As our transportation mode choices expand and the infrastructure is being improved and upgraded for complete streets; bus rapid transit, modern streetcars, or light rail; bicycle commuting; bike and/or car sharing; and walkability, coordinating all these expanded choices into a logical transportation network becomes an issue to consider. Hence, my proposal of creating “share-ports.”

In a nutshell, a “share-port” would be a multi-modal transportation facility specifically designed, located, and constructed to emphasize active, alternative, and non-motorized transportation options at convenient and easily accessible locations. For too many decades, transportation infrastructure has overempahsized the personal car and righting this wrong is long past due. The “share-port” is meant to provide both visible and tangible evidence that active transportation options are here to stay and to create the applicable infrastructure necessary to support it in a coordinated fashion that clusters all these options at nodal locations.

A “share-port” can be located in the heart of the city, on a college campus, in a major shopping or entertainment district, at a park and ride facility, a major employer, a medical center, or just about anywhere that is convenient and accessible to as many people as possible. Whenever possible and practical, a share-port should include all of the following features:

A sheltered transit stop

Bicycle parking racks (preferably sheltered)

Bicycle storage lockers

A bicycle sharing station

A Zipcar style automobile sharing station

Sheltered and outdoor seating

Bicycle service station (see example photograph below)

Dedicated vanpool/carpool loading/unloading space

Direct communications access to area taxi services

Wi-fi services

If the site is large enough, some park and ride facilities with EV charging stations.

The closest example to a share-port that I have personally seen is a facility at a AATA park and ride in Ann Arbor, Michigan at US 23 and Plymouth Road. At the northwest corner of the park and ride are a sheltered transit stop, bicycle parking racks, and bicycle storage lockers.

Using Greater Lansing as an example, share-ports could be situated at a number of locations throughout the city, such as, but not limited to: