Decision-Making Toolbox to Plan and Manage Park-and-Ride Facilities for Public Transportation: Guidebook on Planning and Managing Park-and-Ride (2017)

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12 C h a p t e r 2 Purpose of This Chapter This chapter helps readers delve into the guidebook by addressing five questions about basic concepts of park-and-ride facilities and related public transportation services: • What is park-and-ride? • What are the benefits of park-and-ride? • How does park-and-ride fit in a transit agency’s suite of services? • What are the types of park-and-ride facilities? • How does a transit agency implement and operate park-and-ride? What Is Park-and-Ride? According to the Merriam-Webster Dictionary, park-and-ride is “a system in which people drive to a place where they can leave their car and get on a bus or train that will take them the rest of the way to where they are going” (https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/park-and-ride). Types of Trips Park-and-ride facilities provide people using public transportation with a parking location, drop-off point, or transfer point. A prototypical trip involving park-and-ride begins with the Park-and-Ride Overview P h ot og ra ph c ou rt es y of t h e U ta h T ra n si t A u th or it y.

park-and-ride Overview 13 customer leaving his or her origin, driving to the park-and-ride facility, parking, riding public transportation, alighting, and walking to his or her destination. Access from home to transit is referred to as the first mile, and access from transit to the destination is referred to as the last mile (the actual distance may be more or less than a mile). However, the traveling public’s actual trips involving park-and-ride facilities vary greatly from this example. Some customers incorporate biking into their trip; others carpool or vanpool. Some customers do not park but are dropped off. Some customers must transfer, and others have a direct, express trip. The nexus of parking and public transportation makes park-and-ride what it is. Types of Facilities The designs and characteristics of park-and-ride facilities can vary immensely. Facilities range from small surface lots to multilevel parking structures in a transit-oriented development. The type of public transportation may vary too. Park-and-ride facilities in the United States and Canada complement local bus, commuter bus, bus rapid transit, light rail, commuter rail, heavy rail, and ferry services. The following examples highlight the variety of park-and-ride facilities and related public transportation services: • The park-and-ride program of Bay Area Rapid Transit (BART) is a key mode of access to rail stations. BART has parking facilities at 33 of 45 stations (31 have long-term parking), with 46,735 spaces total. Parking is expensive and scarce in the region, increasing pressure on park-and-ride facilities. Nearly all of BART’s parking facilities are at capacity every weekday, compelling the transit agency to take a variety of measures to manage parking. • Houston METRO began operating a network of large park-and-ride facilities combined with high-occupancy vehicle (HOV) lanes in the 1980s. Houston METRO provides parking for local bus, commuter bus, and light rail. Thirteen transit centers and 24 dedicated park-and- ride facilities contain 34,882 parking spaces. • The Connecticut Department of Transportation (ConnDOT) began including park-and- ride facilities in most transportation projects affecting highway intersections in the 1970s to facilitate carpool, vanpool, and transit use during periods of fuel shortage. ConnDOT now has 237 park-and-ride facilities with 34,021 parking spaces: – Eight have both express and local bus service. – 37 have express bus service only. – 37 other facilities have local bus service only. • ConnDOT recently began operating CTfastrak bus rapid transit in a 9.4-mile corridor with 10 stations and 1,614 parking spaces. • Woodburn Transit System, a non-urbanized system in Oregon, constructed one park-and- ride facility with 133 parking spaces to facilitate local, intercity, and future regional bus route connections. What Are the Benefits of Park-and-Ride? Park-and-ride facilities for public transportation provide numerous benefits to transit agencies and communities. In 2004, the Transportation Research Board produced TCRP Report 95: Trav- eler Response to Transportation System Changes Handbook (Turnbull et al. 2004). Chapter 3 of this report documents traveler responses by type of park-and-ride facility. This document describes the following benefits associated with park-and-ride facilities for public transportation service: • Provide alternatives to driving alone. • Concentrate transit rider demand to enable transit service in low-density areas.

14 Decision-Making toolbox to plan and Manage park-and-ride Facilities • Provide access to rail and commuter bus transit services. • Provide convenient and safe meeting points for carpool and vanpool users. • Reduce vehicle miles traveled and thereby reduce vehicle emissions. • Manage the shift of parking away from the central business districts (CBDs) and other dense activity centers. • Relieve neighborhoods of problems caused by informal parking. Other benefits include: • Provide a reliable location for people to leave their personal vehicles while using public transportation—facilitating transitions from single-occupancy travel to mass-transit options and thereby reducing traffic congestion. • Facilitate opportunities for drop-offs and pick-ups by family members (kiss-and-ride) or ridesourcing companies (e.g., Uber or Lyft). • Increase the productivity of bus operations as measured by ridership per service hour. • Customize service. Transit agencies can design services and facilities to meet the specific needs of the transit agency’s customers. • Enhance regional coordination. In many areas, park-and-ride facilities exist because of shared-use agreements with local/regional governments and are included in regional trans- portation planning. • Attract nontraditional transit riders. Beyond service in low-density areas, park-and-ride service also provides a one-seat service that has the potential to attract riders who might otherwise choose to drive. • Increase ridership on other modes via transfer. Park-and-ride service connects riders with other transit options, such as CBD circulators or local bus service, and helps transit agencies increase ridership on other modes. • Provide convenient access at transit stations that includes walking, biking, and shared vehicles to support interest in a sustainable and/or urban lifestyle. How Does Park-and-Ride Fit a Transit Agency’s Suite of Services? Park-and-ride facilities may fit, in a number of ways, into the larger suite of services oper- ated by a transit agency and partner stakeholders. Park-and-ride facilities are primarily ori- ented toward customers transferring modes between an automobile and either bus or rail public transportation. However, a common use of park-and-ride is to facilitate or incentivize the formation of carpools and vanpools. In locations where HOV lanes or lower tolls for HOVs provide an incentive to carpool, park-and-ride facilities are used to form informal, spontaneous carpools (also called slugging or casual carpools). Potential carpool members arrive at the lot by any mode (car, transit, bike, or on foot) and join with a driver who drops by the park-and-ride facility to pick up a passenger in order to qualify for the carpool incentive. A less common use of park-and-ride lots is as an overnight parking facility for reverse commuters or multiday travelers (such as near an airport). The commuter may have public transportation service near home but poor service near work, such as in a suburban office park. The commuter drives to work on Monday, leaves the car at the park-and-ride lot on the way home that night, and takes transit the rest of the way home. The car then serves as the mode of transportation for the last mile from the station to work during the week. Park-and-ride facilities provide convenient access at transit stations that includes parking, walking, biking, and shared vehicles.

