Lone Tree Link: a Last-Mile Leader

The Lone Tree link is a free shuttle that addresses the first mile/last mile (FMLM) issue for a quickly-growing Denver suburb at the end of the light rail system. The shuttle is part of what SUMC has termed (in a forthcoming TCRP Report) “consortium sponsored services.”This service is neither, as the name implies, wholly sponsored by a single entity such as the Silicon Valley companies that run the “tech buses,” nor is it purely “commercial” like microtransit. Instead, the consortium-sponsored shuttles are the product of public-private partnerships (P3) that usually solve last mile issues in lower density areas such as in Lone Tree, Colorado. Although they are open to the public with a few exceptions they are free to all users. The P3 arrangements are attractive to the companies because they provide a solution to either transportation demand management (TDM) requirements or employee demand for alternatives to single-occupancy vehicle (SOV) commutes. The service is then an amenity that they often receive at a significant discount. The arrangement is attractive to jurisdictions that provide funding and/or operating assistance for the shuttles for some of the same reasons—they hope to ease any burdens of TDM requirements—as well as inducing ridership on existing transit lines and fulfilling clean air requirements....