This pendulum of transportation needs to meet, where local jurisdictions, who provide public services, meet with private agencies to integrate in order to provide a variety of choices for transportation. At the core, local governments need to do a better job at engaging the public to change the public’s mindset from a car dependent culture to a transit dependent future. It starts by teaching the public that our car centric culture is unsustainable and as we grow in size, a transition to more sustainable methods would benefit everyone while being cost effective. These changes encourage all forms of transportation to be embraced by local governments, which diversifies the choices transit riders have. As we continue to bring forward innovation and change, we will also learn to accept and get accustomed to the new normal. Creating cities with safe infrastructure to efficiently manage new modes of transportation will be pivotal. And as we sync momentum with both the public and private sector we will shift into a transportation revolution.

 Technological advancements have the capability to reshape the way we transport everywhere, but there needs to be leniency in the public sector to ensure that the growth is accessible to everyone at a reasonable price. Implementing policy with few regulations will offer passengers alternative choices to transportation than ever before to stay connected. As technology continues to influence our daily lives this movement towards smart transportation will catapult us into a new way of life influenced by both private and public sectors.

As we move forward in transportation planning, it is critical that we begin to think outside of the box by using innovative and smart technology. By sticking to the same framework of building more roads and freeways, we are limiting our capacity to build better infrastructure for our growing population. Reiterating sentiments from my expert interviews, I believe that the future of transportation in the Inland Empire should center around the important factors of frequency, reliability, and accessibility. In order to make the public transportation system more frequent, we need to invest heavily into the creation of subways, light rails, and commuter rails. The system also needs to be more reliable and convenient, and we can solve this matter by installing a fixed, electrified light-rail infrastructure system similar to BART in the Bay Area. In terms of accessibility, we must incentivize businesses to move to the Inland Empire to provide better job opportunities. It is critical we orient ourselves through this matter because he housing and job imbalance has created major transportation issues for residents, pushing for longer commutes to Los Angeles and Orange County. These policy innovations will carry heavy costs and time for development, but I believe that it is best for our regional transportation leaders to properly invest and get things right the first time.

Understanding the landscape of Inland Empire is one of the most essential components into creating a better efficient transportation system. Living in San Bernardino my whole life, my reflections as to what’s the Inland Empire needs the most in more outreach to what the communities need. Public transportation can only be fully utilize when the constituents’ needs are put first. Fully integrating housing, jobs and transportation that’s centralized in constituents’ response is what I personally want more of in the Inland Empire. Both public and private sectors have the resources but the constituents know their needs and it’s time all forms of government and agencies work together with the community to build a more reliable and efficient public transportation. Moving forward we need to look deep into the issues and retrains particular to the Inland Empire when looking at innovations and new technology for the future.

Developing a strong transportation system within your city means so much more than just building more streets and freeways. Having long term goals and aspirations as to how transportation will remodel your city will only go so far without proper urban development, research institutions and \ responses from the community. Throughout my interviews, I learned that the need to revitalize transportation has been more apparent than ever. My biggest reflection was looking at how the city of Sacramento uses micro-transportation. the SmaRT ride is one of the most developed use of public micro-transportation in California. Utilizing point-to-point bus stops and paying through their app, this form of transportation doesn't cost more than using a public bus and cuts the travel of time over half. The Inland Empire is capable of developing a system like the SmaRT ride but in order for this to work, we need all levels of government and all important actors to be working hands on in taking such a task as redesigning and revitalizing the landscape of the transportation system.  Creating public transportation to fit into our lifestyle requires serious consideration, more government spending and influence from the private sector in order to incentivize the Inland Empire communities into ride-sharing/public modes of transportation.