Staff Report

1 RESOLUTION NO. 26-543 FOR THE PURPOSE OF ADOPTING THE REGIONAL VANPOOL ACTION PLAN Date: October 14, 2026 Department: Planning, Development and Research Meeting Date: October 22, 2026 Prepared by: Marne Duke, Senior Regional Planner Presenter: Marne Duke, Senior Regional Planner Length: 20 minutes ISSUE STATEMENT The Regional Vanpool Action Plan outlines activities by Metro and regional partners to support a new three-year $3 million statewide ODOT vanpool program, and to explore options for a regionally led vanpool program in the future. The draft Action Plan is available on the Metro website, and a 30-day public comment period was conducted from July 1 to July 31. No substantial changes were necessary as a result of the public comment or survey (comments can be found in Appendix G of the draft plan). ACTION REQUESTED Staff recommend adoption of Resolution No 26-5643. BACKGROUND The Regional Vanpool Action Plan is a project led by Metro’s Regional Travel Options (RTO) staff to give research and direction needed to advance vanpool as a practical and appealing travel option for commuting workers in the Metro region. Vanpool is an effective Transportation Demand Management (TDM) tool that can assist in meeting goals identified in the 2023 Regional Transportation Plan, the Regional Climate Smart Strategy, and the Regional TDM Strategy. Adoption Timeline Date Audience Action October 2, 2026 TPAC Action: Recommendation to JPACT to adopt Action Plan October 15, 2026 JPACT Action: Recommendation to Metro Council to adopt Action Plan October 22, 2026 Metro Council Action: JPACT recommendation to Metro Council 2 of 2 What is a vanpool? Vanpools are a type of transit where a group of people share a vehicle to travel together from their homes or a common community location, such as a park-and-ride lot or a transit station, to a place of work or transit stop. For the purposes of this action plan, Vanpools are limited to those eligible for reporting with the National Transit Database (NTD) within the Federal Transit Administration (FTA), which require vanpools that have more than seven (7) participants, uses at least 80% of its vehicle miles traveled for commuting purposes, is run by a government or transit agency, open to the public, advertised actively to the public, and is ADA accessible. Vanpools generally work because of subsidies. Vanpool fare subsidies are funds that are used to directly offset the individual cost for commuters to participate in a vanpool program. Subsidies can be paid out directly to commuters in the form of a refund or most commonly are paid out to the vanpool organizing agency/company and passed onto the commuter in the form of a discount. This video from SMART explains the basics of a vanpool: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UYfdXZrJueM How does the Regional Vanpool Strategy support other Metro planning efforts? The action plan is referenced in the Community Connector Transit (CCT) Study, which explores how flexible, micro-transit solutions can expand the transportation network and improve transit in areas with limited access. Through the CCT study, Metro will recommend a regional strategy for enhancing the public transit system with community connectors and identify where to allocate resources for improvements first. Vanpool is identified in the study as a complementary form of transit but lies outside the purview of the study. The recently adopted Regional Transportation Demand Management (TDM) Strategy identifies new regional TDM policies, strategies and actions for TDM implementation in the region, including the need for a more robust and coordinated vanpool program. The Regional TDM Strategy encourages TDM programs that support regional goals in ways that are meaningful and appropriate based on specific contexts for different communities across the region. The Action Plan supports policies within the TDM Strategy, including: • TDM Policy 2; Expand access to existing financial programs and establish new programs to reach more people • TDM Policy 5; Design flexible and innovative TDM programs that respond to a changing climate, service disruptions, emerging technologies, and the evolving needs of travelers. ATTACHMENTS None