• Transportation Demand Management Plans

      Transportation Demand Management Plans

      Bethesda Transportation Solutions (BTS) can help your company create a Transportation Demand Management Plan (TDM Plan) for your employee commute options. Completing a TDM Plan helps provide important commuting information for your staff and helps you recruit and retain the best employees. The Plan will include items such as:

      • Listing any transportation benefits offered at the worksite
      • States that your worksite will participate in any commuter surveys
      • Distribute transportation information to employees

       

      For more information on employer TDM Plans, please contact Kristen Blackmon at KBlackmon@bethesda.org, 301-656-0868 X 119.

      View a Sample Transportation Demand Management Plan

       

      Developer’s Traffic Mitigation Agreement
       
      A Traffic Mitigation Agreement (TMAg) or Transprtation Demand Management Plan is entered into by a real estate developer and Montgomery County government—represented by the Department of Transportation and the Montgomery County Planning Board at the time land is being approved for subdivision. Agreements or Plans are required for development in Bethesda as a matter of public policy to manage traffic congestion in support of planned development within the central business district area.

      TMAgs and Plans set forth the respective rights, duties, and obligations of the interested parties. The program consists of various traffic mitigation measures designed to manage traffic, such as parking charges and transit subsidies. At the time the County Council passed the enabling legislation to create Traffic Management Districts (TMDs) and Transportation Management Organizations (TMOs), it also established the ability to collect supporting fees. Some TMAgs include the future payment of TMO fees.

      Developers in Bethesda have an obligation to make a best effort to meet and maintain the traffic mitigation goal established in the Bethesda Sector Plan. That goal is a reduction of peak hour, single occupant automobile traffic with a goal of 55% or 60% (depending on the year that the Agreement or Plan was signed) of building occupants using transportation options such as transit, bicycling, walking, carpooling or even telework. The County encouraged developers to meet this goal by reducing the amount of on-site parking to ensure compliance or provide no on-site parking.

      If developers wish to provide on-site parking at levels exceeding the amount needed to support the TMD trip reduction goal, the developers need to satisfy the Planning Board requirements that they will still be able to meet the trip reduction goal by the operation of a trip reduction agreement. This agreement may consist of several elements designed to manage traffic such as charging for parking and paying transit subsidies.

      Over time, experience has shown that indirect traffic mitigation efforts are valuable and will contribute to achieving this public policy goal such as building sidewalks, adding bus shelters, supporting bicycle facilities, etc. In recognition of this, the Planning Board's Local Area Transportation Review Guidelines have been expanded to formally recognize these contributions.

      Click here to review a copy of a draft agreement.

      For more information, review the legislation explaining Transportation Management Districts and employer and developer TDM Plans/Traffic Mitigation Agreements.

      For further assistance from BTS, please contact Kristen Blackmon at kblackmon@bethesda.org or 301-656-0868 x 119.