Free transit for Salt Lake Airport Users as a marketing promotion | Transit validation systems

Billboard promoting the UTA free transit to the airport promotion

1300 South at West Temple Street, near the Ballpark TRAX station

The Salt Lake Airport has been undergoing expansion and redevelopment.  A new terminal opened in the Spring, although the relocated transit station didn't open until earlier this month ("Will new TRAX station fix unprecedented problem for Salt Lake airport?," KSL-TV).

I've written about the airport twice.  One in response to a Manhattan Institute report that transit connections to airports aren't worth it.  I disagree because a transit system to be a system needs to connect to major destinations within a metropolitan area and the breadth of the network more generally is what encourages people to use transit.

-- "Manhattan Institute misses the point about the value of light rail transit connections to airports | Utility and the network effect: the transit network as a platform," 2020

The other piece was about a financial dispute between the Airport and a car sharing service.  The latter didn't want to pay the same rates as "car rental services" because the business model is different, and so they were forbidden access to the Airport.  

-- "Transportation demand management gaps, Salt Lake City International Airport and car sharing," 2021

Although the firm eventually capitulated.  The fact is that parking and car rental concessions are significant revenue streams, so Airports don't want to do anything that upsets that flow, especially as ride hailing has had a significantly negative impact on parking revenues.

Some of the reporting on the new airport has focused on how they haven't implemented an interior transit system/moving walkways because they are still expanding, and depending on the gate, people may have to walk at least one quarter mile to Concourse B ("Opinion: The terrible, horrible, no good, very bad walk from SLC’s Concourse B," Salt Lake Deseret News), which is especially inconvenient with children or if you're disabled..

And the Airport has already stated that often the parking structures and lots are full, and they have 30,000 spaces ("Why you might have problems parking for your flight at the SLC Airport," KJZZ-TV).

So "transportation demand management" aimed at ensuring adequate capacity at the parking structures is a good idea.

Transit validation: free transit with event tickets. Transit validation is the term for how your event ticket also includes free transit use.  I wrote about this recently concerning the new Climate Pledge Arena in Seattle, where attendees of sporting and concert events can use their ticket (via an e-app) to ride local transit for free ("Seattle Kraken expansion hockey team sets new standard for transit benefits in transportation demand management: free transit with ticket").

While the arenas for the Golden State Warriors in San Francisco and the Phoenix Coyotes do a version of this, the Seattle example is the most expansive, with access to light rail, bus, and Monorail.

While I have written quite a bit about airport transportation issues:

-- "Airport transportation demand management in flux"
-- "Transportation demand management, transit: Los Angeles Airport (LAX) and Logan Airport, Boston," 2019
-- "London's Stansted Airport provides digital information on transit options," 2019
-- "A brief comment on ground transportation at National Airport vis a vis VRE rail service," 2016
-- "Revisiting stories: ground transportation at airports (DCA/Logan)," 2017
-- "Airports and public transit access: O'Hare Airport and the proposed fast connection from Downtown Chicago," 2018
-- "Why not a bicycle hub at National Airport?: focused on capturing worker trips but open to all," 2017

I have never heard of free transit to and from the airport, which is what Salt Lake Airport and the Utah Transit Authority are doing through January 31st, 2022, when people show their boarding pass dated on the date of travel.

Photo: Miles in Transit.

Although, the Boston Silver Line bus is free from Logan Airport and has been since 2012 ("MBTA to give free rides from airport: No Silver Line fare in test to cut Logan’s congestion," Boston Globe).

But the Salt Lake Airport promotion is for all forms of transit: bus; streetcar; light rail; and commuter train.

While the UTA/Salt Lake Airport is the first example I know of of free transit to and from the airport, albeit for a brief period, obviously, adopting this type of practice more broadly would increase transit use in association with air travel, were it to be adopted more widely and permanently.