GOALS & REQUIREMENTS

CTR Goals

The purpose of the CTR law is to reduce the number and length of drive-alone commute trips made to major employment sites.  CTR progress is measured using a drive alone rate and vehicle miles traveled (VMT) rate.

VMT: The average length of commute trips per employee

The goals for all employers are to reduce the number and length of drive-alone commute trips and/or vehicle miles traveled as follows:

• Drive Alone Goal: a 10% reduction from 2007 baseline survey by 2011
• VMT Goal: a 13% reduction from 2007 baseline survey by 2011

Every two years, employers must measure their employee commute behavior to determine if progress is being made toward the achievement of the CTR goals.  The state provides surveys for this purpose. 

The CTR Employee Survey asks employees how they get to work, how many miles they travel to work, and other information about their daily commute habits.  The results of the survey are used to measure the employer's progress toward the achievement of the CTR goals.

If an employer meets either the drive alone or VMT goal, it is considered to have met its goal.  Employers may also choose to submit equivalent data pre-approved by their jurisdiction in lieu of conducting an employee survey.

What if We Don't Meet Our Goals?

The CTR goals are just that, goals.  As long as the employer is making a good faith effort to implement its CTR program, it cannot be assessed civil penalties for failure to meet the CTR goals.  A good faith effort means that:

"an employer has met the minimum requirements identified in the law and its ordinance, and is working collaboratively with the city or county to continue its existing CTR program or is developing and implementing program modifications likely to result in improvements to its CTR program over an agreed upon length of time."

If an employer doesn't meet the minimum requirements of the ordinance, the city or county will ask the employer to do specific things to come into compliance.  Sometimes these actions are fairly simple, like posting the ETC's name and contact information.  At other times they may be more substantial, like considering enhancements to the worksite program to improve the likelihood of reaching the goals. See more about Good Faith Effort.

The city or county's role is to work with employers toward succeeding with their CTR program, not to penalize an employer that does not succeed.

Civil Penalties

Civil penalties may not be assessed against employers that fail to meet their CTR goals.  However, civil penalties may be assessed if an employer is in non-compliance with their local ordinance.  Civil penalties may also be assessed against employers that do not make a good faith effort to comply with the law and that fail to work collaboratively with their local jurisdiction.  The dollar amount of the civil penalties are defined in local ordinances and vary from $50 between jurisdictions.

"On Any Given Day"

A simple way to convey your organization's drive alone goal to employees is to refer to the commute trips made on any given day. If your worksite has a goal of a 55% drive alone rate, and you have 600 employees at your worksite, a 55% drive alone rate equates to 330 employees. So to meet the 55% goal, on any given day, 270 employees must use an alternative to driving alone and 330 would be driving alone.