POTENTIAL INITIATIVES THAT MILITARY LEADERSHIP CAN TAKE TO REDUCE AUTOMOBILE DEPENDENCY FOR SERVICE-MEMBERS AND EMPLOYEES AT NAVAL BASE KITSAP - BREMERTON AND THE PUGET SOUND NAVAL SHIPYARD IN BREMERTON, WA

Abstract

The Puget Sound Naval Shipyard, collocated with Naval Base Kitsap - Bremerton, is the City of Bremerton's largest employer. Several complex factors over the course of the 120 years since the founding of the base have reduced automobile dependency and several have increased automobile dependency. Some of these factors have been accidental and some have been intentional, for better or for worse. After the popularity of the automobile, Bremerton began to accommodate the car and still caters to the car today. Along with other factors, service-members, employees, and others who access the base have become increasingly car dependent. This phenomenon with automobile ownership has become ubiquitous and a rite of passage - seemingly encouraged by base urban designs allowing for increased automobile usage and plentiful free parking. The modal choice behavior to use the car as a single person carrier and for the Base to cater to the single occupant car is what is in question. This research seeks to provide recommendations to the base decision makers on ways to continue to reduce automobile usage: What incentives are most effective at reducing automobile usage at the Base? A scenario based survey was conducted to receive feedback on various strategies to reduce automobile dependency. Because there will most likely not just be one simple implementable solution, but a mix of incentives, the incentives have been grouped into 5 categories throughout the research: a) monetary incentives, b) non-monetary incentives, c) urban design approach, d) transit related approach, and e) jobs-housing balance. The final product can be used as a sounding board for commanding officers seeking to reduce automobile use on a given base. It can also be used as a starting point for future research due to the qualitative research methodology. Each base will have unique characteristics that make different incentives more plausible than others (e.g., in or near a large city, bike friendly city, rural, etc.), so this research focuses on the Bremerton area of Naval Base Kitsap as a case study.