Vehicle miles traveled (VMT) are estimated based on modeled data from Google’s Environmental Insights Explorer. The City assumes 100% of all in-boundary trips and half of each trip that starts and ends in Santa Monica. This is called an “Origin-Destination Methodology,” which is standard practice for calculating vehicle transportation emissions. Pass-through trips (i.e., Malibu to Downtown Los Angeles) are not associated with Santa Monica, as each community should claim their respective half of the trip. Second, VMT data that is generated is then applied to the national average vehicle mix, except for electric vehicles which utilizes local data. This results in a certain percentage of vehicles that use unleaded gasoline, diesel, natural gas and electricity. Lastly, the data is computed to estimate total greenhouse gas emissions and particulate matter generated from fossil fuel combustion as a result of vehicle transportation.
