Stanford University Medical Center in Palo Alto, Calif., is requesting a revision of a city agreement that requires more than one-third of its employees to get to the hospital without cars, Palo Alto Weekly reported Oct. 18.
The agreement between Stanford (Calif.) University and the city of Palo Alto was signed in 2011, according to the newspaper. The city would allow the university to build new hospitals and medical buildings as long as those facilities did not add traffic to major roads. More than one-third of employee trips to and from the hospital should not use cars, and by 2025, 35.1 percent of employees should be using alternative transportation methods, per the agreement.
Stanford will have to pay $4 million to the city if it fails to meet the 2025 target, and $175,000 for each year it misses the annual target.
The hospital took measures to meet the goal, providing all employees with Caltrain Go passes and expanding bicycle amenities and its shuttle services. It also offered a "guaranteed ride home" program and leased parking lots outside the city for "park and ride" programs.
Stanford was exceeding the target set by the city every year until 2020, when COVID-19 struck. People were concerned about congregating for carpools, traffic disappeared and public transportation diminished. Workers rediscovered their cars, according to the newspaper.
Ever since the pandemic, Stanford has been unable to hit its goal of 33% of employees using alternative transportation methods to commute. So far in 2023, only 25.6% of workers have been meeting the mark.
The hospital is requesting that the city push the target of 35.1% from 2025 to 2028. If the agreement is amended, the $175,000 fines for each year the hospital has missed the mark would be waived.
"Public transit systems have continued to operate at reduced levels of service," David Entwistle, president and CEO of Stanford Health Care, wrote in a letter to the city. "And the period of ongoing disruption to pre-pandemic routines has persisted — and has deepened in its effects, as workers who must perform their jobs in person have continued shifting away from alternative modes of transportation."
Becker's has reached out to Stanford University and Stanford Health Care for comment, and will update this story if more information becomes available.