Intermodal passenger transport
Mixed-mode commuting often centers on one type of rapid transit, such as regional rail, to which low-speed options (i.e. bus, tram, or bicycle) are appended at the beginning or end of the journey.
[1] Trains offer quick transit from a suburb into an urban area, where passengers can choose a way to complete the trip.
Later, when a subway was built through tunnels under the Hudson, now called the PATH, a station stop was added to Hoboken Terminal.
They can provide a short commute to train stations, airports, and piers, where all-day "park and ride" lots are often available.
Used in this context, cars offer commuters the relative comfort of single-mode travel, while significantly reducing the financial and environmental costs.
Taxicabs and rental cars also play a major role in providing door-to-door service between airports or train stations and other points of travel throughout urban, suburban, and rural communities.
Commuters to major cities take this route when driving is convenient, but parking options at the destination are not readily available.)
If train and bus services are very frequent then this scheduling is unimportant as the commuter will in any case have a very short wait to interchange.
Environmental benefits can also increase (i.e. less pollution)[7] and reduced traffic congestion can deliver significant cost savings to the city and local government.
Many airports now have some mass transit link, including London, Sydney, Munich, Hong Kong, Vancouver, Philadelphia, Cleveland, New York City (JFK), Delhi, and Chennai.
At the Hong Kong International Airport, ferry services to various piers in the Pearl River Delta are provided.
Prior to the widespread use of automobiles, the San Francisco Bay Area featured a complex network of ferry services which connected numerous interurban and streetcar systems in the North and East Bay to the San Francisco Ferry Building, where several city streetcar lines began service.
[8][9][10] The Staten Island Railway, while operated by the Metropolitan Transportation Authority, does not have a physical connection to the rest of New York City's rail network.
In recent years, an increasing emphasis has been placed on designing facilities that make such transfers easier and more seamless.
Until the completion of San Francisco Salesforce Transit Center, the Millbrae Intermodal Terminal in California is the largest intermodal transit center west of the Mississippi which includes direct on-platform connections between BART, the Bay Area's regional rail system, Caltrain, the San Francisco Peninsula's commuter rail, and SamTrans, the regional bus service for San Mateo County.
Rapid transit such as express bus or light rail may cover most of the distance, but sit too far out from commute endpoints.
Similarly, a commuter can close an even further distance quickly with an ebike, motorcycle, or car, allowing for the selection of a more preferred living area somewhat further from the station than would be viable by walking or simple bicycle.
In the most extreme cases, a mixed-mode commuter may opt to car share and pay only a small portion of purchase, fuel, maintenance, and insurance, or to live car-free.
The effectiveness of a mixed-mode commute can be measured in many ways: speed to destination, convenience, security, environmental impact, and proximity to mass transit are all factors.
