PUBLIC TRANSPORTATIONURBAN SERVICE PRESENTATIONAPRIL 28, 2011PA 780

Jarrod Flores, Robin Havens & Jaime Siembieda

Introduction

What is public transportation?

Public transportation is a government service designed to transport a large group of persons in an affordable, convenient and efficient manner in a particular area.

What Public Transportation Means Economy

Brings people to work Strengthens the viability of the downtown

Environmental Reduces pollution and traffic

Social Equity Affordable and available to low-income and

disabled persons

Role of Government

A local government usually administers and manages public transportation program(s).  This includes: Ensure safety of passengers and

pedestrians Managing the transportation infrastructure

and personnel Secure funding and encourage ridership

What does an Administrator do?

Responsibilities… It depends Small Cities/Counties

Mobility Managers Planning, coordinating and implementing transportation

for low income persons, the elderly, and persons with disabilities

Smaller pay (i.e. $36,102-$54,154 – Opelika, Al) Large Cities (Multiple types of administrators)

Operations Manager Oversees day-to-day service operations; usually on-call

24/7 Safety Officer

Passenger security, deter theft & fare evasion, prepares for large disasters or emergencies

Challenges

Aging Infrastructure Older cities

Equity Issues Pricing; availability of service; ADA

compliance; distribution of funding, environmental justice

Challenge: Funding

Multiple sources (Local, State, Regional and Federal)

Ridership up, funding down

History of Transit: 1991Intermodal Surface Transportation Act of High Way Trust 1998 Transportation Equity Act for the 21st Century (TEA-21)   2005 Safe, Accountable, Efficient, Transportation Equity Act

Innovation #1: BRT

Bus Rapid Transit incorporates the reliability and conveniences of rail-based rapid transit systems with the flexibility of buses. BRT systems are being implemented across the U.S. and the world and due to BRT's flexibility, each application is planned and designed to meet the needs of the region. (MTA, 2011)

Why BRT is innovative: removes road space from automobiles and transforms that space into a more efficient and environmentally friendly use.

The capital costs of implementing BRT lines is more cost-effective than constructing light rail transit lines. A study by the USGAO found that the average capital cost per mile for BRT was $13.5 million compared to LRT costs at $34.8 million.

BRT: Bogota's TransMilenio

BRT: LA

Many cities across the US are incorporating BRT into their mass transit systems - The Orange Line in Los Angeles has proven to be a huge success surpassing its ridership goals for 2020 within six months of opening and relieving traffic congestion.

BRT - LA

Elements of the Orange Line that are consistent with BRT critical components:

Exclusive lanes on the street Station improvements: well-designed boarding platforms, ticket

vending machines, public art installations, real-time information displays, bike storage, shade canopies and convenient parking

Buses priority at the intersection

BRT: LA

The Orange Line has proven to be fast and dependable - it takes approximately 18 minutes to get from the North Hollywood station to the Tarzana station.

Innovation #2

Innovation #2: Shared Regional Governance in the Bay Area: “Plan Bay Area” 2013 plan

What is it? – Plan Bay Area is a legislation-driven (SB 375) shared regional governance initiative that integrates transportation with land-use planning:“The purpose of the SCS [Sustainable

Community Strategy, in the Bay Area: the “Plan Bay Area”] is to forge consensus in the Bay Area on a preferred long-term region-wide growth pattern. … The adopted SCS land development pattern will help guide regional policies and investments that are made pursuant to the Regional Transportation Plan. These regional policies Initial Vision Scenario and investments are intended to create financial and other incentives to implement the adopted land pattern in the SCS. (Association of Bay Area Governements (ABAG) and Metropolitian Transportation Commission, 2011, p. 3).”

Innovation #2

“Transportation and land use must work together to promote sustainability if we’re going to leave a better Bay Area for our children and grandchildren (Association of Bay Area Governements (ABAG) and Metropolitian Transportation Commission, 2011, p. 3).”

