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OCR for page 27
27
CHAPI ER FIVE
CONCLUSIONS
Suburb-to-suburb travel is becoming the dominant con~-
muting pattern today because of shifts in regional population
and employment. This commuting pattern change from tradi-
tional transit, CBD-focused travel, continues to challenge
transit agencies as they strive to creatively design services for
the new suburban markets.
Despite innovative service provisions, there appears to be
relatively constant performance in this market area where re-
gional population growth is indicated. As reported from sur-
vey results, there also appears to be a knowledge gap here. It
follows that sufficient performance monitoring data about
suburban consumer behavior might help transit agencies to
better respond to con~n~uters' needs and to improve the
present state of the practice.
The expanding suburb-to-suburb travel market offers
transit agencies a unique opportunity to tailor their services to
meet the needs of the market. The majority of survey respon-
dents (87 percent) indicated that their suburb-to-suburb serv-
ices were implemented due to increases in suburban travel.
PACE in suburban Chicago, an agency specifically designated
to serve the suburbs and suburb-to-suburb travel, currently has
only a 2 percent market share. Clearly, considerable opportu-
nities still exist for transit in this area. The majority of agen-
cies responding (74 percent), however, reported that suburb-
to-suburb ridership trends are "up" and only two agencies (9
percent) reported ridership on suburb-to-suburb services to be
;'down."
Suburban transit services need to be much more highly
tailored to the customer than regular fixed route services.
Transit agencies must be innovative to capture a significant
share of this market, which is largely more affluent and less
transit dependent than customers of more traditional transit
services. The use of smaller vehicles, demand-response type
service, flexible routing, and special promotions with the
business community are just some of the ways transit is be-
gi~ning to capture this emerging market.
If suburb-to-suburb service is to grow, transit agencies
need to provide more incentives to customers the automobile
is strong competition in the suburbs. Simply putting service
out on the street is not enough. Incentives such as guaranteed
ride home programs, transit pass programs, merchandise dis-
counts, and special outreach to the business co~n~nunity are
important elements that should not be overlooked when mar-
keting transit service in suburban areas. Currently, the major-
ity of agencies responding (83 percent) use transit pass pros
grams and nearly two-thirds conduct special outreach to the
business community. Many transit agencies are finding that
the use of multiple incentives supplemented by marketing on a
route, corridor, and employer-by-employer basis are crucial to
the success of these services.
Since suburban transit is at a competitive disadvantage
with the automobile, transit agencies need to be viewed as
players and partners in land use decisions. The abundance of
free parking, sprawling office parks, poor building siting, and
single-use development are just some of the factors that make
serving the suburbs difficult. Many transit agencies have de-
veloped transit friendly guides for developers and community
planners. Early involvement by transit agencies in local land
use issues and the development process is necessary to assure
that transit is able to serve new suburban develop nets.
Transit agency staff, board members, and local transit de-
cision makers need to be aware of the different marketing and
cost requirements of suburb-to-suburb transit services. Fifty-
seven percent (57%) of the agencies surveyed did not use dif-
ferent criteria to evaluate suburb-to-suburb services. Because
marketing techniques are often different for these types of trips
and because the costs of operating these services can be sig-
nificantly higher thank those of more traditional transit services,
transit agencies need to be aware of the different requirements.
Direct marketing to employers, as done by PACE and Seattle
Metro, is costly but critical to the success of these services. Also,
transit operating costs are often higher due to lower densities and
longer trip lengths. If transit board members and decision makers
are made aware of these requirements, they can encourage the use
of different evaluation criteria for these services.
As transit agencies are being challenged to address non-
traditional markets, it is useful to evaluate the status of transit
agency market planning efforts. Traditional transit marketing
plans consist largely of communications and promotional
plans with little attention focused on the market segmentation,
targeting, and positioning of the value offered to the customer.
The private sector has long abandoned the concept of "one size
fits all," and has strived to market unique products and serv-
ices to increasingly well-defined market niches. Transit has
had limited success in this area and perhaps could benefit
from the application of private sector marketing practices.
There is a need to examine how advanced public transit
systems (APTS) and various traffic operations techniques,
such as signal preemption' can be used to enhance suburban
transit operations. Only one out of 23 survey respondents indi-
cated the use of APTS technology. OC Transpo (Toronto, Can-
ada) noted its ability to determine the tithe of the next bus via
an automated telephone system, and schedule display moni-
tors located at major Transitway stations.
Many newer suburban services funded with federal or state
start-up funding may only be available for a limited period of
time. Will these services be continued in the future and who
will pay for their operation? The success of these services may
hinge on transit's ability to obtain funding front the private
sector and/or local communities for their continued operation.
Representative terms from entire chapter:
traditional transit
