Imagine the nearest transit stop is a mile away from you. Would you be willing to walk to it? If you’re like most Americans, you usually wouldn’t; few will walk further than a half mile. But what if you could get to the station quickly and cheaply by ride hail or a shared e-scooter? Would that be enough to get you to take transit?
If you find yourself thinking “maybe,” you’re the kind of person who gets mobility wonks fired up about the so-called “first mile-last mile” (FMLM) en route to or from a transit station. Transit agencies have a lot at stake in FMLM; thanks to the power of pi, expanding a transit station’s reach from a half-mile to just 1.5 miles makes it accessible to nine times as many potential passengers (assuming uniform population density and a grid-like street layout).
David Zipper, TheDrive.com