Transportation for Everyone

To be efficient and fair, a transportation system must serve diverse demands, including the needs of people who for any reason cannot, should not, or prefer not to drive. For example, it is inefficient if inadequate sidewalks and paths force parents to chauffeur children to local destinations to which they would rather walk or bicycle, or if inadequate travel options force urban commuters to drive although they would prefer to use more affordable and resource-efficient modes such as ridesharing and public transit. It is also unfair if automobile-oriented planning deprives non-drivers of their share of transportation investment dollars, and of the mobility options they need to access to basic services and activities.

Transportation diversity [pdf] is particularly important for physically, economically, and socially disadvantaged people, who tend to use multiple modes and value affordable options, but even people who primarily drive can benefit from having alternatives in their community that reduce their traffic problems and chauffeuring burdens, and from having options that that they may need sometime in the future.

I can report from personal experience that it is possible to be happy and successful without a car, if you live in an accessible and multimodal community. My wife and I have been blissfully car-free for almost a decade, which is possible because we live in an older urban neighborhood with good walking and cycling conditions, adequate public transit, and abundant nearby services.

Multimodal planning was normal before 1950, but for most of the last century planning has focused on accommodating automobile travel, with major investments in roads and parking facilities, and dispersed development that is difficult to access without driving. Such planning ignored non-automobile travel demands, such as those in the following box.

There are several ways to describe the value of improving transportation options. You can say that transport planning should be more diverse and multi-modal, and less automobile-dependent. You can evaluate the degree that a community is accessible or location-efficient, and whether it is walkable, bikeable. or transit-oriented, and whether it is suitable for living car-free.

Good planning requires quantitative analysis. Multimodal analysis is an emerging field. New multimodal level-of-service ratings can be used to evaluate walking, cycling and public transit service quality, to identify barriers to their use, and to set targets for improvement. New accessibility mapping systems, such as those described in the following box, calculate the time required to reach various destinations by different modes.

Although these tools are useful, none is truly comprehensive. Some measure local walking and cycling conditions, some the availability of neighborhood services, some indicate regional driving and transit travel speeds, but few consider travel financial costs, emerging mobility options such as taxi, ridehailing, and delivery services, and none integrates all of this information into a comprehensive accessibility index. These tools are also constrained by their complexity and cost: they require lots of data and analysis, and so can cost millions of dollars to create and manage. Although this may be an excellent investment, it is often infeasible. As a result, few communities have the information needed for comprehensive multimodal planning.

To fill this gap I developed the Transportation for Everyone rating system, based on extensive research concerning factors that affect accessibility. For example, good research indicates that increasing land use density and mix tends to increase the services and activities that can be reached within a given travel time, and that people who live in more walkable, bikeable, and transit-oriented neighborhoods, with carsharing services, tend to own fewer vehicles, drive less, and rely more on alternative modes. The rating system identifies ten specific factors that affect non-drivers' ability to access services and activities which are rated from 1 (worst) to 10 (best), resulting in a total score from 10 to 100. This analysis can be applied at any geographic scale, from an individual house to a neighborhood, city or region.

Transportation for Everyone Rating System

This table identifies ten factors that contribute to a multi-modal transportation system. They can be rated from 1 to 10 to provide an overall "Transportation for Everyone" score.

Of course, individuals' abilities and needs vary. Some people need an automobile for their work or personal activities, or because they have an impairment which limits their walking. On the other hand, skilled cyclists who live close to their work and have minimal caregiving responsibilities (they don't care for children or people with disabilities) may manage to live car-free in automobile-dependent areas, but these are exceptions. For most people, transportation system diversity determines whether they can meet their needs without driving. This rating system provides a good indication of an area's transportation diversity, and therefore the feasibility of households reducing their automobile ownership and use, and associated costs. An area's overall Transportation for Everyone score is indicated below.

Transportation for Everyone Score

70–100  Multimodal – A car is unnecessary for most daily travel. Many households are car-free.

50–69  Mixed – It is possible but often difficult to rely on non-automobile modes. Most households have at least one car.

0–49  Automobile Dependent – It is difficult to live without a personal car. Most households have one car per driver.

An important point is that multimodal accessibility requires an integrated system of transportation options. Multimodal planning therefore involves identifying and correcting the weakest link in the mobility chain. For example, a high public transit service rating is good but insufficient if stations have poor pedestrian access, or lack convenient taxi services and user information; this rating system can help identify those gaps.

People sometimes criticize multimodal planning as a "war on cars," but everybody can benefit from a more diverse transport system: Living in a multimodal community can provide a variety of savings and benefits, including direct user benefits and indirect external benefits, as summarized below.

The Transportation for Everyone is a small but important step toward more comprehensive and multimodal transportation planning. It is a work in progress. Please let me know what you think and how it can be improved.