bowman (786-7339).
Background:
In 1991 the Commute Trip Reduction (CTR) Law was enacted as part of the Washington
Clean Air Act. The goals of CTR are to reduce air pollution, traffic congestion, and fuel
consumption through employer-based programs that decrease the number of employees
traveling by single-occupant vehicles to the work place.
Counties with populations over 150,000, cities within those counties containing a major
employer, and major employers are all required to develop and implement CTR programs.
The definition of a "major employer" includes any private or public employer that employs
100 or more full-time employees at a single worksite during the regular work day. A county
implementing a CTR plan may contract with other organizations, such as the local transit
system or Regional Transportation Planning Organization (RTPO), to assist, oversee, and/or
implement the program within the county. The Legislature has also stated that it is the policy
of the state that agencies aggressively develop substantive programs to reduce commute trips
by state employees. To the extent a private or public employer worksite is not otherwise
required to participate in a CTR program, voluntary participation is both allowed and
encouraged.
Each local jurisdiction must review each major employer's progress and good faith efforts
toward meeting commute trip reduction goals at least once per year. At the employer level,
major employers are also required to annually review employee commuting and progress
toward meeting commute trip reduction goals.
A 28-member CTR Task Force (Task Force) oversees implementation and evaluation of the
CTR program. Membership on the Task Force represents broad-based interests. The Task
Force consists of the Secretary of the Department of Transportation (DOT), the Director of
the Department of Ecology (DOE) or a designee, the Director of the Department of
Community, Trade, and Economic Development (CTED) or a designee, the Director of the
Department of General Administration (DGA) or a designee, three representatives from
counties, three representatives from transit agencies, 12 representatives from major
employers in Washington, and three citizens.
Among other duties, the Task Force is charged with establishing guidelines for CTR plans to
ensure consistency in plans and goals among jurisdictions; working with jurisdictions and
major employers to develop and implement a public awareness campaign designed to
increase local CTR program effectiveness; and reviewing and reporting on the progress of
CTR plans to the Legislature at specified times, and every two years since 1999. The Task
Force is not required to establish or monitor a statewide CTR plan. On December 1, 2005,
the Task Force delivered its fifth report to the Legislature. Under its existing statutory
authority, the 2005 report is the final report evaluating the CTR program.
Within the DOT budget, funding is provided for the DOT to administer the program, to
provide technical assistance to organizations required to implement the program, and to
distribute to local jurisdictions and employers to offset some of the implementation costs.
The DOT is not, however, required to establish agency rules governing the implementation of
CTR programs at the statewide, county, or local jurisdictional level.
The DGA must coordinate and review CTR plans developed by state agencies that are
considered to be major employers. Annually, the DGA must submit a report to the CTR Task
Force of progress in attaining applicable commute trip reduction goals.
Summary of Substitute Bill:
The scope of the CTR program is changed to focus on urban growth areas with the most
congested state highways. Any county with an urban growth area, each city within an urban
growth area containing a state highway segment exceeding "one hundred person hours of
delay", as calculated by the DOT, counties and cities located in any contiguous urban growth
areas, and certain local jurisdictions that previously adopted a CTR program, must develop
CTR plans and ordinances, and submit their plans to the applicable RTPO for regional
transportation planning purposes. Additionally, each jurisdiction containing a military base
or non-tribal federal reservation employing more than 100 persons for the regular work day,
must adopt a CTR plan and ordinance for major employers within the base or reservation. To
determine the "person hours" delay threshold, the DOT must calculate, using the best
available methodology, the daily person hours of delay per mile during peak hours of 6:00
a.m. to 9:00 a.m. Congested areas where the state is funding solutions to state highway
deficiencies to address the congestion are exempt from CTR requirements for two years.
All major employers must make good faith efforts to implement CTR programs. The
definition of a "major employer" is clarified to expressly include state agency worksites, and
state agency worksites are subject to the same requirements as private employers for
developing and submitting a CTR plan to the local jurisdiction for approval, and
implementing such a plan. Additionally, institutions of higher education are added to the list
of agencies that the Legislature finds, as the policy of the state, must aggressively develop
substantive programs to reduce commute trips by state employees. State employees are
entitled to collectively bargain CTR issues.
At least once every two years, each local jurisdiction must review each major employer's
progress and good faith efforts toward meeting commute trip reduction goals. At the
employer level, major employers are required to regularly, but not necessarily annually,
review employee commuting and progress toward meeting commute trip reduction goals.
The CTR Task Force is replaced with a 16-member CTR Board (Board) comprised of the
Secretary of the DOT, one representative of the Office of the Governor, the Director or
director's designee of the DGA, the DOE, and CTED, and the following representatives
appointed by the Governor to staggered four-year terms: three from cities and towns or
counties, two from transit agencies, two from participating RTPOs, four from major
employers or transportation management associations representing employers, and two
citizens.
