The Michigan Sense of Place Council, representing numerous state agencies under the direction of Governor Rick Snyder, engaged in a partnership with Smart Growth America to provide technical advisory services to six communities of Michigan pursuing livable communities initiatives. The six communities were the City of Marquette, the Southeast Michigan Council of Governments (SEMCOG), ReImagine Washtenaw (Washtenaw County), the Tri-County Council of Governments, the City of Grand Rapids, and the Northwest Michigan Council of Governments. As part of the Federal Partnership for Sustainable Communities program, the program seeks to coordinate federal funding directed to housing, transportation, and other infrastructure in communities to create more livable places where people can access jobs while reducing pollution and also saving time and money.

The assistance was in two primary areas – community mobility management and strategic transportation demand management (TDM). The focus of the effort for the Marquette livability effort was on mobility management. Through regular collaboration with a diverse group of regional stakeholders, and building off of existing institutions and transportation assets, the task was to develop implementable strategies to improve mobility for Marquette. Within the city core, the discussion focused on the 3rd Street corridor that connects the historic downtown, Northern Michigan University, and the hospital. Region-wide the discussion focused on better informing people about available services and coordination of service providers. The vision is a vibrant, sustainable and livable community, city, and region.

Mobility management is the state of the practice for planning and implementing effective coordination. This project has classified strategies into the key areas of tactical day-to-day activities that match riders and services, and strategic longer-term efforts to plan and coordinate across multiple stakeholders. The full range of mobility management services may include customer relations, marketing, planning, land use development, system integration, finance, administration, legal, compliance, human resources, multimodal operations, information technology, engineering, construction, and varied non-operating functions (Crain & Associates, Inc., et.al., 1997).

The project progressed in three distinct stages: 1) review of national leading practices and assessment of existing local resources and opportunities, 2) discussion of alternative approaches and strategies, and finally 3) development of an action strategy for implementation. This report is the culmination of these three phases and their associated findings.