And why you should connect your malls
This, is a Mall in Cocquio (province of Varese).
It seems to be well connected by public transport:
There is a Railway Station with fairly good connections (mainly hourly service) and… That’s pretty much.
Because the bus stop in front of the mall, looks like this:
There is no way you can catch a bus here, unless you enjoy waiting for the bus in the middle of a busy stroad, you’re the man acting in the old “Olio Cuore” spot on the Italian television
This, brings us to a bigger problem:
How to connect malls with public transport?
In my region, there are a lot of malls. That’s why, there is a lot of population, even in rural areas.
It should be pretty easy to connect malls with public transport, so… Let’s see some examples, right around Cocquio:
I will show you the malls in Cuveglio and Germignaga
The green line is the N15 bus, running from Cittiglio to Luino
The orange line is the N10 bus, running from Varese to Luino
Red dots are Malls. There is one in Cuveglio, a second in Rancio Valcuvia and a big one in Germignaga, next to the lake coast.
The first one in Cuveglio, is fairly well connected, with a nice bus stop in front of the mall. The stop does not provide any service. There is no waiting shelter, no transit map and no live departure board. But is still there, and it could do the job properly, with a little improvement
Service is really poor, with a 120’ service off peak, and there is no Sunday service.
At least, the timetable is well made, with good interchanges with other bus lines and with trains at the nearest station, in Cittiglio.
Sadly, because of lack of fare integration and low frequency, the service is not really well used. But it’s still a decent service, compared to Italians standards.
Moving forward to the lake coast, we find ourself in front of the second mall:
This, is the one in Rancio Valcuvia. It seems to be pretty practical to get here by public transport, but… Is not really. Because the bus stop, looks like this:
This is not exactly the best place to wait for a bus, especially considering that the bus comes every two hours.
On top of that, the bus stop towards Cittiglio, seems to be a “ghost stop”. Because there is no physical sign of a bus stop on the other side of the road.
The mall is located along two different sides of the road. It looks very unsafe to get there without a car. And you will even need your car, in order to cross the road between the two sides of the mall.
Moving to the lake, we find ourself in Germignaga, which has the biggest and most popular mall in the area
To be fair, there is a bus stop located 300mt south of the mall, but… It looks like this.
And again, there is no bus stop in the other direction (not even a “ghost one” shown on google maps only like in Rancio)
So: Why should you connect malls by public transport?
Because malls are major trip generator.
The public transport industry in Italy, seems to be entirely based on three type of users: students going to school, poor workers who can’t afford a car, and old ladies going shopping.
Even if this way of doing public transport is frankly unacceptable in the 21th century, malls can generate a lot of trips made by “poor workers who can’t afford a car” and “old ladies going shopping”. And maybe even schoolboys could enjoy time after school in a mall (if… there is a sort of bus service after school closes)
But obviously, a mall exists because of clients.
Why is a mall a major trip generator? Because clients of the mall actually needs to get to the mall, in order to be clients of the mall.
And if the mall is connected by a frequent, reliable, low floor, high quality public transport, people can also get there in a safe and clean way: without a car
In order to be able to properly get to the mall by public transport, you need accessibility.
This means level boarding (and this is especially crucial on the way back from a mall, for obvious reasons) and bus stops right in front of the mall, where you aren’t scared to wait for the bus.
How do we properly serve a mall located on a busy road by bus?
This stop is located in Quartino, just some kilometres north.
Quartino is in Switzerland.
This is clearly a bus stop: You can recognise it immediately. At this stop, service is provided every hour off peak and often every 30’. This happens, obviously, 365 days per year.
It is located right in front of the mall, it provides a shelter, a bench for waiting, a transit map with timetables (but there isn’t a live departure board) and it’s separated from the road traffic. The stop also provides a post box!
So: Let’s have more of this, please!