Title
Capitol Campus Travel Demand Management Briefing
Recommended Action
Information only. No action requested.
Report
Issue:
The City of Olympia and the Thurston Regional Planning Council (TRPC) received a grant to encourage telework and flexible schedules for employees on the Capitol Campus.
Staff Contact:
Michelle Swanson, AICP, Associate Planner, Public Works | Transportation, 360.753.8575
Presenter(s):
Karen Parkhurst, Planning and Policy Director, Thurston Regional Planning Council
Veronica Jarvis, Associate Planner, Thurston Regional Planning Council
Background and Analysis:
Regional Mobility Grant
In June 2019, the Washington State Department of Transportation awarded the City $200,000 to encourage telework and flexible schedules on the Capitol Campus. About 12,000 people work on the Campus, and their trips to and from impact City streets.
The grant covered work done through June 2021. The project was implemented by TRPC, with the City administering the grant.
This project was just beginning when the COVID-19 pandemic hit, which required a significant majority of Capitol Campus workers to suddenly begin teleworking in March 2020. While the initial focus of this project was to encourage telework, that focus shifted to gathering data, identifying workplace policies that needed updating, and finding ways to support workers while teleworking, among other tasks.
The conclusion of this grant marks the end of the first phase of this project. TRPC will continue working to support telework for Capitol Campus workers through 2023, using federal funding. They are focused on "maintaining the gain" on telework as Capitol Campus workers transition to a post-COVID-19 workplace.
Traffic volumes
To support this project, the City gathered traffic volume data at the 14th & Jefferson roundabout, which is heavily influence by Capitol Campus traffic. We have attached a graph that summarizes the volumes from February 2020, during the last in-person legislativ...
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