My Turn: Solving the dilemma of transportation costs

By RICHARD WITTY

Published: 02-20-2023 2:41 PM

For those people interested in reducing carbon emissions, in most cases, the strategies to do so also reduce the transportation costs of families.

The majority of transportation costs that most families experience are the costs to own private vehicles. On average, ownership costs are between two-thirds and three-quarters of the costs of transportation.

Those ownership costs can be shared. A family need not bear the dilemma of choosing whether to own no cars, one car, or two cars. 

If you own no cars, then you need to rely on friends or mass transit. Often existing mass transit doesn’t conveniently get to where one works or shops or to the doctor, so it’s a dilemma. There are inconvenient Uber and taxi services (delays).

If your family owns one car and uses it to get a primary earner to their work, then that car is used for only a small portion of its potential, and a second employee in the house has to find another way to get to work. If a family needs the equivalent of 1.5 cars, they must either do without, or pay more than they need for the second car.

What new services could alter the need for more vehicles? 

1. Commuting services — A vanpool or related service could pick up the couple hundred people that work at the hospital, or schools, or UMass, or Amazon warehouses, or large office buildings, and get them there reliably without each family needing to own and run their vehicles.

2. Inexpensive centrally sited rental services — A car could be brought to your home when you need it, and available by the hour, day, week, or other flexible period. Right now the only rental outlet in Greenfield is Enterprise, and they only rent by the day. Rental services could include use of pickups and vans, as well as private vehicles.

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3. Neighborhood or apartment sited self-service rental or cooperatively owned fleets, within walking distance of your home. It could be possible for a landlord to maintain a self-service fleet right there, perhaps with a fob, cellphone, or fingerprint ignition system, billed directly to you. Or, for a neighborhood fleet to be sited within a quarter-mile of your home.

4. Carpooling’

5. More frequent mass transit. Rather than a bus every hour or two, a vehicle on a route every 10 minutes. Also, much better climate protection at stops.

6. Ubiquitous liveries (taxis) and/or Uber/Lyft.

7. Safe non-motorized transit paths (bicycles, walking, etc.)

We are not compelled to live in a world in which the only options to get from one place to another is to buy a deliberately oversize and overpriced private vehicle from a giant manufacturer. We could have better options.

Entrepreneurs, community leaders (including new ones): Let’s build these.

Richard Witty lives in Greenfield.

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