Offering Transit Incentives Is A Way To Avoid Costly Infrastructure Spending

In the department of “Where Are They Now?,” Chris Hamilton is a prominent face around Mobility Lab, as one of our contributors and the former bureau chief of Arlington County Commuter Services, of which Mobility Lab is a part. He just appeared as a guest on the excellent GovLove podcast.

Host Ben Kittelson asks to learn more about transportation demand management – Mobility Lab’s bread-and-butter – and Hamilton answers: “Transportation tends to revolve around adding supply and adding infrastructure. And TDM is all about changing the behavior of people so that you better meet the demand.”

Hamilton gives the TDM example of “if the roads are clogged, rather than widen the road, which is really expensive and in tons of places we can’t even do that anymore, what if we could get more people to ride the bus if there’s not a lot of people [already doing that]? Or what if we could get more people on bikes or even walking?

Listen to the podcast here.