Car Sharing

Yonah Freemark and Ryan Avent have some discussion on the urban benefits of car sharing services.

Yonah:

The end result, at least theoretically: fewer cars on the road, more efficient use of each automobile, and fewer parking spaces needed. It has proven a cheaper alternative to taxis and car rentals and has been quickly adopted.

The problem, of course, is that many of the people using car sharing programs once weren’t using any cars at all, meaning that the easy access to vehicle actually means an increase in overall car use. Zipcar’s campaign earlier this year to convince New York City pedestrians that they could be getting around more quickly in an automobile suggests that the service’s best market is among people who are currently walking, biking, or taking transit to get to work. Should cities be encouraging car-share programs if the end result is to convince people who don’t use automobiles today to use them in the future?

Ryan:

In cities where a carless lifestyle is somewhat more marginal (like Washington) the existence of a zipcar service is a huge comfort to those thinking about giving up their automobiles.

And I don’t think there is anything wrong with acknowledging the fact that for some things, the availability of an automobile is hugely advantageous. Carrying around big or bulky loads on foot is hard and unpleasant. The ability to use a car for, say, a trip to the hardware store or to the market in preparation for a big dinner party significantly increases the convenience of city life.

There’s nothing wrong with cars, per se.  My personal ZipCar use in DC is quite limited for personal trips.  I don’t really use it much as a replacement for walking and transit errand trips – my uses are for trips that require a car, regardless.  Another case where ZipCar is quite useful has been for business trips.  Previously, working in downtown DC but with frequent client meetings in non-transit accessible areas of Northern VA, ZipCar enabled me to take transit into the office, grab a car within a very short walk of the office, use the car for a meeting, and return to the office without worrying about parking.

One instance actually involved using ZipCar for a longer, overnight business trip up to suburban New York.  Given the ability to pick the car up right at the office and drop it off the same, as well as the inclusion of gas, the rates for the trip were similar to renting a car from a ‘regular’ outlet.

To me, there’s no doubt that car sharing presents a net positive.  I predicate that notion on the idea that car trips are not inherently bad.

Hill East, baby.

DCmud offers thoughts on living in Hill East, my ‘hood.  It’s a thorough description of the area, including the neighboring retail options in Eastern Market.  Unfortunately, the comments on the piece devolve into some back and forth, denigrating condo-living gentrifiers and other newcomers to the area.  It’s unfortunate that residents don’t see any role for different housing options in their neighborhood, as these new options would certainly make the area stronger.  It’s also not the first time these sentiments have arisen in the area.

Transit and Land Use

There have also been some good posts on the Corridor Cities Transitway – The transport politic offers an explanation of the possible alternatives, as does BeyondDC.   The ‘better’ routes (at least in terms of serving potential users) are undoubtedly more snake-like, due to the locations of the various transit nodes.

Jarrett Walker notes how the land use in the area puts transit in a poor position – either option isn’t exactly how you’d like to draw it up if given a blank slate.

As a result, Maryland now has to choose between a direct yellow line that misses key destinations and a blue line that serves them but is maddeningly circuitous, especially compared to the freeway that this line would compete with.

There is no clearer example of this basic principle:  Public transit’s usefulness is determined by land use planning more than by transit planning. Once you’ve arranged your major land use nodes to form a squiggle, you’ve pretty much prohibited efficient public transit.

Indeed.  Once the basic patterns are put in place, there’s only so much that fixed guideway transit can do.  There’s not a universal solution for simply adding rail lines to make everything better.