TDM UPDATES

5/3/2022

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Agenda

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• Discussion
• Timeline Check in
• User Testing

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Discussion Topics

Milestones for 2022 #1027 - TImeline update

• Want to verify timing is still roughly on track for our milestones.
• https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1yzpJqBpOs3Uvq4VYidlMldsYGADAz17ei3WsiMEa_Yk/edit#gid=0

User Testing: Strategy Finding 8 (cont.)

Users worried broad ranges of percentages misrepresent the cost of Transit Passes

Reduce the range sizes and increase the number of range selections to fairly adjust earned points

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• Quote 1: “So a monthly pass from Metro is probably [the example]. let's just use round numbers. Let's say it's $300 a month for a full Los Angeles County transit pass. So if I'm doing 25 to 49%, I get seven points. Now, in my project. I have 1400 dwelling units, that's 2800 people. And I have 600,000 square feet of office. That's 2400 people. So I've got 50 to 100 people in that project, not I'm not even counting the employees of the of the retail 5200 If I paid for half of their transit pass, 200 bucks a month times 12 times five years times [other cost]. Those numbers get really big really quickly. oh, if I'm only getting seven points for 50% of that 300 bucks a month, or whatever it is. That's not a lot of money. And if I'm getting this same number of points for paying 100 bucks, or 200 bucks [by doing] 25, or 50% of the [fare], which one of those am I gonna spend as a developer? [25%] Yeah, so the ranges here are probably too big. Right? And so, transit passes are 10s of 1000s of dollars per year, you get seven points.”

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• Current:

• Proposed:

(%s and pts are pseudo examples)

User Testing: Strategy Finding 9

Users wonder about details for Shared Parking

Add more descriptive information in the tooltip regarding how parking is assumed to be shared

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• Quote 1: “I guess for this one, it says like certain percentages spaces shared. I'm assuming that it's the project supply spaces that are being shared? Or is it like when you think of a shopping center and they share spaces? Is that the total number of spaces that are being shared within a site or the percentage of spaces that are being shared for the project that you're looking at right now? It just says ‘spaces shared’. Are these project spaces shared? Or are these the overall [shopping center] parking supply that the public access?”

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• Quote 2: “I guess my question here with shared parking, is if some sort of shared parking analysis would need to be provided if this measure were to be chosen. Like if a project was to say okay, we're going to share 35% of our spaces then they would have to provide supporting documentation to show that that would that that parking supply would satisfy the demand of the parking demand of the project.”

User Testing: Strategy Finding 10

Users had confusion with Bonus Package

Bring attention to it when first land on the page (wordings, tooltips, design, etc.)

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• Quote 1: “Yeah. So that's a little confusing that when I select [the bonus package] it selects all the ones down here because now I'm straight up to 30 points. Ah. Whereas when I was just glancing at this as I go one point possible. That's not very exciting.”

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• Quote 2 [unbundled parking is grayed out when first land on the page]: “So I added [unbundled parking] automatically [with bonus package], but then I guess I can't click on it individually.”

User Testing: Next Step Finding 1

Users note differences between TDM Calculator and VMT Calculator

Align strategies and descriptions more closely with VMT Calculator to prevent potential confusion

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• Quote 1: “I know there's a tie in with the city's vehicle miles traveled (VMT) calculator but the land uses don't necessarily match up. Like, the different options for retail and restaurant, for example, we're not necessarily interested in the number of habitable rooms, we're just more interested in number of dwelling units.”
• Quote 2: “The TDM strategies on the VMT calculator don't necessarily correlate with this TDM calculator. For example[...] maybe the city will be updating [strategy section]. [...]For example, like for the transit passes here, it says order new subsidizing. Our project will be subsidizing a certain amount to all residents and employees. But the way it's done between the VMT and this calculator is different. [...] I think there just needs to be more correlation between the two.”
• Quote 3: “It seems like the information [the client] [has] for this project is derived from the entries they made to the VMT calculator as part of their proposal preparation. So [clients] are missing any documentation in their project files of information that TDM is asking for that VMT did not already ask for.”

