Transportation Alternatives
A post at The World Awheel suggests we should compare bicycles to the foot rather than the car. From that perspective, the around-town advantages seem unambiguous. The ability to travel faster than you can by walking, combined with the ability to navigate beyond the domain of public transit, is a great ability indeed — especially if the operating costs are next to nothing.
In fact, there are a lot of people, most of them hidden from those of us in a comfortably middle-class position, who are not a part of America’s car culture because they simply can’t own a car. These are the people we need to get on bicycles, because for them, for all intents and purposes, it’s still 1881.
There is more to solving transportation problems than providing an affordable vehicle for everyone, of course. Transportation needs are irrevocably related to the structure of our society. Where do you go, how do you get there, and what are the costs?
One Response to “Transportation Alternatives”
Posted by EEon on Wednesday, September 2nd, 2009 at 5:25 PM.
I would be interested in a study of people who regularly travel on
a bicycle versus people who travel by walking, broken down by age.
Do people in this group tend to become pedestrians as they age,
despite the speed benefits of a bicycle? Personally, I would rather
walk if I had osteoporosis. Maybe older folks switch over to
electric scooters.