Regional Transportation Options
Transportation Fact Sheets
Save Money, Help Improve Air
Quality, and Improve Your Personal Health
All Asheville Transit Buses have Bike Racks
This is a major convenience to
commuter, tourists, and people who
just need to get to the park to ride
their bikes.
Bike Racks
The City of Asheville is installing racks for bicycles
at key points around the city and at parks.
If you would like a bike rack placed somewhere in the
city, contact Jeffrey Burns: jeffburns@mail.ci.asheville.nc.us or
828-259-5943.
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Strive-not-to-Drive Week
- Click here!
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Asheville Pedestrian &
Bike Program -
Click here!
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Safe Routes to School
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Click here!
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Promoting Transportation Options
Land-of-Sky Regional Council is working on a
couple projects to implement high priority recommendations
from its regional transportation plan, Transportation
Options for Western North Carolina . These projects are
focused on: expanding the transportation options in the
region; informing people about the available transportation
choices in the region; explaining the connections between
transportation and lifestyle choices and air quality and
health; and encouraging people to carpool, ride public
transit, walk and bicycle for more of their trips.
We learned, through the planning process that: (1) people in
the region want more transportation choices that are safe,
reliable and convenient; and (2) many people are not aware
of the choices that exist today and/or cannot find the
information they need to utilize them. We also found that
one of the biggest barriers to employment was the lack of
public transportation and other transportation alternatives.
These are the implementation projects we are currently
working on:
§ The NC Department of Transportation (NCDOT) has funded two
new intercity transit routes and has contracted with
Land-of-Sky Regional Council (LOSRC) to assist with
planning, coordination and marketing of these new routes.
The routes connect Black Mountain and Hendersonville to
Asheville and began service in May and June, 2002. The
Transportation Options (for Western North Carolina) plan was
instrumental in securing these funds and has helped county
public transportation providers get additional funds for
rural public transit services.
§ The Council received a grant of $25,000 from Progress
Energy Foundation to help us build on the intercity
marketing campaign and expand it to cover more than just the
intercity transit routes. This campaign is promoting all
available public transit and also carpooling, walking and
biking. In addition, we are including information in the
promotional materials that will raise public awareness about
the connections between transportation and lifestyle choices
and air quality and health. This project leverages the
limited amount of marketing funding from NCDOT to reach a
wider audience, with a wider set of transportation options
and information.
The first promotional piece we have developed is a 30-second
TV advertisement (PSA) that began airing on WLOS in
mid-August, 2002. It incorporates transit, carpooling,
walking and biking, using an Asheville Transit bus with
filming in downtown Asheville. Click HERE for some images
from the PSA.
In conjunction with this, we have added more information on
the various transportation options to a new website:
www.gettingaround-wnc.com .
Another piece of this promotional campaign will link
regional transportation options and information to Advantage
West’s employment information website,
www.workready.net
.
bullet We are pursuing funding to develop, promote and
distribute an easy-to-understand guide of local and regional
transportation options. The guide would take a few different
forms, to maximize its effectiveness. The full guide would
be a small booklet or foldable map/brochure that is easy to
carry around and contains basic information on public
transportation, walkways, bikeways, rental bicycles and
autos, airport transportation, etc. The guide would also be
available on a website and we would create posters and work
with area employers to publicize the guide and to promote
the transportation choices.
bullet Lastly, we received a grant from the NC John Muir
Foundation to help pay for printing expenses for the
promotional materials and transportation information.
In all of these projects, we will be distributing
information to chambers of commerce, key
businesses/employers, schools, local media and others. We
will continue to work on improving the transportation
choices available to people in this region and providing
information about the services and facilities that are
available.
For more information contact:
Linda Giltz, Regional Planner
Land-of-Sky Regional Council
339 New Leicester Highway, Suite 140
Asheville, NC 28806
828-251-6622
www.landofsky.org
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Transportation Options for WNC
A regional plan to increase
personal mobility choices.
Project Description: Transportation
Options for WNC is a planning project that is
identifying and analyzing the opportunities we have in our
region for:
- connecting different modes of
transportation;
- extending and expanding our public transit system;
and
- identifying what needs to be done to get more people
using alternative forms of transportation.
The plan
will position our region to pursue proactive strategies for
intermodal and multi-modal transportation options which will
serve our growing and diverse population and visitors into
the future.
