In the next few paragraphs we are going to comment on the various merits of bike, e-bikes, e-scooters, ride share programs, transport services (taxis, Ubers, etc), motorcycles, and of course public transit systems.
First, I would like to address the ride sharing/uber/taxi option. These are transportation services and undoubtedly useful to many. I have personally belonged to several car sharing co-operatives and found that on-demand car availability was highly practical. The real benefit is to combine these services with public transit, biking, and walking which is far less expensive than personal car ownership and operation. I like cars when I need them but I do not enjoy the strain they place on household finances and much prefer them as situational asset or subscriber service rather than a possession.
Now we can turn to public transit. I am an enthusiastic supporter of public transit. When it works, which in Calgary is most of the time, it is an extremely practical solution for daily transportation. I have used public transportation in every city I have lived in and never regretted it, regardless of my ability to support a personal vehicle.
Full disclosure: both my wife and I work at home, and our family owns a GMC truck, a Volvo Wagon, and two small displacement engine motorbikes. And we all use public transit extensively while travelling around the city. It is true that I don’t drive the Volvo because I find the driver’s seat uncomfortably small. The truck, though much more comfortable for me, moves only when there is need to move large cargo. Its massive eight litre engine has a nearly unslakable thirst for petrol that is much too expensive to fuel and its emissions are by far too great for daily use. That leaves the motorbikes (combined engine displacement of 0.3 litres) as my primary personal transport, but only for eight or nine months of the year. Therefore, and necessarily, I spend approximately about a quarter of my total traveling time on public transit in an environment in which most of my days are spent working at home. I fully realize that this situation is not possible or desirable for everyone; nevertheless it is, I think, a wholly reasonable response to incipient environmental concerns of daily living.
Transit works as well as one is prepared to work with it. This is to say that route maps, schedules, and public transit information support of all kinds is part of successfully and reliably using the system. In addition - and this goes for all modes of transportation - trip planning incorporates such considerations as a matter of course, regardless of transportation mode. Again, making the most of one’s excursions, fulfilling multiple goals, and reaching several destinations is advantageous and very much worth the effort in saved expense and reduced environmental utilization. It is, in short, the whole point of the exercise.
There are, of course, the familiar critiques of public transit. Chief among these is that such systems are crowded, unreliable, and unsafe. Crowded? Yes, at peak times, but much less so in off-peak hours. This is a fact of all aspects of city life that we must accept. Unreliable? Again, much less so than we are often made to believe by detractors of public transit who seldom use the system. I often make much better time on public transit during peak travel hours, thanks to dedicated bus lanes and their connection to trains, than I do by car. The next time you are challenged by rush hour traffic consider all the people grinding along, one to a car, enduring gridlock, when use of public transit might have served them much better. Finally, the issue of safety. Public transit is as safe as we make it which, apparently, is very safe. Statistically, transit is safer than driving by a wide margin (incurring only between ten to twenty percent of the fatalities, accidents, and crime of private vehicle traffic) according to just about any reputable study one wishes to consult. Perhaps we can suppose that the insular culture here in North America of houses, cars, office cubicles, and ‘personal space’ - to say nothing of the propaganda and disinformation spread by internet sources - is ill suited to embrace the reality and actual greater safety and efficiency of public transit. There is an economic disposition and phobia at work here. I argue that the use of public transit systems, in the public consciousness, infers the inability to own and operate a motor vehicle, and therefore is a symbol of poverty rather than an icon of democratic social/environmental responsibility. If you can move past this outmoded stereotype, the world of multimodal transportation opens before you.
