Trips

"Trips" means the number of times that route stops at a single stop near your project. It does not have anything to do with the number of people who actually take that route. You also only get to count the "trips" for a single stop per route (i.e. if you are within walking distance of 2 stops on Route A, you can only count the trips at one stop). Note that you only get to count the number of trips for a single direction of each route and you have to use the smaller value for your daily trip calculation (i.e. if Route A-Weekday stops 21 times going North and 23 times going South, your daily trip count for Route A-Weekday would be 21). Similarly, you have to use the smaller of the two weekend days for that calculation (i.e. if your daily trip count for Route A-Saturday is 13 and your daily trip count for Route A-Sunday is 8, your daily trip count for Route A-Weekend 8).

This item has generated a great deal of frustration for me while attempting to document the credit requirements. First, why only one direction?  We have an office facility where multiple forms of public transportation serve the site, which is centrally located, from two different directions. Many of the employees arrive from both directions. It seems disingenuous to say only the commuters from one direction can be counted towards the ultimate goal of trip reduction and alternative transportation sources. This credit establishes significantly high thresholds and limits the credit only to projects located within an urban core. Suburban office projects have peak hour commutes as the guiding priority for trip reduction measures. I agree with the above comment related to weekend routes and if an office facility (in my case a government office) is only operating during the weekdays why do the weekend trips matter? They don't. In fact many leases limit access to a facility on the weekends without penalties for excess energy usage. The issue of one way only counts disqualifies many locations for this credit even though the site provides public transit in a variety of forms. This does not align with the intent of the credit nor the objectives of transportation as a sustainable amenity for a particular location.

Kevin we are in a similar situation - were you able to achieve this credit? We are working with a government office that is closed on the weekends. Any insight would be greatly appreciated! 

Peter, I asked GBCI about government (and similar) offices a few months back, too. This is the response I got: "For LEED v4, the intent of this credit is to encourage development in locations well served by transit, and the definition of quality transit developed for the rating system includes weekend transit. Exceptions to the weekend service requirement are generally not available to NC or CI projects. However, if your team feels that the intent of the credit can be met with project-specific circumstances, the alternative compliance path would need to demonstrate how the intent is met. Additionally, since the weekend requirements cannot be met, the team would need to demonstrate that the building is intended to have zero weekend occupancy (including custodial / maintenance / security staff). For example, a secure facility that is not accessible outside weekday opening hours might be granted an exception. If submitting a CIR, your team should provide a narrative describing the anticipated occupancy and any restrictions on weekend access."

Hi, If you are give the frequency of trams in terms of max, min and average number of trams per day which should we use for this credit ? Is there any guidance on this ?

Ciaran, this sounds like one of those situations where because there is no guidance, you and the reviewer both will be using their best judgement. I would personally think an average is the best representation of the actual level of service, but you may want to stick with minimum when tallying your points to be safe. Or if you do use a higher number, see if you can find a way to back it up.