Yellowstone Business Partnership A Regional Business Voice
Transportation Roundtable
Intro - YT Transportation System

Intro to Scenarios - pdf

Scenario 1 - Carless Vacation

Scenario 2- Connecting Existing Systems

Scenario 3-  Community Gathering Places

Scenario 4 - Complete Streets Scenario

Scenario 5- Find a ride

YBP Home
Transportation Roundtable
Log into YBP Member Section Search 
= Membership Required

Transportation Roundtable

Those of us who live in the tri-state region around Yellowstone and Grand Teton national parks are well aware that we have few public transportation options and must rely on our cars to go almost everywhere.  As a result, the scenarios described below unfold on a daily basis in our region:  

•    Arriving at the Billings, Montana airport, a European teenager searches for a bus to Yellowstone National Park.  Finding no bus service, and being too young to rent a car, the young man decides to hitchhike.
•    At 5:00 a.m. in Victor, Idaho, a hotel housekeeper hoping to stay ahead of a thousand commuters this winter day starts her 22-mile solo commute over the snowy, 8,431-foot-high Teton Pass to Jackson, Wyoming.  
•    Its driver unfamiliar with winter’s black ice on I-15 in eastern Idaho, a van of Japanese tourists enroute to Grand Teton National Park slides off the road and rolls three times.  Three tourists die.   

Made up?  Unfortunately, not.  These scenarios are especially relevant because they occur in a region that is a world-famous tourist destination with over four million visitors per year.  Given the expected increase of international visitors to our national parks, the absence of integrated transportation services across our three states will become even more evident and underscore the need for better cross-state, multi-modal connections.

But it wasn’t always so—the old Yellow Bus and railroad transportation played a major role in the early visitation to our national parks. Since World War II, car travel has replaced these modes across our region with significant social, economic, and environmental implications. Today’s rising gas prices, far-flung rural developments, and lack of affordable housing in job centers all detract from the very quality of life we value on all sides of the national parks.
 
Since 2005, civic, business, and government leaders in the Greater Yellowstone have been discussing the prospects for a regional transportation system.  Following up on that discussion, the Yellowstone Business Partnership has received a $30,000 grant from the Idaho Transportation Board to lead development of a “Concept of Operations” plan to connect the region’s communities and national parks.  USDA Rural Development and Partners for Prosperity in Eastern Idaho have added an additional $25,000 to engage people interested in improving regional mobility.

Next Regional Transportation Roundtable Set for Rexburg on September 10th
 
Make your plans to join us in Rexburg, Idaho, for the third Roundtable discussion on how to link public and private transportation services across Greater Yellowstone.  This Roundtable session will focus on funding strategies and governance approaches that could help us provide a cost-effective, efficient system to better connect communities across our tri-state region. Click here to review the proposed agenda, and invite your friends and colleagues to come along.
 
Location:  Best Western Mountain View Inn Conference Center - 450 W 4th Street S. in Rexburg, ID.  1-866-888-6889 for toll-free reservations
Time: No-host buffet lunch from 12:00-12:45 p.m. across the parking lot at Frontier Pies
Roundtable Program begins at 1:00 p.m. and ends at 5:00 p.m.

Please RSVP by September 5th to info@yellowstonebusiness.org or call the YBP office at 406-522-7809.  We need a head count for lunch and if you are interested in taking a bus from your location to Rexburg, ID.  Salt Lake Express has offered to provide a discount to Roundtable participants on their regular routes, and Roger Durham of Bozeman Trail offered to bring a bus down from Bozeman.  More details to follow!!!

Power Point Presentations:

CLICK HERE TO SUBMIT A COMMENT ABOUT REGIONAL TRANSPORTATION VIA EMAIL



Yellowstone Business Partnership
PO Box 7337 Bozeman, MT 59771-7337 * 406-522-7809 * 888-583-8283 * info@yellowstonebusiness.org
Copyright 2008 Yellowstone Business Partnership. All Rights Reserved