Solutions that put people first.

Transportation Demand Management

Communities facing growth and constraints to conventional transportation network expansion are focusing more on how to manage travel demand. As a result, many cities, counties, and state DOTs are turning to Transportation Demand Management (TDM) strategies to address congestion and reduce environmental impacts associated with vehicle miles of travel (VMT) and associated emissions.

At Fehr & Peers, we conduct independent research to identify the most effective TDM strategies, which include two types of strategies. Conventional TDM strategies use incentives or disincentives to change individual travel behavior of building tenants. Built environment strategies modify the land use or transportation network of an area to make walking, bicycling, or transit more viable. Both strategy types ultimately work toward shifting demand from automobile travel to the modes and times where the travel can best be accommodated while minimizing impacts.

Effective TDM requires customized solutions. We use our expertise in travel behavior, transportation economics, development planning, and policy, backed by extensive research, to create tailored recommendations. Using local data, we help clients achieve specific goals—such as reducing VMT and emissions, managing parking demand, navigating changing legal requirements, or expanding travel choices for a development or community.

Our Expertise

Our TDM services support diverse clients and projects. Our deep understanding of travel behavior uniquely positions us to help clients:

• Implement TDM Strategies: Identify and apply practical solutions like marketing, pricing, shuttle services, transit improvements, shared mobility, and technology-driven methods.
• Use Built Environment Strategies for Long-Term Change: Built environment changes like increasing residential densities, reducing residential parking supply, or expanding transit and active transportation networks expand the long-term travel choices of a community by making it more accessible across multiple modes.
• Measure Results: Assess how well TDM strategies reduce vehicle trips, VMT, and emissions, shift travel patterns, and balance transportation needs within specific contexts.
• Support Campus Planning: Create specialized plans for campuses and institutions.
• Navigate Policy and Goals: Balance regulatory requirements with stakeholder, agency, and political needs. This includes complex requirements such as trip caps, vehicle miles traveled (VMT) limits, and mode share requirements.
• Integrate TDM into Planning: Include TDM programs within larger land use and development plans and translate TDM strategies into municipal or state codes and laws.
• Adapt to New Trends: Understand and respond to changes in travel behavior post-COVID and in the face of new transportation technologies and travel trends.
• Understand the Limitations: Conventional TDM strategies are dependent on building tenant behavior. Tenants change over time, which can influence the response to TDM strategies. In addition, TDM strategies tend to focus on a select population. As that population changes its behavior in response to the strategy, other travelers may be affected. Accounting for this effect is important for accurately accounting for potential changes in travel demand.

Why We’re Trusted

For more than 25 years, we’ve led TDM research, investing in our own studies to understand the links between TDM, land use, transportation patterns, greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, and travel distances. Examples of our work include:

• Custom-Built Measurement Tools: Using our quick-response TDMCalculator (formerly TDM+) to evaluate effectiveness of TDM strategies to bridge the gap between planning and real-world implementation. A custom version of this tool is also available through Caltrans.
• Advising State Agencies: Assisting agencies like OPR, Caltrans, and WSDOT, and cities/regional organizations ranging from SCAG and MTC, to Montgomery County, MD and Fort Collins, CO to incorporate VMT analysis into their plans to align with state laws to reduce travel and transportation greenhouse gas emissions like California’s Senate Bill 743 and Colorado’s House Bill 19-1261.
• Evaluating VMT and GHG Strategies: Working with national and state agencies to develop new ways to assess the effectiveness of VMT and GHG reduction strategies, such as our work to support the comprehensive update of the CAPCOA Handbook for Analyzing Greenhouse Gas Emission Reductions, Assessing Climate Vulnerabilities, and Advancing Health and Equity.
• Campus Planning: Providing transportation and TDM planning to a variety of companies with unique needs, including the majority of California State University campuses and large employment campuses across the country.
• Comprehensive Support: Serving as Stanford University’s on-call transportation consultant for decades, conducting planning, stakeholder engagement, and assessments to enhance TDM and the transportation network.

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