BREATHE EASY: TRANSIT USE IMPROVES ACCESS AND AIR QUALITY

By Casey Covington

“Our transportation decisions determine much more than where roads or bridges or tunnels or rail lines will be built. They determine the connections and barriers that people will encounter in their daily lives, and thus how hard or easy it will be for people to get where they need and want to go.”

Adequate and accessible public transportation is vital to a thriving city. Metroplan member Rock Region METRO strives to make central Arkansas as equitable and healthy as possible by providing transportation mode choice and access.

Since the pandemic, METRO has provided more than 1.3 million passenger trips annually through a network of 15 fixed bus routes, eight microtransit zones and paratransit, streetcar and vanpool service.

What does this mean for the environment and central Arkansas air quality?

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, “For every passenger mile traveled, public transportation produces only a fraction of the harmful pollution of private vehicles: only 5 percent as much carbon monoxide, less than 8 percent as many volatile organic compounds, and nearly half as much carbon dioxide and nitrogen oxides.”

METRO participates in Metroplan’s Ozone Action Days public awareness initiative, encouraging central Arkansas residents to ditch the keys and share their rides to help reduce harmful groundlevel ozone. Breathing this type of ozone can cause detrimental health impacts, from chest pain to congestion, particularly among vulnerable populations.

Sharing your ride with others helps mitigate carbon emissions and reduce ground-level ozone, improving our collective air quality. METRO’s mass transit system is inherently sustainable and continues improving its sustainability by converting its fleet to low- and noemission vehicles and optimally matching service with demand to boost service productivity.

Some ways the agency is doing this include: incorporating compressed natural gas-powered buses into its fleet and, in the near future, zero-emission battery-electric buses, as well as utilizing technology to gain efficiencies and investing in customer-friendly strategies to make transit use more appealing.

How does the central Arkansas community make use of this sustainable service today?

The transition to more frequent use of public transit doesn’t happen overnight. We can appreciate our public transit system sustainably connecting employees to jobs, students to school and residents to health care and groceries and encourage more use by promoting “first steps” to incorporating multiple modes of transportation in our own lives.

For example, is your student attending one of the six academic institutions that offer fare-free Little Rock and North Little Rock METRO bus and microtransit rides to students through paid partnerships with METRO? All it takes is a current school ID to take advantage of this sustainable and convenient perk.

A fare-free transit pass can offer a more sustainable ride to school, work, health care and nutritious foods. For example, a Philander Smith College student’s research project on Little Rock food deserts, linking food insecurity and access to reliable transportation, helped lead to the college’s new fare agreement with METRO.

Finally, from an economic development perspective, we know a more sustainable community is a community set to thrive in the 21st century. When we accept that not every member of our community has access to reliable private transportation, we can encourage ridesharing as a smart, sustainable way to get employees to work and to get patients to the health organizations that depend on them for financial stability.

Multiple transit options exist in our market to do this. For example, employers can bring people from outside of the Little Rock metropolitan area to job sites in Little Rock, North Little Rock, Benton, Bryant, Cabot, Jacksonville, Sherwood and Maumelle through Arkansas’ first public-transit-funded vanpool program. Individuals with disabilities who need transportation to jobs and health care appointments can use accessible buses, microtransit vehicles and paratransit vehicles.

On-demand microtransit service and the existing bus route network can help those employees whose ride arrangements fell through at the last minute to get to work or wellness visits. Consider arming your employees with information on how your team and clients can get to your site with a more sustainable commute.

What’s next?

Later this year, METRO’s investments and innovation will also make it easier than ever for residents to share their rides to mitigate harmful ground-level ozone levels when their fleet of battery-electric buses hit the streets! As more people gain access to these services, we’re excited to continue to see how technology transforms the transit industry.

Encouraging public transit use is just one among several ways we can improve central Arkansas’ air quality. Engaging in active transportation (walking, cycling), and working remotely when able are even more. Let’s take these small steps now for a brighter tomorrow. Learn more at Metroplan.com.