Presentation at the Peninsula Cities Consortium public meeting in Atherton, CA on May 14th, 2010
40 years of in-depth research on how people travel, and why they choose a particular mode (auto, commuter rail, HSR), seems to have fallen through the cracks in the Preliminary Alternative Analysis for the San Francisco to San Jose Section – April 2010 with respect to a viable Caltrain service.
The most important rule in this context, the 1/4 mile rule, received little attention. Most commuters are only willing to take public transportation to their downtown office building if they can walk to their final destination. Beyond a 1/4 mile, ridership drops off dramatically.
Based on international experience the slide show presents a low cost solution using mostly already existing infrastructure. While a similar proposal in Europe would just be considered a standard application of a proven concept with no visionary element, the regulatory and institutional hurdles to its implementation in the United States are formidable.
This simple slide presentation attempts to summarize several complex subjects. Many details could not be covered either on the slides or in the brief speaker notes.
This is not the original presentation. It was adapted so it is easy to follow without narrative.