Opinion: A Former Councilmember's Case Against Riverside's VMT Bank

The VMT (Vehicle Miles Traveled) Bank makes traffic dangers worse, harming our residents and drivers.

It is a fraud. VMT is designed to deceive us into thinking that new housing, by paying a nominal fee into a regional program [Note: Buster's letter refers to "a regional program" — the VMT Bank is a City of Riverside program recognized regionally by SCAG], is also reducing local traffic hazards.

VMT's engineering mumbo-jumbo makes it impossible for the average person to understand or contest. Its rating numbers are easily slanted to produce the desired approval. This forces future residents and drivers to deal with the even higher risks and costs of going back to remediate poorly planned projects.

It allowed developers and the City to avoid responsibility to correct already existing severe traffic hazards that the high density housing project on Victoria Avenue at La Sierra will make much worse.

County traffic engineers long ago designed in the necessary median break and turning lane on La Sierra that the 15 homes in the unincorporated area on Old Fashion Way, just across from the project, required for safety.

The City project, with 49 houses and one way in and out on La Sierra, was approved without any such obvious safety measures.

VMT was designed to get rid of LOS (Level of Service), the former measure of traffic congestion around a development site. LOS's rating system gave us a fair estimate of when we needed to be alert to possible safety hazards from a new development.

— Bob Buster, former Riverside City Councilmember, Riverside County Supervisor and Greenbelt Citrus Farmer

Editor's note: The Victoria Avenue development referenced in this letter was approved by City Council in June 2025 under California's density bonus law, which significantly limits local governments' ability to deny qualifying projects. The state's Department of Housing and Community Development reviewed and approved the project's development waivers prior to the Council vote.