TY - CHAP
T1 - Walking the Last Mile
T2 - Barriers and Solutions to Suburban Transit Access
AU - Braun, Lindsay M.
AU - Barajas, Jesus M.
AU - Lee, Bumsoo
AU - Martin, Rebecca
N1 - Funding Information:
The authors disclosed receipt of the following financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article: This research was supported by a grant from the Illinois Center for Transportation, the Illinois Department of Transportation, and the Federal Highway Administration of the U.S. Department of Transportation (ICT Project R27-200).
Funding Information:
Pace faces at least two significant programmatic challenges in overcoming pedestrian access barriers, consistent with the literature on transit policy. First, Pace does not have land use planning authority in the region. It must work closely with the region’s diverse municipalities and advocate for pedestrian improvements along bus routes. Second, funding for pedestrian improvements is limited. Federal funding for pedestrian improvements generally requires that that projects be bundled with other roadway improvements. Unlike some other states, Illinois does not have a dedicated fund for pedestrian infrastructure. A variety of federal and state programs can fund eligible projects that include pedestrian improvements, although these funds are generally not exclusive to pedestrian projects, are often limited, and can still impose cost burdens on local communities. The Illinois Transportation Enhancement Program, for example, will fund bicycle and pedestrian facility projects under $2 million, provided they have a 20% local match. Some regional programs administered by the Chicago Metropolitan Agency for Planning (CMAP), the Regional Transportation Authority, the counties, and the Council of Mayors, provide grant funding or matched funds for pedestrian projects or plans. The funding structure for pedestrian infrastructure development in the region is thus diverse, but complex and subject to competition from other modes.
Publisher Copyright:
© SAGE Publications Ltd. All rights reserved.
PY - 2022/12
Y1 - 2022/12
N2 - Pedestrian infrastructure plays a critical role in facilitating first-/last-mile access to transit. Efforts to connect pedestrians to transit through infrastructure improvements, however, often face considerable implementation barriers. These barriers can be particularly pronounced for suburban transit providers, which serve low-density, automobile-oriented development and often must coordinate across many jurisdictions. In this analysis, we examine strategies that transit agencies, metropolitan planning organizations, and municipalities use to build pedestrian infrastructure near suburban transit services in the United States, and the barriers they face in this process. We use Pace Suburban Bus, a transit provider in the Chicago, Illinois region, as an illustrative case study, conducting surveys with planners and interviews with diverse stakeholder groups in the agency’s service area. To complement these findings, we conduct an online survey of similar agency types in ten peer regions across the United States. The results suggest that agencies support pedestrian access to transit through a variety of plans, policies, programs, and partnerships. However, agencies face significant implementation barriers, including limited funding, competing investment priorities, jurisdictional/coordination issues, automobile-oriented planning and development, regulatory compliance issues, and limited staff capacity. Based on these findings, we propose recommendations related to planning (e.g., better inclusion/documentation of pedestrian needs in plans), policy (e.g., regional support for Complete Streets and Americans with Disability Act related policy efforts), funding (e.g., regional platforms for sharing funding opportunities), and education (e.g., staff training and community awareness campaigns). These recommendations provide specific actions that agencies at multiple levels of government can take to better support pedestrian access to transit in suburban communities.
AB - Pedestrian infrastructure plays a critical role in facilitating first-/last-mile access to transit. Efforts to connect pedestrians to transit through infrastructure improvements, however, often face considerable implementation barriers. These barriers can be particularly pronounced for suburban transit providers, which serve low-density, automobile-oriented development and often must coordinate across many jurisdictions. In this analysis, we examine strategies that transit agencies, metropolitan planning organizations, and municipalities use to build pedestrian infrastructure near suburban transit services in the United States, and the barriers they face in this process. We use Pace Suburban Bus, a transit provider in the Chicago, Illinois region, as an illustrative case study, conducting surveys with planners and interviews with diverse stakeholder groups in the agency’s service area. To complement these findings, we conduct an online survey of similar agency types in ten peer regions across the United States. The results suggest that agencies support pedestrian access to transit through a variety of plans, policies, programs, and partnerships. However, agencies face significant implementation barriers, including limited funding, competing investment priorities, jurisdictional/coordination issues, automobile-oriented planning and development, regulatory compliance issues, and limited staff capacity. Based on these findings, we propose recommendations related to planning (e.g., better inclusion/documentation of pedestrian needs in plans), policy (e.g., regional support for Complete Streets and Americans with Disability Act related policy efforts), funding (e.g., regional platforms for sharing funding opportunities), and education (e.g., staff training and community awareness campaigns). These recommendations provide specific actions that agencies at multiple levels of government can take to better support pedestrian access to transit in suburban communities.
KW - accessibility
KW - accessibility
KW - bicycles
KW - human factors
KW - multimodal
KW - pedestrians
KW - planning and development
KW - planning and policy
KW - public transportation
KW - transit
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85137856586&partnerID=8YFLogxK
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/citedby.url?scp=85137856586&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1177/03611981221095748
DO - 10.1177/03611981221095748
M3 - Chapter
AN - SCOPUS:85137856586
T3 - Transportation Research Record
SP - 456
EP - 467
BT - Transportation Research Record
PB - SAGE Publishing
ER -