Innovation #2

Why is it an innovation? Because it leverages regional transportation and land-use planning and is backed by the authority of SB 375:

“In 2008, Senate Bill 375 (Steinberg) was enacted. The state law requires that our Regional Transportation Plan contain a Sustainable Communities Strategy that integrates land-use planning and transportation planning. For the 25-year period covered by the Regional Transportation Plan, the Sustainable Communities Strategy must identify areas within the nine county Bay Area sufficient to house all of the region’s population, including all economic segments of the population. It must also attempt to coordinate the resulting land-use pattern with the transportation network so as to reduce per capita greenhouse-gas emissions from personal use vehicles (automobiles and light trucks) (Association of Bay Area Governements (ABAG) and Metropolitian Transportation Commission, 2011, p. 1).”

Innovation #2

Plan Bay Area is innovative nationally because it draws from California’s climate change legislation, AB 32, the most forward-thinking in the nation. Leveraging the power of AB 32, SB 375 brings the authority needed to drive regional governance.

“California produces roughly 1.4 percent of the world's, and 6.2 percent of the total U.S., greenhouse gases. Our state has been working on and finding solutions to our impact on climate since 1988. Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger's 2005 executive order on climate change kicked into high gear to further advance clean renewable energy and other solutions to lower our state's greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. And the landmark California Global Warming Solutions Act of 2006 established the first-in-the-world comprehensive program of regulatory and market mechanisms to achieve real, quantifiable, cost-effective reductions of GHG. (State of California, California Energy Commission, 2011).”

Innovation #2

Impact – what does it mean? It means is that top-down and bottom-up approaches to regional growth planning are merging and supporting each other in this plan.“…more holistic regional policies must simultaneously involve

top-down and bottom-up processes….Coalitions that work by drawing legitimacy from below while attracting authority from above (Wallis, 2008, p. 121).”

“…in this wave [of regionalism] there is less emphasis on building government capacity to plan and more on developing multisector, shared regional governance focused on strategic growth issues (Wallis, 2008, p. 96).”

“…a holistic, regional approach to transportation is essential to cooperate and facilitate the movement of goods and people around the metropolis, and to achieve an acceptable quality of life (Hamilton, Hokkanen, & Wood, 2008, p. 267).”

Innovation #2

What makes it successful? The approach and the authority from SB 375 to make it happen:

And the flexible, not-entirely prescriptive approach:“Under SB 375, local governments are explicitly not required to update their general plans in accordance with the SCS. The SCS does not carry the same authority as Regional Housing Needs Allocation but it will inform the distribution of housing at the local level (Association of Bay Area Governements (ABAG) and Metropolitian Transportation Commission, 2011, p. 1).”

New urbanism approach (three-dimensional, coalition-based planning), (Wallis, 2008)

Innovation #2

Challenges – the sustainability of it all: “The Initial Vision Scenario reflects the transportation investments from MTC’s current Regional Transportation Plan (known as the Transportation 2035 Plan) with an Express Lane backbone system. It also includes some proposed improvements to the region’s transit network. These include increased frequencies on over 70 local bus and several express bus routes, improved rail headways on BART, eBART, Caltrain, Muni Metro, VTA light-rail, and Altamont Commuter Express, and more dedicated bus lanes in San Francisco and Santa Clara counties, all resulting in overall growth in transit capacity. However, the Bay Area’s transit system is financially unsustainable with operators unable to afford to run the current service levels into the future, much less expanded headways contemplated under the Initial Vision Scenario. MTC’s Transit Sustainability Project will propose a more sustainable transit system for inclusion in the Detailed Scenarios to be tested. (Association of Bay Area Governements (ABAG) and Metropolitian Transportation Commission, 2011, p. 2).”

Conclusion - Public Transportation  Offers a critical service for the public Improves quality of life and the

environment Has many challenging opportunities in

different fields for Urban Administrators Exciting, new innovations!

Fun Facts: Be sure to check out the fun facts on handout!