Walkable Neighborhoods and Transportation

Looking at transportation options for an out-of-town visitor recently, I was struck by how many transportation systems we have in American cities, and by how poorly they all work together. Our small college town has a municipal bus system, a university bus system, two separate school bus systems, a paratransit system, a [campus-oriented] car sharing service, and of course the ubiquitous Uber and Lyft. There’s also a smattering of bike shares and a few areas where you can get around relatively easily on foot.

Each of these transportation systems is focused on its particular market, each has its own routes, rules, fares and operations. Using transit like this requires substantial advanced planning and lots of spare time. No wonder most people who can, use private automobiles.

Perhaps there is a way to transform this disjointed pile of transportation parts into a functioning system. If we think of our cities as a group of walkable neighborhoods, then we can re-focus transportation on connecting neighborhood centers instead of just connecting outlying areas with downtown. The center of each neighborhood (shopping areas, schools, recreation centers, major transit hubs) then becomes the logical place to go to find transportation.

The idea, of course, is that you can combine trips: stop at the store when you get off the bus on the way home from work. Leave your bike at the train station on the way to work. Meet your ride share at the neighborhood school after dropping the kids in the morning. Or pick up a car from the car-sharing service after stopping for coffee with the neighbors.

So instead of rushing to make the bus, perhaps we can stroll to the neighborhood center and catch a ride after a leisurely cup of coffee.