Enhancing Transit Circulation in Resort Areas: Operational and Design Strategies

Many resort areas and other major activity centers are facing transportation challenges as rising traffic congestion erodes the quality of a visitor’s experience. Many resort areas have turned to public transportation as an alternative strategy for visitor circulation, but these services often become enmeshed in the same traffic jam that they were intended to circumvent. The city of Virginia Beach, Virginia, undertook an aggressive, long-term effort to establish and enhance an effective transit circulation in its beachfront resort area through a combination of physical design improvements and operational management. The development and implementation of the combination strategy are described, and lessons learned that are relevant to other resort-area transit-circulator services are outlined.