Mobility: Commuting

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Why is this a Climate Smart indicator?

Transportation generates over half of city-wide greenhouse gas emissions, according to the 2024 communitywide inventory. Reducing the number of miles driven by cars in San José is key to reducing our greenhouse gas emissions.
This is why one of the four key strategies in the 2025 Climate Smart Plan Update is to move to reduce the miles we travel in our vehicles by at least 20%.
Using alternative commuting options, like public transit or biking, would help reduce VMT and GHG emissions. It would also reduce traffic, air and stormwater pollution, and crashes.
Additionally, people who incorporate active or shared commuting options tend to be healthier and using alternatives to driving alone can reduce transportation costs for households.

What is the City doing to make progress on this indicator?

To reduce webpage clutter, some progress related to this metric is not included on this webpage but can be found on other dashboard webpages. Visit our Public Transit or Complete Streets dashboard pages for information on progress specific to each of these types of strategies.

Completed

Sustainable Commute Incentive Pilot program to test the effectiveness of various incentive strategies for reducing drive-alone automobile trips, which found that a small incentive ($4 per day) was effective at increasing the number and frequency of employees using sustainable modes to commute to work (2018)
Complete public bike share system with 83 stations and 1,100 bikes, including 100 dockless electric-assist bikes (2018-2019)
Transportation Analysis Policy to shift the focus of developments’ transportation improvements to pedestrian, bicycle and transit facilities (adopted in 2018, updated in 2022)
Ordinance and permit system to address safety and operational issues of e-scooters while facilitating their growth; 1,000 scooters currently permitted (2019-2025)
Vision Zero Action Plan (adopted 2020) and Quick Build team
Better Bike Plan 2025 (adopted October 2020)
East San José Multimodal Transportation Improvement Plan (En Movimiento; adopted 2021)
Emerging Mobility Action Plan (adopted April 2022)
Move San José, a new transportation strategy for San José (adopted August 2022)
Downtown Transportation Plan, which includes 17 transportation strategies to assist the city in designing, securing funding, and delivering key downtown improvements (adopted November 2022)
West San José Multimodal Transportation Improvement Plan (adopted December 2022)
Hire the City’s first Transportation Demand Management coordinator to manage the City’s existing employee commute programs (2022)
Parking and Transportation Demand Management Ordinance update (adopted December 2022, effective April 2023)
Walk Safe San José Plan (completed 2024)
Connect North San José: The North San José Multimodal Transportation Improvement Plan (adopted April 2026)

In Progress / Ongoing

Implementation of the following:
- Vision Zero Action Plan
- En Movimiento: A Transportation Plan for East San José
- Emerging Mobility Action Plan
- Downtown Better BikewaySJ Network
- Promote Transit Oriented Developments (TOD) through implementation of the Envision San José 2040 General Plan and urban village plans

Develop the Diridon Integrated Station Concept plan with regional partners
LED Streetlight Conversion Program to make streets feel safer for pedestrians
Walk n’ Roll program to increase the number of kids walking and biking to school
Bikeshare Subsidy Program for City employees
Bikeway Network Expansion: The City of San José has installed 100 miles of new on-street bikeways and upgraded 82.1 miles of existing bikeways—totaling 182.1 miles of bikeway improvements across the City
US 101/Trimble Road/De La Cruz Boulevard Interchange improvement upgrades, in partnership with regional agencies, including a separated bike/pedestrian path crossing, connecting the Guadalupe River Trails System to De La Cruz Boulevard and Central Expressway (estimated 2026 completion)
East San José Initiatives:
- East San José Mobility Equity Project: Launched in 2025 to support various programs, including a $1.3M Mobility Wallet Pilot for 350 low-income families, school-based bike programs, Viva Calle and Viva Escuela events, workforce development (Promotoras), and electric microtransit pilot service in 2026 with additional grant funding
- East San Jose Bikeway Expansion: Working with Lyft, MTC, and Clean Air Resource Board to expand bikeshare network to East San Jose by deploying 500 new e-bikes and 32 new stations
Climate Smart Challenge and GoGreen Teams programs for San José residents, which encourage walking and biking

Planned

Evaluating

About the data

Sources & Methods

Data on commute journeys come from Replica. Replica mode share data is generated using a combination of mobile location data, land use information, and travel behavior models to estimate the number of trips taken via various transportation modes within a given region. The data is calibrated against “ground truth” observations—such as traffic counts, transit ridership, economic activity reports, and other public datasets—to improve accuracy.

SOV trips are derived from Replica using US Census data. Replica reports data on auto person trips but does not differentiate between SOV and carpool trips. To reconcile this, US Census data on the average occupancy of carpool trips (table S0801) was used to separate SOV trips from carpool trips.

Last updated

May 2026