The
project began in December, 1999. Project
work has involved gathering information on the existing
transportation systems (road, transit, air, rail, bicycle
and pedestrian), transportation needs that are not being met
with the current system and barriers to different forms of
transportation. The information has been
compiled and analyzed, including building a GIS database and
maps, and recommendations and an action
plan have been developed. All of this
information is included in the regional plan, which will be
available in late March, 2001.
The
action plan that has been developed will “drive” the
implementation of the plan, which will ultimately result in
a multi-modal transportation that offers many travel options
to area residents and visitors. Some of
the key recommendations are to:
(1)
continue convening a coordinating group focused on
regional transportation needs and connections and the
coordination of transportation services and networks;
(2)
implement intercity public transportation service
between Asheville the outlying communities and increase and
extend public transportation systems throughout the region;
(3)
educate citizens (of all ages) and officials on the
existing transportation services and on the connections
between land use, transportation and air quality;
(4)
work with schools and businesses to promote walking,
bicycling, carpooling and mass transit;
(5)
advocate for policies and funding that supports and
encourages multi-modal transportation networks and regional
planning that integrates transportation and land use
planning;
(6)
create a safer environment for pedestrians and
bicyclists throughout the region.
Work has
already begun towards implementing transit service between
Asheville and Black Mountain and Hendersonville and on some
of the educational materials.
Process: We formed two advisory
committees to guide and provide input to the project.
The Policy Advisory Committee is made up
of primarily elected officials, NC DOT managers, public and
private transit system directors, and managers of economic
development. This committee has provided
overall guidance and their support is key to the
implementation of the project. The
Technical Advisory Committee has provided regular input,
expertise and guidance. They have met
monthly to define the issues, gather and review data, and
develop educational materials and project recommendations.
Once the
draft plan has been reviewed by the advisory committees and
it has been updated to reflect their revisions, it will be
presented to the Land-of-Sky Regional Council members for
their support and also to other elected and appointed
officials for their consideration. A
series of public meetings will be held in April and May to
explain the plan’s findings and recommendations and to seek
additional input. We hope to partner
with different organizations and businesses to implement the
various recommended actions. We are also
seeking funding to allow us to continue working on
implementing the plan.
Factors for Success: The primary
factor for success has been the collaboration and commitment
of the diverse group of advisory committee members.
The diversity of the groups enabled new and
innovative ideas to be considered and the commitment came
from both personal interest/passion for more transportation
choices and because the advisory committees created their
group process and had a lot of opportunities to contribute
to the project.
Key Participants/Funders:
1.
Funders – Appalachian Regional
Commission, Asheville Urban Area Metropolitan Planning
Organization (MPO), NC Rural Center and the Western NC
Regional Air Pollution Control Agency.
2.
Key Participants – Land-of-Sky Regional
Council; public transportation providers from Buncombe,
Haywood, Henderson, Madison and Transylvania counties;
Asheville Transit System Director; private
transportation providers, Greyhound Lines, Inc., CoachUSA
and Young’s Transportation; Asheville Urban Area MPO’s
Bicycle and Pedestrian Coordinator and MPO Coordinator;
local government planners and elected officials; Partnership
for Health; NC Division of Air Quality; Advantage West;
Asheville Regional Airport staff; Warren Wilson College and
UNCA; Citizens for Transportation Planning; interested
citizen volunteers.
For more information: Contact Linda
Giltz at the Land-of-Sky Regional Council, 339 New Leicester Highway, Suite 140, Asheville, NC 28806. Email:
linda-g@landofsky.org. Phone:
828-251-6622.
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Ride Sharing Study:
"Commute Connections"
The initial design for a ride sharing
program
for the Asheville, North Carolina region
April 30, 1999
Land-of-Sky Regional Council
The
population in Buncombe County and the eight counties
surrounding it has been growing steadily, increasing at an
average rate of about 1% a year since 1960. Asheville’s
population is about 70,000 and the combined population of
the project area, which includes Buncombe, Haywood,
Henderson and Madison counties, is approximately 340,000. An
increasing number and percentage of people in this area ride
alone in an automobile to get to and from work every
workday. In 1980, 65% of the people in this four-county area
drove to work alone. By 1990, 77% chose to drive to work
alone (U.S. Census). Based on this trend, over 90% of the
working population may be driving to work alone in 2000, if
no other alternatives are made available!
A copy of the
complete report can be obtained from Linda Giltz e-mail:
linda_g@landofsky.org
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For more information on transportation topics please contact
Linda Giltz at (828) 251-6622 or e-mail lindag@landofsky.org.
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