I’m personally often trying to separate my car-life from the rest of my transit life. How to avoid using the car is a challenge that I’m into. But some of the time that’s a wrong way to look at things. In many cases a motor-vehicle plus other type of transit is a totally righteous and worthy combination “multimodal” unit.
As I work on the new Folding Bikes book (yes, it’s happening!) I realize how much the Transit Solution (to congestion, pollution, injury, ugliness) is *multimodal*. Each factor plays a role.
Ya got:
foot
bike
bus
car
train
plane
boat
TRUCK!
(bridge?)
scooter
skates
moped
motorcycle
trike
velomobile
pedicab
cab
van
mini-truck
skis!
snowshoes
canoe
(the myriad of boats… sail, motor, barge… big, small)
powerplants: electric, gas, diesel, natural… coal, nuke, solar, wave, wind…
Then you have EDUCATION tying it all together. A high level of skills and culture would show many of these Modes can happily and sustainably work together.
The problem is ignorance and when one mode is allowed to get out of balance.
Here in the USA it’s obvious that we’ve let the car get out of hand. But a lot of the time we can easily use a car in a supergood way—and millions do.
I just wish we had a train going up north so that everyone didn’t have to drive when they wanted a getaway, me included. Wouldn’t that be cool?
The real world Transit Solution will be comprised of COMBINATIONS of all Modes. No single element is EVIL, bad or overly dangerous.
Since I love the bike experience I tend to lift the bike up above the other elements. –Even though in my own life the bike is just PART of my transit solution.
I also like boats and trains, so I try to figure out how use those more, or dream of how they might be used.
I know that I use my cars in a worthy way some of the time. The challenge is in optimizing that use.
My own Best transit solution, optimized, would still likely include SEVERAL of the above elements. They’d all just fit together better and be better prioritized.
For instance, a light/stiff/versatile/tiny/bagged/jiffy FOLDING BIKE seems like a GREAT thing. One reason why is that it makes CARS BETTER. It makes the REST of life with a bike EASIER. It makes several aspects even of life with a bike easier (storage, security…). Thus far the folder experience has tended to make the RIDE part of the bike less than optimal, but several models have come close to remedying that drawback. (Friday, Swift, Dahon, Brompton, Pacific all now offer folders that really RIDE.)
Sometimes I look down on bikers and mtbikers who drive by themselves in their big SUVs to the start of rides. Well, that can be a problem, depending on the variables. But an SUV full of riders can be the flipside: it can be VERY economical. A vehicle jammed with people can be a terrible, dehumanizing experience. But a full vehicle can also be convivial and still sensible: a 25-foot RV that gets 15mpg can be a worthy solution to getting a half dozen bikers, boaters or other outdoor folk to a local/regional starting place—giving an effective 40-80mpg per person. It may well be more economical than one person in a Honda Civic with a folding bike…
Localness is also a big factor in evaluating the multimodal aspects of a solution. A bike tour on the other side of the planet can be tough to justify. “If they’re already flying there I might as well go,” is a tempting rationale. But proximity seems strongly related to sustainability.
Anyway, there are all sorts of ways to skin the transit cat. But multimodalism is likely part of all of them.
