Evolution of Bay Area Corporate Campuses

Evolution of Bay Area Corporate Campuses

Last week’s SPUR event in San Jose revealed how “auto-dependent” workplaces are shaping the Bay Area’s traffic and economy.

Based on its report “Rethinking the Corporate Campus,” this month’s workshop from SPUR explored how the Bay Area’s dependency on driving is “congesting roadways, worsening carbon emissions and eroding the region’s quality of life.”

Here’s a recap of the event from WeDriveU Customer Success Manager, David Zyck.

Host Ben Grant, Urban Design Policy Director for SPUR (which stands for the San Francisco Bay Area Planning and Urban Research Association), discussed the spatial impact of the Bay Area’s economy, employers’ factors in office location selection and recommendations to help employers choose efficient high-performing locations. He opened with these eye-opening stats:

  • The Bay Area’s job growth is overwhelmingly located in auto-dependent locations. Over the past five years, only 26% of new office and flex space has been built within a half-mile of the regional transit infrastructure (and only 9% if San Francisco proper is excluded).
  • In 2015, congestion was up 22% (year over year) and congestion is up 70% since 2010.
  • The Bay Area now has the nation’s 2nd highest driving delays due to traffic.

What’s Driving Location Choices?

Ben identified four key factors influencing employers’ office locations:

  1. Talent acquisition and retention
  2. Growth and exit strategy
  3. Large floor plans (cultural values of perceived collaboration from open floor plans)
  4. IP security (desire to protect their offerings)

SPUR’s Recommendations

Ben suggested ways to help employers choose high-performing locations, such as:

  • Location: Zone for job growth near transit and reduce development barriers (i.e. levee a VMT fee on commercial development
  • Commute: Identify short-term transit improvements, seamless payment options, expand regional bus network (examples he mentioned: long-term transit improvements for Caltrain and Dumbarton Bridge; provide comprehensive TDM services; TMAs provide public-serving local access; invest in pedestrian environments)
  • Form: Walkable building designs, zone for mixed-use development, limit floor-plan sizes, handle security through a public/private hierarchy

Our bottom line: As a private transportation provider based in the Bay Area, WeDriveU helps local employers leverage public transportation through last mile services that link campuses to public transit stops. Here are a few case studies. Additionally, WeDriveU helps employers tackle limited (or high-cost) parking by transporting employees to, from and within a corporate campus.

We thank Ben and SPUR for dedicating resources to understanding challenges like these that are faced by Facilities Managers and Workplace Services teams we work with in the region. Interested in learning more? Follow SPUR on Twitter (@SPUR_Urbanist) Review SPUR’s Transportation Agenda or download SPUR’s full report here (it’s free).

Like to know more about how employers and property managers are making the journey to corporate campuses more seamless? Request an introduction, explore solutions, or reach out to David.

 

 

 

Image: WeDriveU
2017-12-13T02:29:12+00:00