I just replied on your article with a longer and more thoughtful response, so I'll just add here thanks for sharing! That was a good read that made me think!
Adding rail infrastructure is much more costly than filling in the gaps of bike/ped/scooter/mobility devices, especially where it can be easily achieved in existing public right-of-ways. NH and other snowy places also need budgets & resources for snow removal for these facilities - you know, equal treatment with motorized travel lanes. Sometimes road diets - simply repainting motorized travel lanes - can add enough room for bike/ped/scooter/mobility devices - an extremely low cost alternative since it purely reconfigures what's already there and has a proven traffic calming/speed reduction for motorized vehicles. With HSN & QVC selling etrikes & sit-on scooters, we create more demand. If you build it, they will come - actually, they're already waiting with vast pent-up demand.
All great points! The technology is certainly there and is getting more affordable for non-motorized, local travel. It's the culture shift that's necessary now to normalize the idea of walking/biking/scootering, and as you said, not just the building of that infrastructure, but the upkeep and maintenance of it too
I agree that bikes and sidewalks must be part of the fixes, as you noted in the conclusion here. I think self-driving cars, though, can help get us there, too actually. https://collegetowns.substack.com/p/parking-where-were-going-we-dont
I just replied on your article with a longer and more thoughtful response, so I'll just add here thanks for sharing! That was a good read that made me think!
Thank you! Looking forward to more from you too.
Adding rail infrastructure is much more costly than filling in the gaps of bike/ped/scooter/mobility devices, especially where it can be easily achieved in existing public right-of-ways. NH and other snowy places also need budgets & resources for snow removal for these facilities - you know, equal treatment with motorized travel lanes. Sometimes road diets - simply repainting motorized travel lanes - can add enough room for bike/ped/scooter/mobility devices - an extremely low cost alternative since it purely reconfigures what's already there and has a proven traffic calming/speed reduction for motorized vehicles. With HSN & QVC selling etrikes & sit-on scooters, we create more demand. If you build it, they will come - actually, they're already waiting with vast pent-up demand.
All great points! The technology is certainly there and is getting more affordable for non-motorized, local travel. It's the culture shift that's necessary now to normalize the idea of walking/biking/scootering, and as you said, not just the building of that infrastructure, but the upkeep and maintenance of it too