The Board is given expanded duties from those previously required of the Task Force. The
Board's primary duty is to create a statewide commute trip reduction plan, with input from
appropriate agencies and affected jurisdictions. The Board must evaluate the CTR program
plan and recommend changes to it every four years beginning with a first assessment due July
1, 2011. Separately, the Board must review progress toward implementing CTR plans and
submit a report to the Legislature and the Governor every two years, beginning on December
1, 2009.
The CTR planning framework includes a larger role for RTPOs. Working with local
jurisdictions, an RTPO must adopt a CTR plan for the region, including factors of (a)
program goals, (b) strategies, (c) financial plan, (d) measurement of progress, and (e)
minimum criteria for growth and efficiency centers. The RTPO is to ensure that the CTR
plan is incorporated into transportation demand management components in the regional
transportation plan, and is responsible for implementing the CTR plan. The RTPO must
submit a progress report annually to the CTR Board.
In developing its CTR plan, a county, city, or town may voluntarily designate growth and
transportation efficiency centers and establish its own transportation demand management
program in consultation with local transit agencies and the RTPO. A growth and
transportation efficiency center is defined as a compact, mixed-use urban area containing jobs
or housing and supporting multimodal transportation. Growth and transportation efficiency
centers which are certified by the RTPO as meeting minimum criteria are eligible for state
funding, as allocated by the CTR Board, to enable these centers to implement CTR programs.
The DOT is given additional powers and duties. The DOT is to provide staff support to the
CTR Board and technical assistance to the RTPOs and governmental units developing and
implementing CTR plans and programs. In place of the guidelines previously required to be
established by the Task Force, the DOT must develop and implement agency rules relating to
CTR plans, including the following at a minimum:
Both the CTR Board and the DOT receive a portion of the state funds made available for the
purposes of this chapter. The CTR Board must allocate program funds to assist RTPOs and
local government units implementing CTR plans, and may do so for jurisdictions
implementing voluntary CTR programs if based on criteria the CTR Board establishes.
The DGA's powers and duties are modified. The director of the DGA is authorized to
coordinate an interagency board (Interagency Board) for the purpose of developing policies or
guidelines that promote consistency among state agency CTR programs. An Interagency
Board must include representatives from the DOT, the DOE, CTED, and other interested
groups. Additionally, the DGA must review annual reports from state agencies implementing
CTR plans regarding commute trip reduction progress, and include all such reports in a
biennial report submitted by the DGA to the Governor and the Legislature.
The Legislature's findings regarding the CTR program are modified to recognize, among
other things, that CTR has been successfully implemented since 1991, that auto traffic is the
major source of greenhouse gas emissions, which contribute to climate change and may cause
significant impacts on human health and the environment, that major employers have much at
stake in increasing mobility in dense urban areas, and that the state must have a role in
implementing, and providing ongoing operational and planning support to, an effective
transportation demand management program in cooperation with local governments whose
boundaries contain state highways experiencing the greatest automobile congestion.
Substitute Bill Compared to Original Bill:
In addition to jurisdictions meeting the person hours of delay threshold, jurisdictions located
within an urban growth area (UGA) with a population greater than 70,000 that adopted a
commute trip reduction program prior to 2000, and contiguous UGAs, are required to adopt a
CTR plan and ordinance for major employers by a date to be specified by the CTR Board. A
congested area that has not previously implemented a CTR program, and in which the state
has funded solutions to state highway deficiencies to address the area's congestion, is exempt
from CTR program duties for two years. Local jurisdictions' authority to deviate from
morning commute window and employer size threshold requirements, when establishing
growth and transportation efficiency centers, is eliminated. State employees may collectively
bargain over CTR issues.
Appropriation: None.
Fiscal Note: Available.
Effective Date of Substitute Bill: The bill takes effect 90 days after adjournment of session in which bill is passed.
Testimony For: The CTR has been a successful program in reducing single-occupancy trips the single most cost-effective "congestion buster" because of the participation of major employers. This bill gives the CTR program more focus. A targeted program will provide even more cost-effective results and ensure the greatest number of single-occupancy trip reductions in the future. It will also help Washington maximize its investments, many of which are located in the affected areas. For employers, this legislation will improve economic development by focusing on mixed-use areas.
Testimony Against: None.
Persons Testifying: Representative Murray, prime sponsor; Judy Ginger, Washington State Department of Transportation; Peter Hurley and Ted Horobiowski, Commute Trip Reduction Task Force; Bill Roach, King County Metro; Page Scott, Yakima Valley Conference of Governments; Dennis Eagle, Washington Federation of State Employees; Debbie Driver, Duwamish Transportation Management Association; Leo Bowman, Benton County; Jan Gee, Washington Retail Association and Washington Food Industry; Genesee Adkins, Transportation Choices Coalition; and Kathleen Drew, Governor's Office.