Dr. Dennis Foster - W.A. Franke College of Business

1. Grand CanyonTransportation Planning:A Case Study in Public Choice Theory Dr. Dennis Foster - W.A. Franke College of Business

2. Origins of a transit plan • 1993 – Draft General Management Plan • New parking lots & voluntary shuttle in/out of park. • 1995 – Final GMP • 1997 – Mather Point Environmental Assessment • Remove most of parking inside the park. • All day use visitors to shuttle into the park. • 1999 – Request for Proposals • Light rail as chosen outcome.

3. Page & Lake Powell Grand Canyon Las Vegas Flagstaff The Grand Canyon area

4. Principal visitation areas of Grand Canyon. South Rim – Desert View to Hermits Rest

5. South Rim Village area – South Kaibab Trail to Bright Angel Trail.

6. South Rim – • Light rail transit network. • Buses to link rim pts. • Remove interior parking. • Build 3,041 space lot in Tusayan.

7. Redesign of Mather Point as transit terminus.

8. Redesign of main hotel area of South Rim Village.

9. Rational by the NPS • Traffic congestion as a market failure. • Insufficient parking as a market failure (?) • Visitor orientation can be better managed. • Visitors can benefit from more public facilities and fewer commercial facilities.

10. Public Choice Critique • Is this a public good? • Is this a market failure? • Are there externalities? Why? • Are there significant special interests here? • What rent-seeking behavior is expected? • Is the NPS able to adequately coordinate economic activity?

11. Public Choice Critique • What is the dimension of the problem? “6,000 cars vying for 3,000 spaces.” • Grand Canyon stats:-- 1900 mi2; village = 2 mi2.-- Too much for 4.5 million visitors?-- 25% arrive by bus/train. • NAU – 9,000 parking spaces (+/-)

12. Parking in the South Rim Village area.

13. Public Choice Critique • Wii congestion be lessened? • Visitors will now arrive on trains. • Visitors will arrive in groups at Mather Point. • Peak use of the system is likely toresemble metropolitan rush hoursubway use. • Congestion is rearranged and likely increased.

14. Actual 2011

15. Public Choice Critique • Will visitors find the quality of their visit has improved with the light rail? • Waiting in inclement weather. • Waiting due to crowded trains/buses. • Paying for taxis during off-peak times. • Riding with backpackers. • Keeping parties together. • Getting strollers/bikes on board. • Carrying cameras, purchases.

16. Public Choice Critique • Is there a “forced rider” problem? • All the off-peak riders. • By season and by time of day. • Visitors along the East Rim Drive must pay. • “[F]olks who don’t want to use mass transit canbike or walk into the park.” • Do visitors need a period of transition?

17. “Visitors who have driven hours to get to the park should be allowed a period of transition before viewing the great natural spectacle of the Grand Canyon.” “Seeing the Grand Canyon out the windshield of a car at Mather Point, however does not provide any transition period.”

18. “No impression of the place is more constantly invoked than the abruptness of its vision…The contrast with other landscapes is profound.”--Stephen J. Pyne; How the Canyon Became Grand

19. Public Choice Critique • Presence of pathological politics. • Who supports this? GC Railway! • Who supports this? Various eco groups! • Who supports this? Park Service planners! • The public supports this. Or do they?newspaper headlines…

20. “New poll supports Canyon light rail”--AZ Daily Sun, 3/6/97 “Arizonans strongly prefer replacing automobile traffic with mass transit in Grand Canyon National Park.”--SRL press release, 3/6/97

21. --The survey question: “To protect Grand CanyonNational Park, by the year 2000 officials are proposing that no cars be allowed into the Park exceptfor people staying at Park hotels. Automobile traffic will be replaced by mass transit. Do you agree or disagree with the proposal . . .” 

22. Public Choice Critique • Will the NPS be an efficient provider? • Cost: $70 mill., $100 mill., $200 mill. • Gain = 1600 net parking spaces. • Note: More parking is unavoidable, train isn’t. • What if the rail employees unionize? • “A convenient, attractive, and energy-efficient transit system would serve the developed area.”

23. What is to be done?A Big Proposal • Remove the Villagearea from NPSjurisdiction ! • Allow CoconinoCounty to regulate ! • Amounts to some 6 to 8 square miles !

24. What is to be done?A Moderate Proposal • Run a train from Tusayan to the Village. • Utilize the airport for increased parking. • How much work would this take...? …None; it has already been approved. 

25. What is to be done?A Small Proposal • Develop Mather Point parking. • Leave Village parking intact. • Improve infrastructure. • Improve existing transit system. • Cost: approx. $20 million. • Raise parking to 7,000 vehicles. 

26. Aftermath: Like Osama bin Laden, the train is dead • Congressional actions • No $ for the train. • Must reconsider using buses. • 2008 – South Rim Visitor Transportation Plan Environmental Assessment • Build parking at new visitor center! • Leave parking in the village! • Add voluntary shuttle to Tusayan!

27. New Visitors’ Center & Parking Lots

29. Grand CanyonTransportation Planning:A Case Study in Public Choice Theory Dr. Dennis Foster - W.A. Franke College of Business