Funding and Building Multimodal Transit Systems
By Andrea White-Kjoss
President and CEO of Mobis Transportation/Bikestation
One-third of America’s carbon footprint is related to automobiles – and cities across the country have demonstrated that developing alternative transportation infrastructure can offer a wide range of economic, health and quality of life benefits as well as improve the overall community.
However, changing the transportation infrastructure of Southern California and the U.S. is a formidable challenge. There is one important step, however, that can be performed by and within most American cities, college and corporate campuses and commercial developments today with relative ease, speed and cost-effectiveness – the creation of personal multimodal transit systems.
These systems can mitigate traffic and congestion, improve communities and meet carbon reduction commitments, and there are funding options available to finance the capital and operational costs. As transit routes are being cut, agencies and cities must seek new funding sources and cost-effective ways to maintain and even add services, improve the community and enhance customer experience.
Adding personal multimodal transit infrastructure offers a fast, efficient way to plan and propose a system of alternative transportation that can be useful in most American cities and can be financed through public private partnerships and dedicated, specific funding.
Decisions made about automobiles and highway systems in the 20th century have determined the infrastructure of the United States ever since, and the decisions made today about alternative transportation will affect the American way of life for years to come. The growth of mass transit plays a huge part in the vision of a new American lifestyle.
But mass transit will not succeed unless we can overcome the challenge of the “first and last mile.”
As desirable as it is to move more and more people from place to place in buses, light rail and trains, not much is accomplished if those people have to drive from their homes to the transit station, park in huge, expensive lots where each space costs between $17,000 and $75,000, and then take a cab or another car to get to their place of work or recreation when they arrive at their destination. To create a new transportation paradigm, there needs to be viable choices in mobility that create a seamless end-to-end infrastructure to, from and between public transit that allow people to move around conveniently, efficiently, safely and economically, as well as in a way that matches with their aspirations and the overall community culture.
Our best present options for solving the first and last mile dilemma are small electric vehicles like scooters and carts, shared cars and, perhaps most importantly, bicycles. Bicycles are our greatest underutilized existing transportation resource, and we should make significant efforts to accommodate them as a primary strategy at all transit stations and other destinations. All of these can play a part in multimodal transit centers created today if the current barriers of vehicle security, personal safety, comfort and convenience can be overcome.
Studies show that the biggest obstacles to use of bicycles and other alternative modes of transportation are fear of theft and inconvenience. The system that best overcomes these objections and gets people on their bikes for work, shopping and entertainment is a combination of easily accessible, locked bicycle parking modules and staffed bicycle and multimodal transit centers that offer secure, electronic-access parking, electric vehicle, bike, and car sharing, lockers, showers, bike repair, rental, accessories and other amenities.
Placing these modules and transit centers in a network at all mass transit stops and hubs takes a huge step toward solving the problem of the “first and last mile,” and gives people good reason to use alternative transportation. This can all be powered by existing technology that makes for a seamless and reliable customer experience, enabling a businesswoman to carry one access card for all transportation options, and to view the availability of those transportation options in real time on her PDA.
Mobis Transportation has made significant inroads toward accomplishing this vision through the development of Bikestation bike transit facilities across the country. Bikestation is the leading brand of Mobis and two of the most recent Bikestations under construction are Bikestation Covina and Bikestation Claremont. They are an example of a systemic infrastructure as they are located conveniently on the same Metrolink transit line. Bikestation Covina and Bikestation Claremont enable commuters in those communities to conveniently bike to and from the station to their home or workplace. Mobis Transportation is growing across the country and around the world and is projected to have 200 Bikestations in place within five years.
In fact, in 2008, six Bikestations alone reduced auto congestion by 133,640 car trips and kept over 400,000 pounds of pollutants out of the air. Nearly a third of Bikestation users reported that they now bike as their primary means of transit where they’d previously commuted by car, and 60 percent report that they now use their bike for transit significantly more often than they had previously. This usage growth also carries through to increased usage of public transportation by discretionary commuters, those who can choose whether or not to commute by car or transit, as adding bicycle infrastructure can make transit options more feasible for more people more often.
Bikestation Claremont is a full-service staffed bike transit facility with secure, electronic-access, indoor, 24/7 bike parking, showers, changing rooms, repair services, accessory retail and bike rentals. Bikestation Covina is the first installation of the Secure Bike Module, a beautifully designed secure bike parking facility. The Secure Bike Module has a smaller footprint than the full-service Bikestation facilities, is unstaffed and is fast, easy and cost-effective to construct and install, making it ideal for a broad range of cities, developments, campuses and communities.
With these two facilities located on the same Metrolink Transit line, they are an example of the systemic network for bicycle infrastructure that Bikestation envisions. Appropriately, Southern California is at the forefront of this innovation between the public and private sector that enables mass transit and alternative transportation, offers further options and convenience for constituents, and greatly improves lifestyles within communities.
-M21-
Mobility 21 is a six-county coalition bringing together business, civic and public sector leaders to advocate for increased investment in Southern California’s transportation network.
