Mobility Hub Usage in West Palm Beach

Promoting mobility hub usage can reduce automobile dependency with the goal of meeting carbon pollution reduction goals. Transportation planners need data on mobility hub usage to engage users, increase usage, and to plan and improve infrastructure. This project focuses on residents’ experiences at mobility hubs in Greater West Palm Beach, Florida, for example, at a recently completed workforce housing project, Flagler Station. Flagler Station promotes itself as a micromobility hub with plans for further enhancement and is located with walking distance of a tri-county rail line and downtown. Completed in 2022 at the corner of Banyan Boulevard and North Tamarind Avenue, Flagler Station is an eight-story apartment building designed for downtown workers. In addition to housing, the Community Redevelopment Agency (CRA) believes the area will benefit from a mobility hub planned to be created adjacent, as well as further infrastructure enhancement nearby. The CRA incentivized development to revitalize the Banyan corridor, a high traffic route between downtown and the Historic Northwest district, an historically underinvested community. In 2020, $500,000 in funding was approved for to create a 34-foot-wide, landscaped, lighted linear park between Tamarind and Sapodilla. A “ghost train” artwork will honor the site’s historic significance as a spur of Henry Flagler’s railway. A linear park will provide an inviting pedestrian pathway to the nearby Tri-Rail station and connect to the Tamarind streetscape project linking Banyan with Palm Beach Lakes Boulevard, another important corridor. The park extends the City’s Rails-to-Trails program and improves the pedestrian network in and around the site. The proposed project builds on previous research by the PIs to determine residents’ preferences and access to public and active transportation. For the previous project, an analytical tool was developed to empower cities and transit agencies to leverage both traditional datasets and emerging mobility datasets to make context-aware, and data- informed decisions on mobility hub site selection and feature programming. A survey collected data about transit and transportation usage in West Palm Beach. The proposed project supplements the quantitative data using qualitative research methods. Focus groups will convene users and non-users of mobility hubs to further interpret the earlier study’s findings. The data will guide decision makers toward evidence-based transportation infrastructure development. Outputs will include 1. Analysis of focus group findings will be compiled into a report and distributed via website and direct distribution to partners. 2. Findings will be presented at one or more academic and/or professional conferences 3. Findings will be published in one or more academic journals 4. An in-person or virtual meeting will be held to present findings to local partners and stakeholders.

  • Record URL:
  • Supplemental Notes:
    • Funding: $55,000 (USDOT) + $27,500 (matching funds) = $82,500 (total)

Language

  • English

Project

  • Status: Active
  • Funding: $82500
  • Contract Numbers:

    69A3552348337

  • Sponsor Organizations:

    Office of the Assistant Secretary for Research and Technology

    University Transportation Centers Program
    Department of Transportation
    Washington, DC  United States  20590
  • Managing Organizations:

    Center for Equitable Transit-Oriented Communities (CETOC)

    University of New Orleans
    New Orleans, LA  United States 
  • Project Managers:

    Kline, Robin

    Danton, Bob

  • Performing Organizations:

    Florida Atlantic University, Boca Raton

    Boca Raton, FL  United States  33431

    University of Florida

    207 Grinter Hall
    PO Box 115500
    Gainesville, Florida  United States  32611
  • Principal Investigators:

    Hoermann, Serena

    Yan, Xiang

    Merlin, Louis

    Renne, John

  • Start Date: 20241001
  • Expected Completion Date: 20250930
  • Actual Completion Date: 0
  • USDOT Program: University Transportation Centers Program

Subject/Index Terms

Filing Info

  • Accession Number: 01928988
  • Record Type: Research project
  • Source Agency: Center for Equitable Transit-Oriented Communities (CETOC)
  • Contract Numbers: 69A3552348337
  • Files: UTC, RIP
  • Created Date: Aug 27 2024 6:13PM