Now we move on to bicycles and e-bikes. I would place motorcycles in this category but because of their variety, size, power, and requirement of licensing, registration, and insurance coverage, I believe that they require separate consideration. Bicycles and bikes equipped with electric motors are excellent alternatives to reliance on a car for transport. They are especially attractive if one can use them in tandem with public transit, and if one’s workplace/destination has secure facilities to store your bike and a locker room with showers to refresh oneself after riding. I am alluding to the practice of bicycle commuting of course which I believe works best if one can arrive at their destination without the need for personal ablution. Bike/train/bus combinations are particularly useful in this respect. Effective range for this sort of riding is generally considered to be five to seven kilometers. Beyond this range questions of personal fitness, arduousness, and exposure to city traffic - remember what I said about the length of supply lines at the outset - begin to figure prominently. The effort-saving properties and total lack of emissions of electric bikes - yes, I know, these bikes incur environmental costs in other respects - can and do extend range, and this is certainly all to the good. However, e-bikes, as opposed to regular bicycles, do come with their own set of caveats that require careful consideration. E-bikes are expensive and require charging for their batteries. Most e-bikes without power are quite unwieldy and very heavy when compared to their conventional counterparts. Further, e-bikes accelerate faster and take longer to stop. It is highly recommended, if you are considering an e-bike purchase or are a new owner of one of these machines, to a significant amount of time getting to know its idiosyncrasies, particularly if you are returning to cycling after a long period of time. There is surely good reason to re-evaluate e-bikes and electric scooters in terms of licensing and liability simply because they are powered, but for the sake of brevity we shall allow that matter to rest for the time being.
Motorcycles are a very different matter however. As I have mentioned before, my motorcycle is a car and public transit replacement largely during the snow free months. I call this seasonally multimodal transportation. My motorcycle is a 2005 Honda P250 Big Ruckus. It is black and yellow and on it I look like the motorcycling bear that escaped from the Moscow Circus. However it is swift, agile in city traffic, extremely fuel efficient, cheap to insure, and inexpensive to maintain. I can range the city over on the Big Ruckus and still emit only a fraction of the exhaust of even the smallest cars. Such is the environmental allure of relatively small engine motorcycles. Because my physical effort on the bike does not leave me soaked with perspiration, I need no shower when I reach my destination, and require less than a metre of parking space (nearly always available). The motorcycle is also its own security. My machine, like most, possesses a lockable steering column, in addition to the fact that it weighs in the neighbourhood of four-hundred pounds. It is not, therefore, easily stolen. In fact the lightest gas powered scooters and motorbikes, barring some notable exceptions, are seldom less than two-hundred pounds. It is easy to see why they are not allowed on busses and trains in the way that are bicycles and e-bikes. This, and the fact that gas powered motorbikes feature hot exhaust manifolds that are not generally welcome in enclosed spaces, makes it necessary to consider them separately. Finally, on the point of accessibility, it worth noting that anyone with a valid driver’s license can operate a 50cc. engine scooter/moped/motorbike without having to take additional testing in the province of Alberta.
The greatest criticism of the motorcycle as an alternate form of transportation is one of safety. I will not attempt to refute this, nor will I pretend that motorcycling culture is free from all manner of toxic attitudes and behaviours. True, motorcycling can be dangerous, but it is important to remember that it does not have to be, and for the bulk of riders motorcycling is not inherently risky. Also true are the numerous reports and statistics that cite the number of crashes and fatalities in motorcycling, and there is no escaping the pervasive attitude of manufacturers that promote aggressive to the point of suicidal riding practices on ridiculously overpowered machines. That being said, riding within one’s ability, in accord with traffic laws and ordinances, and being aware of oneself, one’s surroundings, and other traffic on the road cuts the risk enormously. You will be sneered at for resisting the motorcycling stereotype but you will gain much more, including the sure and certain knowledge that you are doing your best to tread lightly on the planet.
Our previous remarks on preparedness extend into “moto-commuting”. I am an advocate of ‘all the gear, all the time’ so really the only thing that changes when I am on the motorbike is my apparel. It is generally heavier in all respects, especially on my hands and my feet, and of course my full face covering helmet. There is much to be said, perhaps better in a dedicated moto-commuting blog, about what it means to be fit for the bike and aware upon the road. I shall limit my remarks here to an additional reminder. It does not matter what mode of transport you select if you are tired, hungry, dehydrated, or under-prepared. On the motorbike all these deficiencies are magnified by power and speed as are any benefits of freedom and mobility. If ridden with awareness and responsibility, a small cc motorbike, like any two-wheeled conveyance, is a highly capable asset among one’s choices of environmentally responsible transportation options.
