Saturday, August 1, 2015

Multifaceted Transportation Systems


Creative routing gave me a 10-hour layover in Amsterdam last week while on a business trip. This is definitely not the prettiest picture I took, but if you look carefully you can see pedestrians, cyclists, automobiles and a trolley on rails, all on one street.

In Amsterdam I saw thousands of parked bicycles, perhaps tens of thousands. There were multilevel parking garages full of them. Bike racks were tucked into every nook of the city. I tried to imagine the space that would have been required to park so many automobiles. Many streets were filled with pedestrians, cyclists, motorists, and transit commuters. I tried to imagine how congested it would have been if they were all in automobiles.

It is easy to see that Amsterdam is still drivable, not in spite of the cyclists, pedestrians, and transit options, but because of the varied transportation options.

As Provo grows, we need to develop a multifaceted transportation system to give people options in how they get around and to keep our community mobile. If you are a driver, and you would like to keep convenient, efficient commutes, then please support the development of a complete transportation system, it is in your own best interest.

No comments:

Post a Comment