[sustran] [World Streets] Drive Train Technology vs. New Mobility

[Eric Britton]

>From World Streets <http://www.worldstreets.org/>  today:




- Chris Bradshaw, Ottawa, Canada


The real efficiency in transportation will come from social innovations, or
should I say, return to social practices.

 
<http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_kbTo-M_pSuw/SjpaPU-hOZI/AAAAAAAAA7g/w8Wc1fATcYo/s
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00/ws-bradshaw.jpgAs a former carshare provider, I consider sharing to be
mankind's oldest technology. "Technology?" Yes, because it takes some
invention to get it to work so that it is sustainable -- so that it doesn't
self-destruct.

When sharing occurs on a small scale -- within the family or between
neighbours and friends -- it needs little technology other than people being
kind and attentive to a small number of others. Simple individual memory
keeps track of favour and payback. Many cars are shared on this informal
scale.

When it occurs at a larger scale, more formality is necessary. And there is
a role for electronic/communications technology and formality of roles. Who
owns the cars? Who makes sure they are roadworthy? Who makes sure each user
pays his rightful share of the common costs? Who decides whether rules on
access are being followed.

More complicated? Yes, but also more flexible and more powerfully efficient.
The informal method can only handle maybe three drivers, and what happens
when two of them want the vehicle for the same time slot?

Formal sharing can handle the 20-60 users that currently is the rule, and
that is for a boutique market that hasn't yet led to land-use reforms that
will squeeze out distance for all people's trips. It is also before we get
advanced carsharing in which several members going the same way
simultaneously can share (trans-seat,' see next), and at the destination,
the car is released for another route and driver, rather than sitting idle,
thanks to each leg of the trip being separately reserved.

Our suburbs and our competitive consumption patterns ("I have more/better
'stuff' that you.") have done a great deal to make sharing a dirty word.

People have been coached by champions of consumer growth to protect their
privacy, no matter how lonely that makes them. And how expensive it is to
acquire so much stuff, most of which is not the right model for the buyer,
is under-utilized, and is ineptly maintained? People drive cars alone not
just because they want fast, no -wait transportation; they also are buying
privacy (and if many other people are seeking the same on the same section
of road at the same time, the no-wait criterion will vanish). Many, much of
the time, don't even want to share a ('their') car with other members of the
household.

But we are seeing with the internet that people who are guarded in their
dealings with neighbours and friends are quite open with complete strangers
in the anonymous world of the internet. Formal carsharing uses this
propensity to provide essentially anonymous sharing, mediated by a computer
and its service organization. My concept of transit, which I have dubbed
"trans-seat," uses shared vehicles to allow this sharing to expand from
consecutive to simultaneous, but without the ridesharing experience which
tries to create an instant community, but soon becomes 4-7 people plugged
into personal MP3 players and phones.

It seems that people are more keen on being open to strangers when they aren
't trapped into a repetitive situation. This is the market which
"trans-seat" will try to tap, making it a kind of sharing between
ridesharing and transit. With each seat accessible to the outside via its
own door, there will not be any need for sharing physical space inside the
vehicle. There will also be no "standing" area -- either you have a seat or
you are not a passenger (no second-class patrons).

Reservations will also be possible, so that a trip across town via several
vehicles, for a small fee, can be seat-guaranteed (including a bicycle seat)
for each 'leg' of the trip.

The 'trans-seat' vehicle's driver, another member going somewhere, but who
meets higher driver standards, will get a break on his travel fees for doing
the extra chore of piloting (although not going off his route, as those
accessing a seat will walk to a 'pod' -- pedestrian-oriented depot -- on the
nearest arterial on their own (taxis and valet carsharing/rental will still
do the door-to-door thing).

These are some of the elements of sharing in transportation that I have been
thinking about. They are all intended to squeeze out all the extra metal and
space that are not productive. That re-establishes walking as the primary
mode for neighbourhoods, transit and 'trans-seat' for inter-neighbourhood
travel in cities, and common-carriers (bus, train, boat, plane) for the
rarer long trips.

There won't be much room for the personal car, except in museums. If we get
it right, people will find more freedom and enough privacy to make them
wonder what was it they saw in having, maintaining, storing, and earning
money to transform public thoroughfares and semi-public parking lots into
private spaces, especially when they have to pay the piper for the
privilege.

About the author: Chris retired from city & regional planning in 1996, and
co-founded Ottawa's carsharing company, Vrtucar in 2000. He has been an
advocate for walking and pedestrian rights for 30 years. In retirement, he
is championing a society-wide transition to a second-generation version of
carsharing (integrating car-sharing, taxis, ridesharing, car-rental, and
delivery). He lives 'car-lite' in downtown Ottawa with his wife of 40 years.




--
Posted By Eric Britton to World
<http://newmobilityagenda.blogspot.com/2009/06/drive-train-technology-vs-new
-mobility.html>  Streets at 6/19/2009 05:34:00 AM

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