transit and shopping centers an initial investigation INCREASING TRANSIT'S SHARE OF THE REGIONAL SHOPPING CENTER TRAVEL MARKET: AN INITIAL INVESTIGATION Research Report No. 79-2 (UMTA-WA-11-0006-RR79-2) by Jerry B. Schneider James L. Heid Stephen P. Smith Doyle S. Saito Kathleen E. Cotterall Urban Transportation Program Departments of Civil Engineering and Urban Planning University of IJashington Seattle, Washington 98195 August, 1979 This report was produced as part of a Research and Training Program in Urban Transportation sponsored by the Urban Mass Transportation Administration of the U.S. Department of Transportation. The results and views expressed are the independent products of university research and are not necessarily concurred in by the sponsoring agency. The United States Government does not endorse products or manufacturers. Trade or manufacturer's names appear herein solely because they are considered essential to the object of this report. Technical Report Documentation Poge 1. Report No. 2. Government Accession No. 3. Recipient's Cotolog No. IMTA- WA- 11-0006-80-1 PB 80-131360 4. Title ond Subtitle 5. Report Dote August 1979 INCREASING TRANSIT'S SHARE OF THE REGIONAL SHOPPING CENTER TRAVEL MARKET: AN INITIAL INVESTIGATION 6. Performing Orgonizotion Code 8. Performing Orgonizotion Report No. 7. Author's) j^B, Schneider, J.L. Held, S.P. Smith, D.S. Saito, and K.E. Cotterall 9. Performing Orgonizotion Nome and Address 10. Work Unit No. (TRAIS) University of Washington WA-11-0006 Departments of Civil Engineering & 1 1 . Contract or Grant No. Urban Planning Seattle, Washington 98195 13. Type of Report ond Period Covered 12. Sponsoring Agency Nome and Address University Research U.S. Department of Transportation July 1978 - August 1979 Urban Mass Transportation Administration 400 Seventh Street, S.W. 14. Sponsoring Agency Code Washington, D. C. 20590 UPP-30 15. Supplementary Notes Distributed by UMTA Office of Planning Assistance, Brian McCollom, UPM-13 16. Abstract This report examines the explosive growth of the shopping center during the last 23 years as well as factors influencing travel to large regional malls, and the current trends that will affect regional malls in the future. The focus herein is on large shopping malls (ranging in size from 800,000-2,000,000 square feet of gross leasable area; having 4,000-15,000 auto parking spaces; and located 6-20 miles from "downtown" of the central city). The objectives of this study are to (1) examine current approaches to providing transit service to these malls, and (2) develop recommendations for gaining a larger share of this travel market for public transit. The results of 27 case studies in 18 U.S. and one Canadian City are presented. They describe what transit service is being provided, how and why it is being used (or ignored) at these 27 regional malls. Nine case studies describe innovative transit projects that are still in the planning stage. The case studies were written orimarily for transit operators and should be of interest to others— urban planners, traffic engineers, mall developers and operators, architects, and both transit system and retailer marketing people. Recommenda- tions are presented that would assist U.S. transit agencies in gaining a ten percent share of this huge (6-7 billion trips annually) travel market in the 1980' s. The authors state that to achieve said objective, private/public sector cooperation is needed as well as experimentation with innovative transit provision techniques, development of improved analysis and planning methods, and basic data gathe ring pf forts. 17. Key Words 18. Distribution Stotement Available to the Public through the Shopping Center Transfer Centers National Technical Information Service, Transit Malls Suburban Bus Virginia 22161. Bus Service Low-Density Springfield, Marketing Transit Service Regional Shopping Malls 21. No. of Pages 22. Price 19. Security Classif. (of tfiis report) 20. Security Clossif. (of this page) 229 Unclassified Unclassified All Form DOT F 1700.7 (8-72) Reproduction of completed page authorized FORWARD Transit service to shopping centers has become an important priority for many transit operators. Shopping centers have grown explosively over the past twenty years and are now a major focus of urban area travel. To assist these operators, UMTA through its University Research and Training Program initiated a study of shopping centers with the University of Washington. The purpose of this study was to examine current approaches to providing transit service to large shopping centers and develop recommendations regarding how to effectively provide this service. This document represents the final report from this study. It summarizes case studies of 27 shopping centers throughout