Travel Demand Management

This chapter focuses on the different types of strategies and actions to influence the demand for transportation. It is important first, however, to place the use of these strategies in the institutional and planning contexts most often found in the United States and Canada. Three major contexts are of most interest to planners: statewide or regional travel demand management (TDM) programs, including medium to small urban areas; activity center programs aimed at subareas with multiple employment sites; and site-specific programs primarily created in response to local development ordinances such as trip reduction ordinances. The chapter presents examples of TDM goals, objectives, and performance measures. It examines different TDM strategies that can be used by both government-sponsored programs and private companies interested in enhancing mobility for their employees. TDM analysis relies on a range of data, from traditional data collection methods, such as traffic and ridership counts, to subjective information such as that obtained from surveys.