CONFERENCE ON TRANSPORTATION PARTNERSHIPS: IMPROVING URBAN MOBILITY THROUGH PUBLIC-PRIVATE PARTNERSHIPS, DALLAS, TEXAS, MARCH 14-15, 1984. HARTFORD

Hartford, CT, has strived to solve transportation problems in its central business district. The 50-square-block district has 42,000 workers with inadequate parking and a never-completed arterial highway system which forces added traffic on downtown streets. In 1981 the corporate community and city undertook a study of CBD transportation leading to a four-pronged approach: (1) Reducing inconvenience of congestion; (2) Managing parking supply; (3) Improving street environment; and (4) Improving the public and private sectors' capability to manage the transportation system. Among final recommendations were plans to increase the number of users of vanpools, carpools or transit; prohibiting any CBD parking or deliveries during rush hours; staggered work hours; elimination of employer-paid free parking; improving the streetscape; developing close-in peripheral parking lots with shuttle bus service; establishment of the city's Public Works Department as the lead agency in developing and implementing transportation policies while the transportation management organization is to act on behalf of the private sector. The Downtown Hartford Project does not seek to create new capacity through massive projects but to use relatively simple techniques that can change the pattern of demand to allow present capacity to be better utilized.