the United States and Canada where transit service exists or is planned to be provided. We believe this "State-of-the-Art" review will be of great interest to transit operators who are interested in providing transit service to shopping centers. Additional copies of this report are available from the National Technical Information Service (NTIS), Springfield, Virginia 22161. Please reference PB 80-131360 on your request. Charles H. Graves Office of Planning Assistance Urban Mass Transportation Urban Mass Transportation Administration Administration US Department of Transportation US' Department of Transportation Washington, D.C. 20590 Washington, D. C. 20590 ACKNOWLEDGMENTS A number of people have made important contributions to this study and without their help, it would not have been possible. Three urban planning graduate students (Jim Heid, Steve Smith, Cathy Cotterall) and one civil engineering graduate student (Doyle Saito) solicited and synthesized much of the information contained in the case studies. Doing this type of work by phone and by mail is difficult and frus- trating at times and their contributions are much appreciated. Richard Gern and others of Barton-Aschman Associates, Inc. have provided much useful information as has Ron Hartman of the American Public Transit Association. Hilary Hornung of the Orange County Transit District, Ralph Jackson of Denver's RTD and Jim Lightbody of the Santa Clara County Transit District have also been particularly helpful. Barbara Blackman, our Program Assistant, has done a stellar job of putting the pieces to- gether, correcting our many errors, producing many fine graphics, typing our rough drafts in a very excellent manner, and has kept us in line with our budget. Her cheerful and competent participation has contributed importantly to the quality of this report. A large number of people responded to our call for information which was pub- lished in Passenger Transport at the beginning of the project. We received a lot of information that we have not been able to include in this report but are grate- ful for the interest shown by these people. We have benefited greatly from phone conversations with many of them and have been impressed with the amount of interest in this topic. We anticipated finding only an oasis or two in an otherwise vast and empty desert. We found much more activity and a lot more interest than we anti- cipated. A list of most of the people who provided helpful information is provided on the following pages. We are most grateful for this help and hope that this report will be helpful to those people in return. As usual, errors and omissions are the sole responsibility of the authors. We are aware of some very recent developments in some of our case studies that cannot be included in this report because of our deadline for completing it. Rapid changes are occurring in this field and the reader should recognize that the status of the various projects included inthisreport is very dynamic. However, our conclusions should retain their validity well into the 1980 's. Jerry Schneider Professor of Urban Planning and Civil Engineering University of Washington LIST OF PERSONS WHO HAVE PROVIDED HELPFUL INFORMATION TO THE PROJECT Dave Apodaca, Regional Transportation District, Denver, CO William Applebaum, Professor Emeritus (deceased), Harvard University, Cambridge, MA Prof. J. J. Bakker, University of Alberta, Edmonton, Alberta, Canada Paul Bay, Tri-MET Transit Agency, Portland, OR Amos Beinhart, SunTran, Tucson, AZ Frank Berdan, Southeastern Pennsylvania Transit Authority, Philadelphia, PA Mervin Blum, Washington Square Mall, Portland, OR Phil Braum, Metropolitan Transit Commission, St. Paul, MN Ida Mae Brewster, Stonestown Development Corporation, San Francisco, CA Walter Cherwony, Simpson and Curtin, Philadelphia, PA Larry Coffman, Seattle METRO Transit, Seattle, WA John B. Cowgill, Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority, Washington, D.C. Louis De Ghetto, Bergen Mall Shopping Center, Paramus, NJ Jerry Edwards, Barton-Aschman Associates, Inc., Minneapolis, MN Nick Fitzsimmons , Regional Transportation District, Denver, CO Jean Follette, Barton-Aschman Associates, Inc., San Jose, CA Clarence R. Fosdick, New York State DOT, Albany, NY Richard Foster, South Coast Plaza, Costa Mesa, CA Luther Freeman, Municipal Railway, San Francisco, CA Marvin Futrell , Urban Mass Transportation Administration, Washington, D.C. Martin Gach, Office of Public Transportation, County of Nassau, Plainview, NY Richard Gern, Barton-Aschman Associates, Inc., Evanston, IL Joseph Goodman, Urban Mass Transportation Administration, Washington, D.C. Ian Graham, B.C. Hydro, Vancouver, B.C., Canada Howard L. Green, H. L. Green and Associates, Birmingham, MI Victor Gruen,