About: History of Dots & Dashes/Precedents
Dollar Game
Dots & Dashes follows an earlier outreach exercise called the "Dollar
Game," which was used by DVRPC during the Destination 2030 -
The Future in Transit Forum, held in June 2004. Locally elected officials
and decision makers were provided with five $1,000,000 bills to invest
in 16 defined transit projects and a 17th "Other" selection
and asked to choose transit projects benefiting the region. Regional
decision makers could allocate the bills any way they saw fit to
the project or projects they believed had the greatest value to the
region and which could be publicly supported. In this exercise, 147
participants spent $733 million on a set of 16 defined corridor-level
or system-wide transit projects and an adjunct list of about ten
new projects. The list of "Other" projects reflected valid
preferences which could not be acted upon since they fell outside
the mechanics of the exercise.
For reference, the
results of the Dollar Game were as follows (All dollar amounts in
millions of dollars):
| Dollar
Game Spending Results: Destination 2030: Transit Project
Spending Exercise |
| Philadelphia to Gloucester Transit Assessment |
$87 |
11.9% |
| Schuylkill Valley Metro |
$85 |
11.6% |
| Broad Street Extension to the Philadelphia
Navy Yard |
$70 |
9.5% |
| Quakertown/Stony Creek Branches Rail Restoration |
$66 |
9.0% |
| Route 100 Ext to King of Prussia |
$60 |
8.2% |
| Philadelphia to New York City One-seat Ride |
$56 |
7.6% |
| 21st Century fare collection system |
$45 |
6.1% |
| Trenton to NJ State House Light Rail Extension |
$43 |
5.9% |
| Roosevelt Blvd. Corridor |
$41 |
5.6% |
| Route R3 (Elwyn) Extension to West Chester |
$33 |
4.5% |
| Extended service frequency and hours |
$31 |
4.2% |
| Other Projects - see bullets below* |
$30 |
4.1% |
| Real time passenger information |
$29 |
4.0% |
| New Jersey Route 1, Bus Rapid Transit Study |
$19 |
2.6% |
| 52nd Street/ Center City Corridor Connector |
$17 |
2.3% |
| West Trenton Line restoration of passenger service |
$11 |
1.5% |
| Cross County Corridor Glenloch to Trenton,
NJ |
$10 |
1.4% |
| Total |
$733 |
|
*Dollar Game "Other Projects":
- Keystone Corridor upgrade; R5 extension to Atglen, Parksburg,
Coatesville as part of Keystone Upgrade (2 votes); Chester to Philadelphia
rail link.
- Better connections using dual mode locomotives and new tunnels
(2 votes)
- Upgrade entire regional rail to metrorail service.
- Culture change-attracting new riders; new identity or advertising
and "look" campaign for SEPTA.
- Better transit connections between small first ring suburbs,
eg.: Drexel Hill to Springfield
- Safer step on/off from trains for seniors, children, mildly infirm;
high level platforms
- Increase service to Newark Delaware
- Improve connections with Trans-Bridge Lines at Doylestown
- East-West subway/lightrail extension across lower south Phila
connection to University City via Washington Avenue.
- Atlantic City rail connection to PATCO/SEPTA.
- Increase service frequencies to/from airport to 15 minutes.
- Parking expansion at rail stations.
- Subway running underneath Ben Franklin Parkway.
- Service improvements: 15 minute peak service, extended hours,
one man operations. Proof of payment fare collection; Fare collection
improvement and cooperation between agencies.
- Subsidized taxi services for "on demand" service.
Strings and Ribbons
"Strings and Ribbons" developed by Dr. Lisa Beever
for the Charlotte County Florida MPO in 1995, and used for a 2025
TIP outreach exercise avoided simple individual preference and predetermined
transportation choices. Strings and Ribbons refers to the materials
used by a group to display the transportation preferences on a map
in a 1 to 3 hour exercise. Groups are supplied with a budget, a menu
of cost options (e.g.: cost per mile of four lane highway, cost for
traffic signal, bridge, etc.), and game pieces (colored strings,
ribbon and dots) and instructions to build a regional map of transportation
investments based on the group's negotiated consensus. The generated
maps were then assessed qualitatively to discern preferences in the
transportation networks arrived at by the groups. |
