I just realized that your original posting was submitted under the Schools section. Apologies. As you correctly identified, a designated carpool drop-off area is required for low-emitting and fuel efficient vehicles for school projects. The term "designated" is used to ensure that carpool drivers of low-emitting vehicles receive some sort of preference over drivers of conventional vehicles. Your proposed approach of having a designated lane for carpool drivers of low-emitting vehicles seems to meet the intent; however an official ruling on this must come from GBCI via the CIR process.
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Tim Hoeft
AIA, LEED APStraughn Trout Architects, LLC
94 thumbs up
December 6, 2010 - 12:06 pm
Has it been confirmed that the carpool drop-off area be specifically designated for low-emitting and fuel efficient vehicles? When I read the verbage in the Reference Manual (page 64), I do not interpret it to mean that the drop-off area has to be designated for L.E. & F.E. vehicles, only that the a specific area must be designated as a "carpool drop-off area" with signage that reminds and encourages carpooling to building occupants. If a second, or additional drop-off area was created just for L.E. & F.E. vehicles, that would increase the paved area of the site (bad for many reasons). Anyone have experience or a CIR that gives some clarification on this?
Ryan Gaylord
DirectorCTG Energetics, Inc.
49 thumbs up
January 3, 2011 - 5:11 pm
I see your point, and agree that this is somewhat confusing. My interpretation here is that the credit requirements on p.61 of the Reference Guide explicitly state that a "designated carpool drop-off area for LE and FE vehicles" must be provided. The paragraph in the “Implementation” section that you referenced states that the designated drop off area should be "situated to effectively manage the traffic patterns of carpool users, on-site parkers and buses." I think this is referring to the placement of the designated lane to minimize impedance to other traffic flows. I do not think this was intended to mean the designated carpool lane could be used by carpoolers not driving LE & FEs.