User Testing: Next Step Finding 2

Users anxious about how much this tool determines final approval

Add visualization of project submission and approval steps on summary page

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• Quote 1: “I don't know what happens after somebody fills this out. I think some type of description about what the next step is would be helpful. Is the next step that somebody from DOT is going to come back and determine whether these measures that I've proposed are appropriate to the site? Or are they just simply going to take this TDM summary page and say, 'green light, you're done'?.”�
• Quote 2: “I think this is a good summary of what you promised to do. Now, my problem is that each one of these strategies in a transportation report we write, each one of those different categories would have a half page description of what it was exactly that we were guaranteeing in guaranteed return trip, for example: once every four years, or once a year, or [how to implement…] so there's got to be some back up behind this. Somewhere there has to be a description of what each of those strategies mean for your individual project. The [city] reviewing this have got to have more information [implementation plan/etc.] than just [list of selected TDM strategies/measures].”

User Testing: Next Step Finding 3

Users wonder what can be done with information next

Add prompt to print, save as pdf, send via email, contacts for questions

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• Quote 1: “Okay, you have your results, but how do you go about printing it and saving a pdf or event have it sent to my email? And like, logging out? ‘Okay, I'm done’ kind of thing. It seems rather abrupt. Are you done? Or are you not kind of? The summary was really nice, what it did at the end, summarizing the points as well as the project description that was entered. I think that was done nicely. But I guess as a user, when we work on different projects, it’s good to have a copy saved for each project. So we’re not re-entering the information every time. It would be nice to be able to do an actual clean print out to save along with our project files.”�
• Quote 2: “When I save here, if I’m meant to go back to a home page, I would expect to get some prompt for that. If not, this seems like a place you could put a link to the TDM guides. Because I’m thinking, okay, now I’ve selected my strategies and now I have to make sure I’m doing them all right. The main thing I’d want would be a link to whatever TDM documentation exists, and maybe some sort of contact information in case I have any questions. If there’s someone at planning or LADOT who could guide me through any issues I had with maybe not understanding the strategies or maybe I wasn’t properly evaluating the project.�

User Testing: Misc Finding 1

Users wonder why both AIN# and address are required and what is standard address format

Provide clarification inside tooltip

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• Quote 1: “So I can see here that the project address and parcel number are required here, which is a little bit additional work, we usually just have the address handy.”

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• Quote 2: “Under the address line, I'm wondering if this requires street address, city and zip. Or I guess I mean, City of LA. So city is probably not required. If this is going to be used for mapping purposes, or if this is just going to be used to output on the final stage, just some sort of identifying information.”

User Testing: Misc Finding 2

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Users hope there are more options to choose from on Page 2

Include more categories or expand more options under each category

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• Quote 1: “Schools [...] there's no higher learning, or anything higher than grade school or high school, I guess, any sort of [college/university] input here? I guess that would happen pretty rarely. [said overall it is good] Still, I think there are some sort of some land uses that aren’t too well contained within this list. So I think it could be expanded more. Broadly, this is pretty good.”

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• Quote 2 [this participant used a sample project]: “So can I still enter that under 70 unit apartment building? that's where I guess there's a differentiate between condominium units versus apartment units. Because one is for live typically and one is for sale. But the description here I guess if I had apartment type units in the description, do I just enter it here. Or rather, it would be number of residential units [instead of] calling up condominium units. It would be more inclusive of all types of multifamily residential.”

User Testing: Misc Finding 3

What to do with Project Level 0

Add clear instructions to the current prompt

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• Observation 1: Unclear what user is supposed to do after receiving this message.

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• Clarifying questions:
• Is there any way users can know beforehand if their project will not require TDM mitigations?
• What should the applicant do? The calculator blocks progress beyond page 2.
• What do LADOT/LACP expect the TDM Calculator to instruct users for next steps after seeing this prompt?

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