December 14, 2018

Peter Ladner on the Urban Mobility Revolution

Peter delivered this talk at the Get Inspired Talks, on October 20, 2018.

For decades Peter Ladner has been trying out better ways to get around Vancouver than driving alone at a huge cost. In this video, Peter describes how we can move around Vancouver using ways that are easier, healthier, cheaper and more convenient. Peter is chair of the David Suzuki Foundation board and the Better Transit and Transportation Coalition. He is a former Vancouver City Councillor, TransLink board member, business owner and journalist.

(Click for video.)

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Arnie Carnegie
December 14, 2018 at 11:44 am

What an extraordinarily long-winded uninformative and boring presentation; and suggesting you might meet your significant other on a bus … be still my beating heart.
“Carshare” is not sharing – it’s rental – and filthy rich companies like Mercedes, who own Car2Go, should get no special privileges.
And what happens to all these vehicles at the end of their short working life? Care to buy a one owner car that’s had five thousand drivers? How do you treat rentals?
One person renting a car from Mercedes is not sharing.
Parking should be pricey, and definitely not free on our residential streets. That would discourage car ownership.
To really get people out of the ownership mindset, vehicle advertising should be treated like tobacco. Just ban it.
We now have mortgage stress tests. There should be something similar for buying a vehicle, but far tougher. If you can’t buy your vehicle and pay for insurance, maintenance, and repairs – for CASH – and have lots left over, you have no business buying one. Because, as Mr Ladner ponts out, that pile of metal is going to cost you $10K/year. Just stop with the leasing and financing.
I bought my basic 5sp wagon for cash almost 26 years ago. It costs me almost nothing to drive because I use it so sparingly and do my own basic maintenance. The big waste of cash is bloody insurance which is more than twice the purchase price during these years.
The finance model would be over a quarter million dollars wasted.
As obsessed as my preteen son is about cars, I doubt he’ll buy one. My teenage daughter? No way. They understand the monumental waste of cash.

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1. Ron van der Eerden
  December 14, 2018 at 1:03 pm
  
  Shared or rental… in either case car share systems have between 30 and 70 members per car. That’s an extremely efficient distribution of the downsides of embodied energy and materials. Because of heavy use they’ll certainly be replaced much more often than a quarter century, but you cannot boast a lighter footprint than that even if they’re replaced every five years.
  
  Meanwhile each fleet upgrade comes with the latest energy-efficiency gains and pollution reduction. A high percent of car-share cars are hybrids and Modo has several electric and plug-in electric vehicles.
  
  Modo is a coop – not a “filthy rich company”. But I have no problem with the other “big greedy corporations” that work with a business model that drives down car use, energy demand and pollution.
  
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Arnie Carnegie
December 14, 2018 at 12:03 pm

The picture of the electric bicycle with baskets on the front and back is unfortunate. This is an unstable arrangement. Weight must be down low. Bicycles should have panniers. Unfortunately, bicycles with suspensions, which has been the trend since the eighties, are hard to fit with bags.
Ideally, there should be panniers front and rear. Jamming stuff into rear panniers only is unstable and can create a dangerous wobble.
The other problem with suspensions is BOB. You waste energy bouncing the bike. It is far better to have a properly sprung seat. Not only is it comfortable, but on an aggressive ascent, you actually develop power with a BUTT BOB. I kid you not.
The problem with these types of saddles is cost. And theft. The Brooks B33 is over $200. The B73 almost $300.
The number one purchasers of Brooks saddles are Germans. And Italian Selle Royale now owns the company. Think about that.
The idea of electric bikes is good, but they’re still too damn heavy; cumbersome.

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