About Choose Your Way Bellevue

Plans & Activities

Bellevue's TDM program provides information, incentives, and opportunities to sample and keep using alternative travel modes.

Commute Trip Reduction Law: Bellevue City Code (Section 14.40), in accordance with State law (RCW 70.94.521-551), requires employers with 100 or more full-time employees traveling to a worksite during peak hours (6-9 a.m.) to implement a Commute Trip Reduction (CTR) plan. Through implementation of the plan, employers work to achieve specified targets for reducing the number of drive-alone commute trips by their employees. The City contracts with King County Metro to perform implementation and outreach to affected employers. As of November 2007, there were 60 Bellevue worksites affected by CTR requirements.

Commute Trip Reduction Plan: In March 2006, the state legislature adopted a revised CTR law. While each employer's ongoing requirements remain essentially the same, jurisdictions are now required to update their CTR plans to establish new jurisdiction targets and to better integrate CTR into their comprehensive plans. The law also calls for coordinating CTR plans with regional growth management strategies. The city's draft CTR plan (1.85 MB) was developed with close collaboration with employers and other jurisdictions, and is slated for Council adoption in early 2008.

Growth and Transportation Efficiency Center Plan: The revised state law also allows jurisdictions designate Growth and Transportation Efficiency Centers (GTECs) in order to customize their CTR programs in areas of concentrated employment and housing. Bellevue's draft GTEC plan (3.63 MB) was created in collaboration with Bellevue's business community and the public. The City received word of state acceptance and funding of the plan of up to $300,000 through mid-2009. (View the news release for this award.)

Both the CTR and GTEC plans will establish new trip reduction targets for employers and the City, along with providing background information and strategies for achieving the targets.

Development Regulations and Transportation Management Programs

Bellevue City Code (sections 14.60.070 and 14.60.080) requires real estate developments that meet certain size and land use thresholds to mitigate transportation impacts by implementing a Transportation Management Program (TMP). The TMP code requires physical features be provided in the building (e.g., Commuter Information Centers, preferential parking for vanpools and carpools) and that programmatic elements be provided to facilitate alternatives to driving alone, such as financial incentives for rideshare and transit commuters.

Downtown Initiatives

The City is working in a partnership with the Bellevue Downtown Association and King County Metro on a series of efforts to increase non-drive-alone commute trips in Downtown Bellevue. The partner agencies will work together to develop appropriate travel options programs and incentives for Downtown in the face of a growing residential and employee population and the congestion that will result from construction work on I-405. The work will be guided by the city's Downtown Growth and Transportation Efficiency Center and Commute Trip Reduction plans.

Click the following links to learn of current downtown initiatives: