Arena Transit Hubs for an Equitable, Inclusive, Low-carbon Future
More than 60% of disadvantaged communities in Long Island live within ten miles of UBS Arena by Hempstead, Mineola, and Far Rockaway. Residents suffer much higher rates of underemployment and poverty than state averages and are geographically and economically constrained without public solutions for the first and last mile.
The UBS Arena Fleet Hub unlocks the potential of the arena and the potential of the community in solving these problems by removing high-cost utility and property infrastructure barriers to EVs and charging while launching four new direct transportation services.
These services leverage medium-duty and heavy-duty (MD/HD) EVs in creating first-last mile links, Americans with Disability Act (ADA) paratransit, and employee transit, improving quality of life and socioeconomic opportunity by enabling people to travel farther more affordably and access greater employment, educational, and community resources. The project creates $14 million in wages, supports 2.8 million passengers each year, and generates social cost savings of $4.7 million displacing diesel fuel.
UBS Arena will be a charging and transit hub with four new zero-emissions MD/HD fleets serving 142,000 people across 87 disadvantaged communities, with special consideration for Hempstead Village. Leveraging this site vastly improves fleet economics by eliminating significant built infrastructure costs and reducing electricity costs 20-50% using the arena "demand umbrella."
This allows for more competitively priced services to serve disadvantaged communities at scale. We will account for the great diversity in disadvantaged community residents while addressing their identified challenges and provide long-term value to all stakeholders, including local, regional and national fleet operators. We will accomplish this by creating:
- Dedicated point-to-rail EV bus service for 10 different Long Island Railroad (LIRR) stations to solve first-last mile gaps, including dedicated ADA point-to-rail to ensure LIRR is a viable intra-island option
- Rail-to-rail EV bus service between three LIRR stations, connecting all three schedules to provide greater schedule density and improve point of origin and destination optionality
- A program transporting public workers to/from NTO, to reduce congestion and encourage employers to create carpooling programs
- A dedicated space to charge, park and secure vehicles which also hosts education programing for residents and fleets and encourages EV adoption with demonstration and discovery programs
Rides are subsidized 50% for the entire three-year program period at minimum, and enable residents to reach more opportunities by traveling further, faster, and at lower cost with more reliability. Offsetting high rates of automobile use and diesel bus use will save $4.7 million in social emissions costs over 10 years.