Commission recommends 2024 Rail Corridor TMA annual report be sent to City Council after review of trip counts and one noncompliant site

The San Mateo Sustainability and Infrastructure Commission on Sept. 10 recommended that the City Council receive the 2024 Rail Corridor Transportation Management Association annual report after a presentation and questions from commissioners.

The TMAadministrator, John Ford, and traffic consultant Paul Krupka summarized driveway counts and cordon counts conducted on Oct. 17, 2024, and said the peak hour for most sites was between 5 and 6 p.m. Ford said the driveway and cordon counts were used to measure trip generation and to compare each project against short-term trip-reduction goals written into development agreements with the city.

The report showed most projects remained below their short-term thresholds. Bay Meadows Phase 2 monitoring showed an increase in trips compared with 2023 but remained under its threshold; the TMAteam said the Bay Meadows cordon peak-hour threshold for the monitoring cycle was 2,878 trips. Ford and Krupka told the commission the driveway counts use tube counters at each property entrance and that Hexagon Transportation Consultants handled the automated counts for the Bay Meadows cordon.

Commissioners asked about the Franklin Templeton site, which Ford said saw a sharp decrease (reported in the presentation as 307 trips in 2024) after several major tenants left; one tenant relocated into Bay Meadows and contributed to higher counts there. Ford explained that counts isolate project-generated trips by removing matched entrance/exit pairs that appear to be through trips.

One site that exceeded its driveway threshold was the pair of properties referred to as Delaware Pacific and the existing 2000 Delaware parcel. Ford said the purchaser MidPen now owns both sides (the presentation referred to the combined sites as Delaware Atlantic and Delaware Pacific) and is working with city staff on additional measures to reduce trips and bring the property back into compliance. The presentation said the overage was 15 (the transcript did not specify whether that figure was trips or percentage) and that the city is working with the owner; the TMA said it provides support but is not the enforcement authority for the development agreements.

Ford described typical TDM measures developers include in their agreements: bike parking and related infrastructure, subsidized transit passes or private shuttles, parking management, car-share subsidies and "guaranteed ride home" programs. He also summarized a voluntary member survey showing respondents rated hard infrastructure (secure bike storage, EV charging) as among the most effective measures in reducing drive-alone trips. Ford said the majority of members do not systematically track tenant-level performance metrics beyond parking utilization and occupancy rates.

After discussion and public comment (none received on the item), the commission voted to recommend sending the 2024 Rail Corridor TMA annual report to City Council. The motion passed on a recorded vote of 5-0.

The commission asked staff to note recurring concerns for follow-up: how to get tenant-level travel data, whether Bay Meadowslong-term thresholds will be triggered when MU2 and MU3 are built and occupied, and potential collective TMA measures to help members close gaps without relying solely on individual-site actions.

Whathappens next: staff will forward the commissionrecommendation and the annual report to the City Council for consideration, per the motion the commission approved.