Rural and Small Urban Multimodal Alternatives for Minnesota

Abstract

This paper looks at alternatives for promoting and strengthening multimodal transportation in rural and small urban areas. It outlines 65 different innovative activities around the United States that have been undertaken to promote multimodalism in rural areas and smaller towns. These activities are grouped into six categories: improving transit options; accommodating alternative vehicles; supporting pedestrian and bicycle travel; multimodal land use planning; the use of financial incentives to promote multimodal land use development; and other alternatives that do not fit in these five categories. From this, six case studies have been developed. These case studies include retrofitting sidewalks in Olympia Washington: the network of interurban transit options in North Dakota; providing mileage reimbursement for seniors arranging their own rides in Mesa Arizona; the State of Oregon’s “Main Street as a Highway” guidance for integrating highways into the fabric of smaller towns; the use to transportation impact fees to fund transportation infrastructure, including concurrency fees, development fees and special district fees; and a “Complete Streets” project in Clinton, Iowa.