RECOMMENDED ALTERNATIVE

The most important outcome of this report will be to guide local government and stakeholders in advocating for well developed alternatives in the upcoming WYDOT NEPA process. The NEPA process requires WYDOT to develop and evaluate multiple design and operating alternatives. Focusing on outcome-driven solutions can help to ensure that WYDOT considers alternatives that align with local values and the Teton County Comprehensive Plan.

Teton County, Jackson, and WYDOT should fully consider the role of transit and transportation demand management in its evaluation. Travel models often used for these efforts have limited capacity to effectively model transit ridership, the potential for cycling to capture a meaningful share of certain types of trips, or the benefits of a diverse suite of transportation demand management programs. Off-model work, such as was done for this effort, is often eschewed by highway engineers, leading to the cycle of overbuilt highways and continuing the endemic of auto-reliance. To avoid this situation, it is important that:

• START develops a long-range (2035 or 2040) service strategy. An adopted service and capital strategy for START expansion between 2025 and the planning year for WY-22 would help ensure transit’s potential is represented in the WY-22 study.

• The Town and County develop and adopt a TDM strategy that includes programmatic elements and supports proper governance and administration of such programs. Again, an adopted document will help to ensure that TDM is given credence in the WYDOT led process.

Analysis shows that both the Shoulder Running Transit and Transit+HOV alternatives improve mobility outcomes, primarily because bus travel is more viable and ridership increases dramatically due to transit speeds, reliability, and complementary TDM programming. A robust alternatives analysis process conducted by WYDOT during the NEPA analysis should include both of these options (shoulder running transit could be replaced with a transit only lane option, which is functionally identical if modeled with the tools used in this report).