Tuesday, February 5, 2013

Getting Around in the Bay Area: Mobility Planning For Silicon Valley

Silicon Valley, one of the most innovative places in the world, has an overstressed and inadequate public infrastructure.  The Valley’s business successes over the years have led to increased development densities that have outstripped what the suburban development form can comfortably support.  People are dependent on cars for mobility and, because things are spread out, trips to work, shopping, schools, etc. are overly long and congested.  An inadequate supply of housing has led to high housing costs, long commutes, and traffic congestion.  Although many recognize the need for more housing, people are fearful that any new development will make traffic worse rather than better.  And transit agencies are struggling to provide effective transit services in this low-density environment, and even to survive financially.

And a new challenge is on the horizon.  We are in the early stages of a structural shift in personal mobility. Remember the summer of 2008 when worldwide pressures suddenly pushed gasoline prices up to $4/gallon or more.  The onset of the Great Recession pushed gas prices back down again, but those forces are likely to be at work again as we emerge from the recession.  No one can predict in detail what will happen, but it is likely that some combination of increased climate regulations and increased worldwide competition for energy supplies will put upward pressure on energy prices. So, we can no longer safely plan for the next 20 years, as we have in past decades, based on having an ample supply of cheap gasoline.  Planning needs to address this issue, understand its implications, and begin to reduce auto-dependency and provide other choices for personal mobility.  Cars will still be around, but they can’t be the only answer.

This paper looks at transit planning and development planning in light of these trends and suggests a new approach.

1.Not Just Transit, But Personal Mobility.  Current transit planning seems to revolve around issues like buses vs. trams, or public transit vs. private cars.  The discussion needs to be kicked up a level or two.  The real issue isn’t just cars or transit, but personal mobility.  How people get around every day here in Silicon Valley.  Planning needs to focus on people and their personal mobility, not just transit planning.  We need to do what it takes to make it easy and convenient for people to get around in the Bay Area without needing a car.  That is the goal of good mobility planning.

2.Integration of Transportation Planning and Development Planning.  The two issues are interrelated, but the planning now goes on separately.  Transit agencies plan transit, and cities plan development.  The agencies talk to each other and comment on each other’s projects, but there is no real integrated planning.  No one is in charge of making sure transportation works effectively with development and vice versa.  We need to start integrated planning right now and demand results.

3.Efficient Transit Needs Clusters of Riders.  A transit trip requires enough riders to help pay the cost of the trip.  To be efficient, transit needs to serve dense clusters of riders, not scattered individuals. Clusters of potential riders exist in downtowns, schools and colleges, major medical facilities, and other places.  Trying to serve scattered individual riders is prohibitively expensive and undermines transit efficiency.

4.Transit Policy Should Support Ridership Clusters.  If transit efficiency depends on having dense enough clusters of potential riders, then transit policy should actively support that principle.
Transit should provide the best services to the densest clusters.
Transit should not provide services that encourage sprawl and scattering of riders.
Transit should make the hard but important policy choice that Efficient Transit Serves Clusters.  The denser the cluster, the better the transit service.  If you want better transit services, move (or walk) to an area with a higher density cluster of transit users.
Some riders have “special needs” and serving them is important.  But this service should be focused on meeting these needs in ways that don’t undermine the overall transit policy to encourage the clustering of riders.

5.The Key to Ridership Is Good Service.  Serving dense clusters of potential riders is one key to ridership.  The other is good service.  Good service doesn’t require fancy new transit vehicles.  Many transit systems throughout the world thrive with ordinary looking transit vehicles.  Transit ridership depends on two things:
The transit comes frequently enough (every 5 or 10 minutes) so we can use it without checking a transit schedule.
The transit takes us were we need to go in a reasonable time and brings us back when we are done.

6.Put Transit Lines on Developed Corridors.  Transit lines need to go on existing developed corridors like El Camino Real, instead of avoiding them.  Putting transit on developed corridors will:
Let transit benefit from the potential riders already clustered along the corridor.
Enliven and enrich the corridor.
Encourage new transit-friendly development there, and lead to increased transit riders in future years. 
7.The Transit On Developed Corridors Needs To Flexible And Walkable.  Differing forms of transit have differing impacts on the areas they go through. One kind is good for developed corridors and the other is not. Fixed Stop Transit, like Caltrain and some forms of Bus Rapid Transit (BRT), is boardable only at a transit stop and the transit stops are fixed and not easily changed.  These stops are also usually too far apart to allow a convenient walk from one to another. Fixed Stop Transitenlivens the areas around the fixed stops, but does not enliven the rest of the corridor, and may even damage it.  (Like a freeway enlivens the interchange areas, but not the rest of the freeway corridor.)   Flexible Transit, like buses and trams, has stops that can easily be changed as needs demand, and the stops are within walking distance of each other.  This combination of flexibility and walkability means that it can enliven the whole transit corridor.  The greatest life is at the transit stops, but even the areas between the stops are also enlivened and enriched.  Flexible Transit that enlivens the whole corridor is the right transit for developed corridors.

8.Area-Wide Network Of Connectivity.  The Bay Area needs an interconnected, area-wide network of mobility services that provides:
Easy connection across transit agency borders.  (A rider shouldn’t know or care which transit agency is operating the vehicle he is riding.)
Convenient, coordinated schedules.
A single ticket for the entire trip.

9.Responsible Leadership.  We need leadership that will:
Set a goal to do what it takes to make it easy and convenient for people to get around in the Bay Area without needing a car.
Integrate transportation planning and development planning.
Provide effective personal mobility so you don’t have to wait more than 5 or 10 minutes for transportation that will get you to your destination and back in a reasonable time.
Find the necessary financial resources.
Help transition the Bay Area from auto-dependence to car-free personal mobility.

No comments:

Post a Comment