Mobility: Single-Occupancy Vehicles

 

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Why is this a Climate Smart indicator? 

  • Transportation creates almost half of our city's greenhouse gas emissions. If fewer people commuted by driving alone, this would help reduce our emissions. It would also reduce traffic, air pollution, stormwater pollution and crashes.  

  • One of our Bold Goals is to reduce the number of drive-alone commute trips to only 40 percent of all commute trips by 2040. 

What is the City doing to make progress on this indicator? 

Completed

  • San José Complete Streets Design Standards & Guidelines, describing a vision and best available practices for designing streets that are comfortable, safe and welcoming for all modes of travel (adopted 2018) 

  • Transportation Analysis Policy to shift the focus of developments’ transportation improvements to pedestrian, bicycle and transit facilities (adopted in 2018, updated in 2022) 

  • Ordinance and permit system to address safety and operational issues of e-scooters while facilitating their growth; 3,250 scooters currently permitted   

  • Sustainable Commute Incentive Pilot program to test the effectiveness of various incentive strategies for reducing drive-alone automobile trips 

  • Complete public bike share system with 83 stations and 1,100 bikes, including 100 dockless electric-assist bikes 

  • Move San José, a a citywide Access and Mobility Plan that includes multiple strategies to make it easier for people to travel using transit and alternative modes (adopted 8/9/22)

  • Transit First Policy (adopted 8/9/22) 

  • Hire the City’s first Transportation Demand Management coordinator to manage the City’s existing employee commute programs, such as VTA’s Smart Pass Program, as well as expand and improve the program

  • Downtown Transportation Plan, which includes 17 transportation strategies to assist the city in designing, securing funding, and delivering key downtown improvements (adopted 11/15/22)

  • West San José Multimodal Transportation Improvement Plan (adopted 12/6/22)

  • Parking and Transportation Demand Management Ordinance update (adopted 12/6/22, effective 4/10/23)

In Progress / Ongoing

  • Climate Smart Challenge and GoGreen Teams programs for San José residents, which encourage carpooling and other alternatives to driving alone 

  • LED Streetlight Conversion Program to make streets feel safer for pedestrians (2009-present) 

  • Walk n’ Roll program to increase the number of kids walking and biking to school 

  • Bikeshare Subsidy Program for City employees 

Planned

  • Walk Safe San José Plan (expected 2024) 

  • North San Jose Multimodal Transportation Improvement Plan (expected 2025) 

Evaluating

  • Consider increasing maximum acceptable densities so that land resources are not locked into low-density patterns of development 

  • Prioritize active transportation projects to leverage local and regional funding opportunities.  

ABOUT THE DATA

Sources

The percentage of commute journeys in single-occupancy vehicles is obtained from the American Community Survey, a yearly survey conducted by the U.S. Census Bureau that provides detailed population and housing information including commuting data. The data shown here are 5-year estimates from the Commuting Characteristics by Sex table  

Last updated

August 2023