The SMRrTOWN Overlay offers
Cities, Towns, and Urban Villages, for the
first time, a realistic method to substantially increase
sustainable economic development and livability. The
Overlay creates an intense, Pedestrian Mobility Market
along any appropriate urban or suburban commercial
corridor. The Overlay market is characterized by convenient,
single-stop parking, large diversity of activity and
transaction choices, transparently convenient mobility
to access those choices, and a common Customer-Loyalty-Card
network that offers substantial incentives and benefits.
The Overlay Infrastructure comprises
an integrated SMRrTRAM "horizontal elevator",
Intercept SMRrTPARK, and SMRrTFARE card system. These
components have virtually infinite flexibility to
be applied to any urban, or suburban, business district.
This Overlay will promote sustainable development
by enabling downtown and urban business districts
to more effectively compete with suburban expansion.
Best of all, as the SMRrTOWN
Proforma demonstrates, the Overlay Infrastructure
can be built and operated as a for-profit development
project. This means cities, towns, and urban villages
can contract or partner with Design-Build-Operate-Maintain
Developers to build and operate the Overlay with private
funding!
To say that an integrated, state-of-art
pedestrian mobility system, intercept parking
facility, and electronic farecard network will earn
more money than it costs, is a claim that will be
met with natural skepticism. The SMRrTOWN
Calculator has been created specifically
to enable anyone to "test" the economic
model of the SMRrTOWN Overlay for themselves. The
Calculator quickly and easily generates Overlay proformas
for any specific City, Town, or Urban Village.
"Why can't we create a
SMRrTOWN Overlay with shuttle-buses or streetcars?"
Unless they
are provided dedicated lanes (which isn't
possible in most urban settings) buses and streetcarsshare street space with--and get stuck in--local
traffic congestion. This creates a significant inconvenience
factor that discourages “spontaneous”
ridership decisions. People will use buses and streetcars
as a “micro-commuter” service—as
a way to get from one side of town to another--but
not as a way to spontaneously extend their “pedestrian
mobility.”
SMRrTOWN is based on pedestrian movement dynamics
that can only be achieved if people can move horizontally
in a business district with the same “transparent”
convenience they enjoy with elevators in tall buildings:
Elevators don't get stuck in traffic. Waiting times
are short and consistent. People step on and off elevators
as a seamless part of their pedestrian experience.
SMRrTRAM, the single-lane,
on-grade, people-mover developed by Village Technology,
can actually, for the first time, provide this horizontal
convenience. That's why we call it the world's first
"horizontal elevator"!
To visualize the "transparent"
convenience of SMRrTRAM, imagine being a
SMRrTOWN pedestrian. As you walk along a main business
street, you notice that every one or two blocks there
is a sheltering roof over a distinct area of the sidewalk.
(For clarity, the roof shelter is not shown in the
above image.) You also notice that every 150 seconds--like
clockwork--a sleek, friendly SMRrTRAM arrives from
each direction, and "docks" adjacent
to this sidewalk area.
Multiple doors in each SMRrTRAM
slide open revealing a floor exactly level
with the sidewalk. Some of the people inside walk
out. You have the option of stepping onto a car
going in either direction. What's more, it's clear
the SMRrTRAM you step onto isn't going to pull out
into the congested street traffic: it's going to
move along its own, dedicated lane, adjacent to
the sidewalk!
Once on the SMRrTRAM, you
remain in your pedestrian "stance".
Only now, instead of walking, the car itself is
moving you along next to the same sidewalk you were
just walking on. You're still observing the storefronts
and sidewalk acitivities. But now you're covering
a lot more ground.
In just a few minutes you
may have traveled 4 or 5 blocks. Then you
see a shop or business that catches your eye. Before
you lose sight of it, the SMRrTRAM makes one of
its frequent stops, and you walk off onto the sidewalk
again.
