[sustran] 7 simple truths of sustainable mobility

[eric britton]

Simon,

 

I don't wish to give the impression that I think I have an answer to every
good point that you and the others are bringing up, but please let me share
a couple of quick thoughts with you on the points you make this morning:

 

1.     When we speak of the importance of bringing in a much wider range of
affordable and competitive non-own car options, it is not only the thin red
line of carsharing and ridesharing. The gamut of available and proven new
mobility services is very very wide, and of course includes improvements and
innovations in traditional public transport services. 



2.     And if the new or improved non-car services "take away" patronage
from scheduled services, it is just because they offer better service to
people. In this new context that should not be a problem, since the latter
are part of the package and will be major beneficiaries of the new web of
policy and practice in the sector. The New Mobility Agenda does not spell
the death of traditional scheduled, fixed route transit,. To the contrary it
creates the conditions of a new Spring of innovation and adjustment for
public transport operators to help them find their place in the new and much
different mobility requirements of a 21st century, and to many, at times 24
hour city.



3.     And oh yes, the  goal is not just "car like" mobility -- but "better
than own-cars" in the new operating environment which will offer  more space
efficient, resource efficient, affordable and softer transport options. 

 

But at the end of the day, I feat that what I am seeing here is that my
"seven simple truths" are perhaps not yet well enough expressed to convince.
So I shall have to get back to work on it.  

 

For of one thing I am sure: if it can't be expressed clearly convincingly on
a single readable page, then it will never get done. 

 

Eric Britton

 

 

 

On Behalf Of Simon Norton
Sent: Monday, 28 February, 2011 10:47
  

1. Our measures must include whether people can in fact make the journeys
they
need and want to make. A big danger of systems based on carpooling and
ridesharing is that they do not provide reliable transport for people
without
cars, and may in fact abstract revenue from public transport which does try
to
do so.

2. I think that aspiring to car-like mobility for all is a bit optimistic.
Public transport may be able to compete in these terms where there is heavy
congestion (which would be avoided if most people switched to public
transport),
or where parking is a major problem, or for journeys which can use fast rail
transport. But we need to reduce the expectations of motorists.

To paraphrase Abraham Lincoln, you can offer car-like mobility to some of
the
people all of the time (which is what we're doing now, at huge environmental
cost), or all of the people some of the time (which is what would happen if
we
designed cars out of our cities), but it is optimistic to hope to offer it
to
all of the people all of the time and we should not regard it as a flaw in a
system that it does not do that.

Simon Norton