park-and-ride Overview 15 What Are the Types of Park-and-Ride Facilities? There are many types of park-and-ride facilities. Grouping facilities helps discover more about the nature of a facility itself and the likely relationship the facility has with transit agencies and stakeholders (including customers and the community). Categorization by Function, Location, or Road Access Characteristics The following list summarizes some previous publications with categories for grouping park- and-ride facilities: • Service type and site context: Park-and-Ride Planning and Design Guidelines classifies the types of park-and-ride facilities into six functional groups based on public transportation service type and site context: suburban, transit center, opportunity/joint use, park-and-pool, informal, and satellite park-and-ride facilities (Spillar 1997). • Proximity to destination: Guide for Park-and-Ride Facilities identifies four classifications of park-and-ride facilities based primarily on the location of the facility in relation to the primary destination served (miles from destination): remote long-distance facilities, 50 to 100 miles; suburban facilities, 10 to 50 miles; local urban facilities, 1 to 10 miles; and peripheral facilities located on the edge of the primary destination (AASHTO 2004). • Location and road system characteristics: State Park & Ride Lot Program Planning Manual identifies five types of park-and-ride facilities based on location from the CBD or major activity center and road system characteristics: urban corridor, HOV corridor, peripheral, urban fringe, and remote (Florida Department of Transportation 1996). Although similar to AASHTO’s classifications, the facility types also take into consideration additional factors such as dwelling units in the area, distance from the commute route, and availability of public right-of-way (Chu et al. 2001). • Parking capacity: TCRP Report 95: Traveler Response to Transportation System Changes Hand- book, Chapter 3: Park-and-Ride/Pool, notes types of park-and-ride facilities based on park- ing capacity relative to employment centers: peripheral facilities are located on the edge of a downtown area or other major activity center, suburban facilities are located closer to home origin points and provide access to transit services to destinations in the CBD or major activity centers, and remote lots function in a similar capacity to suburban facilities but with longer trip lengths (Turnbull et al. 2004). Categorization by Ownership The previous typologies demonstrate how park-and-ride facilities may be grouped based on function, location, and road access characteristics. Many of the issues addressed in this guide- book require another parameter—ownership. Ownership can be by the transit agency, another public agency, or a private entity. The following park-and-ride typologies incorporate all param- eters and are referenced in this guidebook: • Transit agency owned: Facilities can be operated fully in-house or by contract. The following are some types: – Transit station park-and-rides may serve multiple transit modes, such as feeder bus-to-rail or bus-to-bus transfers. Examples include fixed-guideway stations and bus transfer centers. – Specific-use park-and-rides are designed specifically for park-and- ride service with implementation of corresponding transit service and frequently have easy access to freeways for both commuter and bus access/egress. Examples include suburban purpose-built large Ownership can be by the transit agency, another public agency, or a private entity.

16 Decision-Making toolbox to plan and Manage park-and-ride Facilities facilities, such as those common in the southwestern United States where rapid urban growth presented opportunities for large purpose-built facilities near highway or tollway construction. – Special-case park-and-rides include all other less common types of facilities. Examples include periphery park-and-ride facilities served by circulator bus routes or light rail pro- viding access into CBDs and major activity centers. • Other public agency owned (shared use): Parking facilities are owned by other public agencies that allow transit customer access through intergovernmental agreement. The following are some types: – State land park-and-rides are on state-owned land, often near freeway interchanges. – Local jurisdiction park-and-rides are typically developed for multipurpose use, such as access for commercial districts or fairgrounds. These facilities can be relatively large because they may have been established for other purposes (e.g., downtown parking or carpool formation) and may also be suitable for public transportation park-and-ride. – Special-district park-and-rides are developed by other public entities, such as community colleges or tax-increment reinvestment zones, that may have excess parking capacity that can be used for transit customer parking or that may provide the impetus to provide addi- tional public transportation services to a certain district. • Privately owned (shared use): Facilities are operated on private property and may be controlled through a lease in order to protect the transit agency and private entity if legal issues arise. The following are some types: – Volunteer park-and-rides provide transit riders access to local bus routes through rela- tively small, shared-use facilities with limited or no compensation from the transit agency. Examples include church lots and movie theaters. – Commercial park-and-rides provide parking for transit customers with compensation from the transit agency or another partner agency, typically with a detailed lease agreement that defines operations, maintenance, usage, and other concerns. The compensation may be based on a fee per space or as part of a larger agreement that can include land, housing, and commercial development. Examples include sports facilities, TOD, and other major activity center parking facilities that are privately owned. How Does a Transit Agency Implement and Operate Park-and-Ride? The prime objective of this guidebook is to answer this question by providing readers with information about the life cycle of a park-and-ride facility and considerations for each stage of a facility’s life (see Figure 1). This information will help transit agencies better plan, manage, and maintain park-and-ride facilities.