With this new, horizontal mobility,
you are able to pleasantly access and choose from
a great diversity of shopping, service, entertainment,
or cultural "transaction choices"--and then
quickly return to your starting point. This increase
in choices, and the ease with which you can access
them, is one of the powerful, underlying dynamics
of the new market efficiency the
SMRrTOWN Overlay creates. This is a dynamic that simply
can't be created with shuttle-buses or streetcars
operating in local traffic congestion.
As stated earlier, a key premise
of the SMRrTOWN Overlay is that its infrastructure
and services can be implemented as a profitable Design-Build-Operate-Maintain
Developer project. Projected revenues modeled in the
SMRrTOWN Proforma indicate this arrangement is certainly
possible. It seems logical, however, that a city and
local Business Improvement Association (BIA) will
desire to control those parts of the project which
impact the public Right-of-Way—the realm which
city tax dollars improve and maintain as a matter
of course. These components are:
The SMRrTGuideway and associated
Streetscaping
The SMRrTSTOPs
Traffic Signal Coordination
U.S.
Patent Nos. 5,611,282 & 5,676,059 and U.S. &
Foreign Patents Pending
The present SMRrTOWN Calculator
and Proforma is based on a Business Model
that assigns the above infrastructure components to
a City-BIA partnership. Here is the model:
The City, in partnership
or association with a BIA representing
participating businesses and merchants, undertakes
a public works project to build the SMRrTRAM guidelane,
STOPs, and Traffic Signal Coordination system. In
most cases, this will be a fairly modest capital
project.
A Design-Build-Operate-Maintain
Developer then bids to provide, operate,
and maintain the SMRrTRAMs, Control Logic System,
SMRrTFARE Card System, and new intercept SMRrTPARK
facilities. The Developer’s capital costs
are financed in the conventional financial markets.
City-owned hourly parking
spaces within the
defined SMRrTOWN Market are incorporated
into the SMRrTFARE system which is managed by the
Developer. (The City still receives the parking
revenues from these spaces.) Private parking vendors
within the Market can choose to join the SMRrTFARE
system, or operate independently.
The Capital Costs incurred
by the City-BIA to create the Guidelane,
STOPs, and Traffic Signal controller modifications,
are amortized and retired annually out of New Revenues
generated by the Overlay. (This can be structured,
among other ways, through a special tax district.)
The Developer’s “base”
operating revenues flow from the SMRrTFARE
system. In addition, the Developer receives an agreed
upon percentage of the New Revenues remaining after
the City-BIA amortized capital costs are retired.
(This also can be structured, among other ways,
through a special tax district.)
The net New Revenues remaining
are retained by the businesses within the SMRrTOWN
Market. In a successful Proforma, these net revenues
will be significant: the spirit of SMRrTOWN is all
about a win-win situation for everyone!
"But where do the NEW Revenues
come from?"
How does the SMRrTOWN Overlay
create New Revenues? Where do the New Customers
come from? Why will SMRrTOWN customers make more transactions
than their counterparts in business districts without
the Overlay? Part of the answer lies in the market
efficiencies created by dramatically expanding the
“pedestrian access bubble” with the SMRrTRAM
“horizontal elevator”.
The “pedestrian access
bubble” that exists in both urban and
suburban business districts severely limits the number
of transactions that will occur in any given area.
First, if you’re a pedestrian (green dot) it
limits the number of transaction choices you have.
Second, if you’re a business-owner (red dot)
it limits the area which generates your customer base.
As illustrated, from each of these perspectives, the
bubble severely limits the market dynamics in any
given area.
The SMRrTRAM “horizontal
elevator” removes these limitations!
Arriving every 150 seconds, the SMRrTRAMs will continuously
bring New Customers into every Zone within the Overlay.
If you are a customer, your “pedestrian access
bubble” expands to include many times more transaction
choices. If you are a business owner, your customer
base will have grown by a factor of 500-2000%!
Many of the New Customers arriving
in each zone will come from the new Intercept
SMRrTPARKs which are an integral component of the
SMRrTOWN Overlay. Intercept SMRrTPARKs expand parking
capacity (and customer base) for every business in
the Overlay. They also have convenience characterisitcs
that will attract New Customers to the business district
as a whole. (See the SMRrTPARK
section of our website.)
