At the April 20th Joint Lee & Charlotte MPO Board meeting, BikeWalkLee's
representative, Darla Letourneau, brought to the Board's attention another
national report, consistent with Dan Rudge's Generational Dynamics
presentation, about the need to adapt
transportation planning to facts about the new generation.
The
study is called "Transportation and the New Generation: Why Young Peopleare driving less and what it means for transportation policy", prepared
by the U.S. PRIG Education Fund and the Frontier Group. This report's findings were covered by the
national media but didn't make it in local press.
Here
are the vital facts:
·
From 2001 to 2009, the average annual number of VMT
for young people (16 to 34 yrs.) decreased by 23 percent!
·
the share of this age group without a driver's
license increased by 5 percentage points.
·
they walked to their designations 6% more often
·
their transit miles jumped by 40%
·
they took 24% more bike trips during this period
·
Why? As
we know from generational research, young people's transportation priorities
& preferences differ from those of older generations.
o
they
would prefer to replace driving w/alternative transportation
o
they
prefer to live in areas that are walkable vs. sprawl
o
they
would prefer to text & use social media than to meet friends via car.
As
the study points out, this data has major implications for transportation
planning for the future. Federal and local governments have historically made
massive investments in new highway capacity on the assumption that driving will
continue to increase at a rapid and steady pace. Letourneau stated that these are the
assumptions in the "black box models" used in the Lee MPO LRTP
planning. These assumptions are no
longer valid and must be updated for the new reality. Letourneau urged FDOT to revise the transportation models to reflect
the new generational trends data, so that MPOs throughout the state have accurate
models for developing their LRTPs.
Letourneau
again suggested that the MPO staff arrange for Dan Rudge to make his
eye-opening Generational Dynamics presentation to the Board and its committees.
Great input, thanks. Jimbo
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