Safeway Store

Here is a photo I took while in Portland last week.

This is one of three stores that Safeway has opened that service the urban area.

While some stores have a difficult with the concept of a pedestrian friendly store, it is nice to see that one chain has been making them work.

I shopped at this one and the one in the Pearl District along with checking out some locally owned competition.

Reducing Unnecessary Auto Trips

Image by LA Wad via Flickr

Trip Numbers

Anyone who has paid attention to transit advocacy over the years have been hit in the face by the road warriors with the statement: "Transit represents only a small portion of trips".

First of all when it comes to numbers, numbers can be manipulated any way you want to make your point especially if you have a agenda to extend. What the trip numbers don't tell you is several things:

1. They do not compare how many trips are taking in a particular corridor say from the area of the Sandy TRAX station to downtown.
2. Second, this numbers also include business trips including commercial deliveries and pick ups.
   

Second, the logic of the road warriors is that all these people driving instead of other options "choose" to drive. The truth is that people have little choice but to drive but there are ways to reduce the driving numbers.

Do we have choice?

The question is, do people choose to drive or is there no alternatives.

As I said in my posting about Density, TOD and TAD, few people have the choice to reduce auto trips. Even higher density development throughout the area is truly auto centric and does nothing to reduce auto trips.

As I mentioned in that article, if a person needs some basic supplies at a grocery store or basic convenience items the only choice is to talk a mile or more but more realistically is to get into the car and drive.

Statistics show that many auto trips are less than two miles in length.

Reducing Trips with TOD

As I mentioned in the TOD article, one of the important aspects of TOD is to reduce unnecessary auto trips. This is done by providing businesses such as cleaners, restaurants, small grocery stores near these developments.

If people live in these developments, they can quickly walk to these services without getting in their car. When I lived in Charlotte, North Carolina back in 1990-1992 my apartment complex had a shopping center within its confines. In fact several apartment complexes were withing walking distance of this shopping center.

Instead of driving to the grocery store or other stores in the shopping center I could walk reducing many unnecessary auto trips. In fact my walk to the shopping center was probably less than many people's trips across the Wal-Mart parking lot.

Not only do these provide services for the residents in the TOD developments but they can also reduce trips for those that park at transit stations. A person could get off their TRAX train, grab their dry cleaning, pick up a gallon and milk and head home. The alternative is the person first gets off TRAX, drives to the dry cleaners, then drives to a grocery or convenience store, then finally drive home.

Reducing Paratransit Trips:

As I have mentioned before, the biggest cost facing transit systems is the unfunded mandate to provide ADA Paratransit service. I am not saying this service is necessary for the people that use it, but what the Federal Government did was burden transit systems to provide service without any additional funds to provide it.

However, one of the benefits of TOD is that it gives those with physical disabilities the ability to live in areas where they don't need paratransit service as frequently as they do now. Not only does this allow the mobility impaired to have more options but it will reduce the number of extreme paratransit trips.

Government and Other Services

Another problem with our current system is the how hard it is to access many government and other services such as libraries, government buildings, and post offices.

Post Offices

Few people realize that until a couple of years ago the Postal Service did not have to abide by our current bad zoning ordinances much less any transit friendly ones. Many post offices are extremely pedestrian unfriendly such as the one in Midvale despite it being close to the Midvale Central TRAX Station.

Also many main post offices have been moved to where it is convenient for their trucks to hub not for their customers. For example the one at 2100 South and Redwood is close to transit but is very hostile to pedestrians.

The future of the postal service is beyond the scope of this blog but there needs to be a thoroughly study on what its future is. Should people living in urban areas continue to subsidize the mail delivery in rural areas? How much is it costing to provide home mail delivery service across the suburbs?

One solution would be to put small contracted postal stations in TOD developments in addition to other retail development. Like other services the postal service should concentrate new post offices close to transit connections.

Libraries:

Libraries are another government service that need to focus their locations where transit access is easy and convenient.

Lets take a look at the Holladay library as an example since I frequent that one. While it is currently on a bus line by moving it either to the new a few blocks away to either the new Holladay Village center or to the largely abandoned center at the northwest corner of Murray-Holladay and Highland that badly needs to be re-purposed.

Another solution would be to create pick up points at TOD developments so that people could order books and pick them up on the way home from work or while running other errands.

Other Government Services

Too many recent government buildings have focused on building Taj Mahals facilities that have poor access for citizens. New government buildings should be designed economically and with easy acccess for transit riders and pedestrians.

Final Thoughts

This was a small example of how we can reduce short auto trips.

It will take collaboration between private businesses, government agencies, and other organizations that provide services. It will not happen overnight and will have resistance, but in the long term a more sustainable area will be created.

