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:
|
About YBP 