Supported Authorities Papers
"How Carsharing Can Reduce the ''Drive to Drive'' and Improve Walkability"
Chris Bradshaw, Ottawa Canada
Summary: The Kyoto Accord has brought a new wave of scrutiny to the private automobile. But it is focusing us on only one of the car’s impacts: emissions. The car problem, however, as walking advocates know, is much broader and more profound. What the author addresses in this paper, is how the sharing of cars, as opposed to our regime of private ownership, can achieve dramatically greater walkability by effecting changes in many areas that are usually ignored: how cars are used and how they are designed, both of which are influenced by the form of car-access. The potential of turning away from the current One-Person, One-Car Orientation (OPOCO) will evoke protestations. “People love their cars!” Since society provides shared rights-of-way but leaves car-access up to the individual, we have created a feast-or-famine proposition in which there are too many cars, the cars are poorly utilized, and they are much larger than the vast majority of trips require. In the last 15 years carsharing has joined taxis, car-rental, and ridesharing as ways to share cars: together I call them Metered Access to Shared Cars (MASC). They jointly represent a way to not only greatly reduce peak demands for both roads and parking lots – which increases sprawl – but to make the way cars are driven more pedestrian-friendly. MASC reduces OPOCO’s “drive to drive” by: a) shifting costs from fixed to variable, eliminating car-owners’ efforts to do extra driving to amortize $6000-12,000/year invariable costs, while making the whole cost of each trip more readily apparent; b) having shared cars everywhere people need to be so they don’t have to take a car around everywhere just to have one available if the need arises; and c) increasing the “fuss” of car access by requiring a short walk and some planning. MASC also reduces the amount of car – weight, power, rigidness of its shell – used for each trip by making the vehicle choice a trip-by-trip decision, rather once-every-five-year decision. MASC brings into play many driving/vehicle factors that walkability debates usually ignore, specifically the five Fs: how Frequent/Far, Fast, and “Fazed/Frantically” the vehicle is driven, and how “Fat” and “Filthy” the vehicle being driven is. The paper shows how each is reduced when MASC is used, primarily through reducing sprawl, increasing scrutiny of driver behaviour by the provider, and allowing for the introduction pedestrian-friendly neighbourhood vehicles (NVs) in place of standard highway-friendly cars. Because most MASC vehicles are equipped with GPS readers, as well as scheduling and tracking software, sharing – both consecutive and simultaneous – becomes practical. The author sees carsharing and ridesharing merging first to introduce it to suburban neighbourhoods and business parks where carsharing is non-existent and ridesharing is very limited. He offers 11 additional actions that will bring about a new form of car-access and a new environment for walking, hopefully in time to shape the form of the “automobilization” of Asia, Africa, and South America. ... More
2009 Benchmarking
Understanding the characteristics, needs and abilities of walkers | Jim Walker, Walk21
Summary: The project aims to implement a common practical international measuring tool for the collection, analysis and dissemination of quantitative and qualitative information to help define and benchmark walkability; compare results; and monitor the impact and effectiveness of further investment. ... More
A Complete Street by any other Name is just as Sweet
April Bertelsen, City of Portland Bureau of Transportation
Summary: The Portland Oregon Story. ... More
A Continuous Pedestrian Network
Mayer Hillman
Summary: There is considerable evidence indicating that the wider public interest is better served when journeys are made on foot rather than by motorised means. For this reason, there is a strong case for re-ordering existing transport priorities in favour of pedestrians. ... More
A Summary of Walkers and Walking
John Seaton, Susan Wall
Summary: Many current survey methodologies fail to collect in-depth data relating to the walking components of multi-modal journeys. The aspects of the survey findings presented here are considered supportive of inclusion in all decision-making processes and by all decision makers in both providing for and encouraging increased walking. ... More
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