[sustran] Re: [NewMobilityCafe] The future of "xTransit"

[Chris Bradshaw]

Eric,

Where has this stuff on x-transit been for these past years!?  I went to its 
site and found a treasure-trove of goodies, albeit about something once 
called 'paratransit,' a term used here for the parallel transit system for 
the disabled.

Starting with the Kirby, Bhatt, et. al 1973 paper -- and the chart that is 
worth 10,000 words and has been circulating in carsharing circles for some 
time -- and ending with Gifford's _Flexible Urban Transportation_ (2003), it 
is a wealth of a thread of thinking and doing that is in need of 
rejuvenation. (I am heading out to get the Ottawa U. library copy in a 
minute).

Even though I was not aware of this stuff before now, I have been working 
the last two years -- yes, in parallel -- on my second-generation carsharing 
idea, MASC (metered access to shared cars).  Your material, interestingly, 
in listing the same modes for 'partnership' with traditional transit, 
mentions carsharing, but with '???', recognizing its single-user modus 
operendi.  But that will not be the main characteristic with MASC, which 
makes use of telematics to allow seat-sharing and one-way trips (and no need 
for provide parking at destinations for any length of time).

You even come up with a good analysis of all the groups that our one-car, 
one-person orienation (OPOCO) disenfranchises, which I more succinctly call 
'PED-CIVs': poor, elderly, disabled, children, ill/infirm; and visitors 
(your recognition of those who don't _want_ to drive, I call 'symplicists,' 
for the trailing lower-case 's').

In my research for an upcoming presentation to the T2M (History of 
Transportation, Traffic, & Mobility) conference here in Ottawa next month, I 
came across two other people working, apparently equally independently, on a 
parallel ideas: Daniel Sperling in his _Future Drive_ (1995) about the 
potential for neighbourhood electric cars, and John Adams' essay, 
"Alternative Policies for Reducing Dependancy on the Car" (in Tolley, Rodney 
1997, _The Greening of Urban Transportation_ 2nd ed.) on "street fleets."

What I am offering all three is my questioning, not so much the car, as the 
dominant form of access.  The idea of using smaller buses for xTransit is 
doomed by the idea that they still have to be signicantly larger than cars 
and therefore driven by transit staff.  That is still very expensive (both 
the drivers and the insurance) for transit.  And it is expensive for all the 
users who still need their own car and store it somewhere.  My regimes says 
that cars are used all day long, but with multiple passengers at peak hours, 
and for 'personal' uses at other times.

The technology for xTransit is being installed on shared cars as a matter of 
course, thanks to the owners' needs to know where their cars are.  Using 
text messaging and web surfing on cell phones, rides can be summoned from 
anyone anywhere.  The decision of a person needing transportation over a 
distance longer than what walking and cycling (and why not have shared 
fleets of bikes, too?), could result in the choice between a car or a seat 
in one going the same way.  Or even allowing the 'hailing' we do for taxis, 
something similar to hitchhiking, but with the technology (electronic IDs, 
'talking to the on-board access telematics) removing the insecurity of 
strangers sharing a car.

The argument that smaller transit vehicles can offer smaller affinities and 
therefore quicker and more direct service, goes double for vehicles with 5-8 
passengers.  And if the users themselves are doing the driving, costs go way 
down.  And we end up with transit that overtakes the rationale for the 
privately-owned car in cities, removing the need for users to have their 
_own_ car.

This discovery has inspired my word-smithing to come up with a new creation: 
"Feet and Fleet-Seat" as how personal transportation should work in cities. 
Either the trip is short enough to be completed with a walk, or you get an 
electronic ride in a fleet vehicle which requires walking to a main road 
(non-main roads should be for bikes and electric carts that double as 
cargo-carriers).

Thanks, Eric.