Vehicle Miles Traveled (VMT)

Overview

City staff, in consultation with local transportation planning experts, developed a citywide VMT policy to comply with State law and provide established and consistent criteria to analyze transportation impacts of development projects and long-range plans.

Senate Bill 743 (SB 743) requires local jurisdictions to use Vehicle Miles Traveled (VMT) instead of Level of Service (LOS) to analyze transportation impacts under the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA). City staff developed a new citywide VMT policy to comply with State law and provide established and consistent criteria for analyzing transportation impacts of development projects and long-range plans. The VMT policy aligns with the goals and policies of the General Plan and adopted plans and supports new development in suitable areas near transit, mixed-use neighborhoods, and other amenities.

VMT measures the amount and distance a project might cause people to drive. Typically, isolated developments with poor access to walking, biking, and public transit facilities will result in more driving than mixed-use developments in already developed areas with strong access to non-automobile travel. This Fehr and Peers YouTube video provides a simple and clear explanation of VMT.

The City Council adopted the VMT policy on May 18, 2021. For more information about the VMT policy and the City's efforts to transition from using LOS to VMT, please refer to this Agenda Report (PDF) and presentation to the City Council (PDF). You can view the Final VMT Policy (PDF) with the City's VMT heat maps here.

Review the Transportation Analysis Guidelines (PDF). 

Background

In 2013, the State of California signed into law Senate Bill 743 (SB 743), which changes how transportation impacts are analyzed under the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA). The law establishes Vehicle Miles Traveled (VMT) as the appropriate methodology for measuring transportation impacts. The State gave cities a July 1, 2020 deadline to begin implementing the new law.

Historically, Milpitas and other jurisdictions have used Level of Service (LOS) to analyze impacts to transportation infrastructure under CEQA. LOS assigns a letter grade (A through F) to intersections or roadway segments based on the level of traffic congestion. California jurisdictions have been using LOS to analyze a project's CEQA transportation impacts since the inception of CEQA in 1970.

California has shifted away from using LOS because measuring congestion at intersections and roadway segments can have the unintended consequence of encouraging urban sprawl. To avoid triggering significant impacts and the cost of mitigating those impacts, new developments may locate in more remote areas with minimal traffic congestion. This often results in greater vehicle use and traffic congestion overall because people must travel longer distances to reach destinations. The State is recommending using VMT to measure of transportation impacts because it encourages infill and mixed-use development and the use of active transportation and transit, which reduce greenhouse gas emissions and promote healthier lifestyles.