Sherwood consultants urge multimodal performance measures as state requires non-auto metric

Consultants leading Sherwood's Transportation System Plan (TSP) update told the council that state direction requires local agencies to adopt more than one performance measure and that at least one measure must not focus on motor vehicles. Phil Worth, the project manager for the TSP update, summarized options and tradeoffs and said the discussion was intended as background for later decisions rather than a request for immediate action.

Worth described typical motor-vehicle measures (volume-to-capacity ratios and intersection level-of-service grades) and contrasted them with multimodal measures that capture pedestrian and bicycle connectivity and safety. He highlighted "system completeness"—the share of the pedestrian or bicycle network that is connected to citywide routes—as a concrete, low-cost multimodal measure because much of the data already exists through ODOT inventories and GIS.

Why it matters: adopting non-automobile measures changes how the city evaluates development and mitigation. Sherwood staff noted an example V/C threshold around 85 percent that would trigger earlier mitigation than county or state thresholds. Consultants cautioned that raising thresholds and adding multimodal measures can create both intended outcomes (improvements funded via development mitigation) and unintended consequences (wider streets that can be barriers for pedestrians).

Council questions and next steps: councilors asked about update frequency and cost. Consultants said some measures can be tracked with existing data and modest GIS upkeep; other measures may require recurring data collection and have higher ongoing costs. The consultant recommended the council choose one or two measures to pilot, learn from them, and then expand over time. No formal measure was adopted; staff will continue the TSP process and return with refined measure packages and cost estimates.