Related articles by Zemanta

• Good and Bad Density, TOD's and TAD's (transitinutah.blogspot.com)
• Estimating the impacts of smart growth: the importance of forecasting traffic correctly (switchboard.nrdc.org)
• Cost of rides for disabled soars at T (boston.com)
• Outlook grim for Postal Service as revenue ebbs (sfgate.com)

Senior Citizens, Driving, and Development

Image via Wikipedia

Every time there is an accident involving a senior citizen, there is always a question of should they have had a license? The worst accident I ever had was when a senior citizen got confused in an intersection and turned in front of on coming traffic which happened to be me. Despite getting behind the wheel of stock cars and racing, I was never injured but this accident not only put me out of work for a month, I couldn’t get back behind the wheel of a race car again.

Senior citizens have become the biggest victims of 70 years of auto centric development. The only way most senior citizens can get their basic needs is to continue driving despite impairments, depend on family members, or move into a retirement home.

When I was growing up in Pasadena, California my mother managed several apartment complexes along a street block. More than 70% of the residents were widows or widowers from 60 to 80 years old. Most of them did not have a car because they didn’t need one. There was a small grocery store on the cross street to the south and major doctors offices on the cross street to the north. The RTD (now Metro) ran regular bus service along the cross street to the south. Other major services were very close by.

Contrast that with the situation my in-laws are in. My father in-law is blind in one eye and cannot drive at night. My mother in-law has to do the driving at night but her driving skills have been compromised with age. The problem is, because they live in an area were they have to drive just to by groceries or go to the doctor, they continue to drive.

Many senior citizens feel that their lives are over without their cars because there is not alternative for them. This is largely what has fueled the market for retirement homes. Because these places are expensive, many senior citizens wait until it’s almost too late before deciding to move into one. In addition much like a mall (or Gateway), a retirement home is design to make the person dependent on the facility and not make it easy to access anything else. The residents can either drive if they are still capable or ride the facility provided vans to different stores.

In addition many of these facilities are placed in areas were it is convenient for family members to come visit grandma on Sunday, but not convenient for the residents to use public transportation or to walk to neighborhood stores.

The ones at 11400 South and 700 East are a perfect example of this. There is not public transportation available, nothing is in walking distance so the residents either have to drive or more likely is dependent on the facility provided vans.

After my father passed away my mother ended up in a situation very much like her former residents in California. She lived in a section of Spokane were she could walk to the store (or they would deliver), walk to a café, dry cleaners, doctors offices and other small stores, or had regular bus service from her front door to downtown. Despite not having a car she was able to live on her own until a stroke caused some major health issues and she had to be put in a nursing home.

Which situation would you rather be in? Forced to drive or go into a retirement home, or have the freedom to live on your own and not have to depend on others? Personally, I prefer the latter.

Salt Lake City Anti-Small Business?

Image via WikipediaA recent comment about the pedicabs got those wheels turning again. The question is, despite the existing of a couple of organizations to promote local business including Vest Pocket and Buy Local First Utah, is Salt Lake City anti-small business?

Lets take a look at the Smith's at 900 East and 2100 South in Sugarhouse. As regular readers of this blog know, I often hold this as example of giving into the blackmail of a big business and not sticking to plans and the neighborhood. The question is, if that had been a small grocery store would have Salt Lake City given in or would they have stood their ground? If they would have stood their ground that means that they would have discriminated against the smaller business.

We also have the example of Wal-Mart at 300 West and 1300 South which in is a community with a high percentage of non-car owners. The store is designed for people to drive in and out of and pedestrians (especially those coming from TRAX) have to risk their lives to reach the store as the driveways are high speed routes for drivers and pedestrians have to use them to reach the store.

Another example of this is the food carts that have populated the downtown area. It seems like some bigger businesses (for example the Taco Time at 8th south and State) don't like the competition from the smaller carts and have been pushing for regulations against them including ones that have recently passed.

Some even try to demonize they carts by giving names link with food created diseases. I find this kind of ironic considering I have never had a problem eating food from one of the these carts but have gotten sick after eating from major restaurant chains.

Now instead of trying to regulate these carts out of business, how about supporting the small entrepreneurs and encourage them so long as they pass health regulations? I noticed in Denver the food carts were nicely integrated into the 16th Street Transit Mall.

If anything Salt Lake City should be promoting small business more. It is ironic that cities such as Salt Lake, Sandy and others work so hard to attract big box retailers and other chain stores when it reality they end up cost more than they bring in. According to studies done the cost of police, fire and other city services cost more than what sales tax dollars come in. That doesn't even take into consideration all the hidden cost of big box retailers such as infrastructure cost such as the 80 million that now has to be spent in Springville since people don't notice those kind of things.

The ultimate irony is the fact that small business contribute more to the local economy, actually pay higher wages on average, create more sales tax dollars per square foot of space, do not increase cost of city services, are generally safer, and fit better into the fabric of the community.

Salt Lake City should working harder to help small businesses and build a comprehensive plan that includes transportation, planning and the promotion of small business.