For Disneyland and Anaheim Resort District visitors down the line, imagine the following scenario. Pedestrians walk along a bridge above Harbor Boulevard and Disney Way that takes them to the doorstep of Disneyland Resort. Individuals park their vehicles at the Anaheim Regional Transportation Intermodal Center (ARTIC) and get onto a mass transit system from east to west that could lead them to ACC. Visitors have a gondola ride from the ARTIC location to Disneyland Resort or the Anaheim Convention Center (ACC).
Those are a few of the wishful transit options that Anaheim officials are considering when they plan ways of navigation for people through the bustling and growing district down the road.
Anaheim will host a public community conference at 05:00 pm on January 13, 2022, to gather the opinion of people about the so-called Resort Mobility Plan. It will be the last such meeting before Anaheim’s city planners discuss their findings with the council in February this year.
Anaheim spokesperson Mike Lyster told Spectrum News that the study offers an opportunity to explore near-term transit options that have grown over the last few years. Lyster describes it as a general study about transportation for the Anaheim Resort District. There will not be a vote on an option or two at the Anaheim City Council soon.
Lyster stated that it is an exercise that is informative and that the Anaheim City Council will listen to soon. As for Lyster, the exercise will not go too specifically into any transportation mode. He also reckons that the study in Anaheim will offer flexibility as transportation and technology keep evolving.
The conference comes when resort district businesses keep rebounding from the coronavirus epidemic and its economic effects. There have been restrictions on tourism as well as a limited number of visitors to Anaheim hotels, stadiums and amusement parks in the pandemic than before. Hopefully, people will come back to Anaheim after the pandemic.
Before the epidemic, Anaheim attracted over 25 million individuals per annum. The above-mentioned includes visitors to the Anaheim Convention Center for conventions and conferences and Disneyland Resort as well as concertgoers and sports fans to the Angel Stadium or Honda Center.
At the same time, the district keeps growing.
Disneyland plans to lay the foundation for what may be a third amusement park construction atop the Toy Story Parking Lot in Anaheim.
The Honda Center arena anchors a mixed-use development and entertainment megaproject called ocV!BE, which is under development.
Imagine that the Angel Stadium sale happens to Arte Moreno, the owner of the Los Angeles Angels. If it happens, the area would see mixed-use development and perhaps a baseball stadium soon.
Anaheim has long considered implementing a mass transit network for tourists to explore its primary anchors, Disneyland, Honda Center, Angel Stadium, and convention center. However, the 2017 Mayor of Anaheim Tom Tait-led city council killed a streetcar project between ARTIC and Disneyland Resort that was worth $300 million.
There is a dedicated transit network in the Anaheim Resort District known as ART, a set of buses going around the district and its surrounding locations. Lyster stated that Anaheim last completed this kind of transportation study in the nineties. However, he also stated that mobility and transportation have become different since then.
The popular quality of scooters, rideshare, micro-mobility and pickup/delivery options has changed the way in which people travel in the US resort. The new Anaheim Resort Mobility Study worth around $1.0 million looks at many options that the city may move forward.
That study explores not only the timeline and cost of extending sidewalks, adding bicycle lanes, widening freeways but also new signage and numerous pedestrian bridges.
Lyster described the study as the start of something big.
Connectivity and transportation in the district have been among the priorities of Harry Sidhu since he took charge as the Mayor of Anaheim four years back.
As for Lyster, Sidhu accounts for transportation to a great extent as it is his major initiative. Lyster stated that Sidhu is not quite at the planning stage and underlined the need to keep exploring transportation requirements as the city grows. Lyster described the above-mentioned as the city’s first step for the future.
