GRAND TETON NATIONAL PARK - Attendees of the Yellowstone Business Partnership's annual meeting in May arrived in a novel fashion: They came by bus.

Using their meeting as a means of exploring alternative transportation in the Greater Yellowstone Area, the partnership provided participants with a free roundtrip ride on buses departing from Riverton, Billings, Livingston, Bozeman and Pocatello to Jackson Lake Lodge in Grand Teton National Park.

Even the keynote speaker, Todd Litman, who lives in British Columbia, rode the bus in from an Idaho airport.

"That was a really social bus ride," one of the riders exclaimed the next day over lunch, sounding pleasantly surprised. That was really the point of the conference - to open people's minds to transportation alternatives.

Considering that the conference started the week after Grand Teton National Park broke ground on its first pathway for non-motorized transit, the timing was excellent.

Litman's talk suggested that motorized transportation really is just a means of getting from one walking destination to another, whether you're driving to the mall or through a national park. Although most people in the West are used to driving their own cars everywhere, Litman emphasized the improved quality of life we can have by leaving them at home from time to time.



Not just for cities anymore

Mass transit is no longer something just for cities. Litman noted that, according to government studies, per-capita mileage driven in cars topped out in the year 2000 and may even be declining given the aging population and high cost of fuel.

People who don't own cars, children, the disabled and the elderly all rely on mass transit to move comfortably around town, no matter how big the town is.

Jackson's START Bus has been in operation for 10 years and has seen ridership increase fourfold. In Teton Village, where congestion is a problem, employers are required to provide employees with START passes and parking is no longer free. Jackson Hole Mountain Resort also provides bus passes with every season ski pass, explained Michael Wackerly, START's director.

Rural applications include commuting, especially important in resort areas like Jackson where few workers can afford housing in town and must make long trips to and from work. START offers commuter service to Etna, Alpine, Hoback and most recently to Victor. With the high cost of gasoline, many commuters are taking a second look at catching the bus for economy's sake.

Inside national parks, mass transit is already being used to offset congestion. In Glacier National Park, for example, free bus service was offered while the popular Going to the Sun Road was under construction. Park authorities didn't know how the buses would be received.

"On the first day, we had almost 3,000 riders ... more than we ever imagined," said Gary Danczyk, who was project manager for mitigation during construction.

Despite the construction, park visitation last July actually went up 23 percent at the West Glacier Entrance and 11 percent at the St. Mary Entrance.

Mass transit eases congestion, making the driving experience better for everyone. It uses fewer resources, creates less pollution, greatly reduces the number of car/bike/pedestrian accidents, and as some of the attendees discovered, can even enhance the travel experience.



Design for alternatives

In addition to providing choices in motorized transportation, it's important to design roadways to be friendly to other modes of transportation, encouraging the use of feet, pedals or even hooves, enhancing the community's health while easing congestion on the roads.

"I was talking with someone who was adamantly against walking paths," one of the conference attendees said. "He told me that we'd 'evolved past walking, we all have cars now.' Then he told me about how he used to be able to ride his horse downtown, and suddenly he saw the value of providing for alternatives."

"Paradise is not a distant place," Litman said. "It is something we can create in our own communities."

For the past 100 years, towns have been created with the automobile in mind, something Litman says is changing.

"Previous planning valued mobility over place. There is a switch going on from simply planning more roads and parking to using what we've got better," he said. Urban designers now cluster development so that people can live near the goods and services they need. This idea is called Smart Growth or the Urban Village, which ironically is still illegal in some communities.

In his hometown, Victoria, the school, grocery and local pub are all a few walkable blocks from his home. Tourists who visit Victoria might mention the museum, or the botanical garden, but mostly they remember how pleasant it was to "just walk around," Litman said. "It doesn't show up on any accounts, but walking is what drives the tourist industry."

Don't believe him? Consider the Disney theme parks, where thousands of visitors happily leave their cars behind for the day.

Although YBP has received a few negative calls accusing any consideration of alternatives of being "anti-car," Litman explained that alternative transportation "is no more anti-car than a healthy diet is anti-food."

When the conference was planned, organizers had no idea that gasoline would be nearing $4 a gallon. With a barrel of oil reaching an all-time high above $134 a barrel as the conference concluded, the theme seemed visionary.

 

Wyoming Business Report Daily Editor MJ Clark can be reached at wbr.mjclark@wyoming.com or news@wyoming.com or the Lander office, 307-332-0433.