Building Standards

MCAG VMT Thresholds and Guidelines

Senate Bill 743, signed into law in 2013, established new metrics for the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) to address transportation impacts. SB 743 replaces the Level of Service (LOS) grade system to Vehicle Miles Traveled (VMT) as the primary transportation impact metric. This shifted the project-level evaluation and impact assessment system from an average level of traffic to the amount of miles traveled by all vehicles to better track vehicle use and vehicle emissions. The new requirements went into effect on July 1, 2020.

MCAG has prepared the VMT Thresholds and Guidelines for the seven jurisdictions: City of Atwater, City of Dos Palos, City of Gustine, City of Livingston, City of Los Banos, City of Merced, and the County of Merced. This plan includes project screening criteria, methodologies for estimating project specific VMT, regional and local thresholds, and VMT mitigation strategies.

The VMT Thresholds and Guidelines were prepared and adopted in 2022. The information included is targeted towards Lead Agencies, defined by CEQA as a public agency that has the primary responsibility for carrying out or approving a project.

You can download those thresholds and guidelines by CLICKING HERE