Many New Customers, however,
will also arrive in a zone after first having
been a customer in another zone. The SMRrTOWN business
model is based on the premise that a certain percentage
of customers within the Overlay will access
at least one additional zone, and make one
transaction more than they otherwise would have.
These additional transactions generate the New SMRrTOWN
Revenues!
"Why Will SMRrTOWN Customers
Spend More?"
The SMRrTOWN Overlay does more
than provide a convenient parking space and transparent,
horizontal pedestrian mobility. It also creates an
effecitve incentive system that encourages customers
to actually visit multiple zones and make additional
transactions. This is accomplished with the SMRrTFARE
card system.
As described in the SMRrTFARE
Card section of our website, this automated
payment system collects fares for both parking and
SMRrTRAM ridership. Most important, however, it is
also creates a customer-loyalty card which rewards
the holder for making purchases within the SMRrTOWN
market. These rewards fall into the following categories:
Reduced SMRrTPARK fees
Reduced SMRrTRAM ridership fare
Merchandise discounts and other promotional
offerings by participating merchants.
Merchandise and service promotions
invite customers to use the SMRrTRAM "horizontal
elevator" to visit different zones within the
market. This increases the New Customers in each zone.
As customers make purchases
within the SMRrTOWN market, the dollar value
of their purchases is recorded in the PARK&RIDE
network. As a customer’s transactions go up,
the SMRrTFARE fee they pay at the end of the day goes
down. At some point, both their parking and rides
on the “horizontal elevator” are free!
This integrated system, then,
encourages pedestrians within the business
district to ride SMRrTRAM to at least one other zone
in the market, and make at least one additional purchase.
These New Customers, and the New Revenues they generate,
are the underlying dynamic of the SMRrTOWN Overlay.
The SMRrTOWN Calculator
has been created to project these New Revenues, and
compare them with the Costs of the Overlay infrastructure
and services. The Calculator enables anyone to quickly
and easily create proformas that "test"
the economic model just described in specific contexts!
"In practice, how are New
SMRrTOWN Revenues distinguished from the Existing
Revenues that merchants would have received anyway?"
The Business Model proposed
with the SMRrTOWN Overlay requires merchants
in the defined SMRrTOWN market to contribute a percentage
of New Revenues to the Capital, Operating, and Developer
costs for the Overlay. The question of how “New”
Revenues are fairly distinguished from the existing
revenues merchants would have received without the
Overlay, therefore, is extremely important.
The SMRrTFARE card system is
structured to automatically (and conservatively)
make this distinction in the following way:
“EXISTING
REVENUES”
1. Merchant
transactions which are not presented with a SMRrTFARE
card are considered “existing” transactions;
they are not recorded in any way in the SMRrTOWN system.
Presumably, these transactions
are made by customers who park, live, or
work near the merchant—transactions which
would have occurred without the Overlay.
2. Merchant transactions
which are presented with a SMRrTFARE card to be scanned
(for the purpose of receiving offered promotions and/or
to reduce SMRrTFARES) will also be considered “existing”
transactions if the scanned barcode indicates the
card was purchased within the same
“pedestrian access zone” as the transacting
merchant.
In this case, the assumption
is these are transactions by customers
within their “arrival” zone and, thus,
would also have occurred without the Overlay.
“NEW REVENUES”
3. Transactions
presented with a SMRrTFARE card which, when scanned,
indicate the card was purchased in a different
access zone than the transacting merchant will be
automatically calculated as New Revenues by the system.
These transactions are by
customers who have used the SMRrTRAM “Horizontal
Elevator” to arrive in the transacting merchant’s
zone. These are customers the merchant would not
have seen without the Overlay.
The SMRrTOWN Calculator is structured
to use this logic in projecting the New Revenue
cash flows in a SMRrTOWN Overlay proforma. To learn
more about how the Calculator works, and download
a free copy, click here!
