06071 Transportation and Access Inventory
The city as a center where, any day in any year, there may be a fresh encounter with a new talent, a keen mind or a gifted specialist-this is essential to the life of a country. To play this role in our lives a city must have a soul-a university, a great art or music school, a cathedral or a great mosque or temple, a great laboratory or scientific center, as well as the libraries and museums and galleries that bring past and present together. A city must be a place where groups of women and men are seeking and developing the highest things they know. -- Margaret Mead
You need an accurate vision of your transportation situation to do good design work. How you get to that is up to you. As with all of our inventory commentary, these are questions to help you observe your transportation and geographic situation. Use them if they are helpful. Do something else if you don’t find them helpful.
Personal Automobile Transportation
How many automobiles do you own and operate? List them by make, model, year, amount owed and the interest rate if not paid for, the amount of miles driven per year, and the purposes of your driving. If you don’t know how many miles you drive per year, or the purposes of your driving, estimate for now, but start keeping track of your trips and the purposes of your goings and comings. With this information, you understand your baseline so you know, over time, if you do better or worse than your history.
How much money does automobile habit cost you each year? Add up the gasoline, taxes, insurance, repairs, capital cost. If you don’t have this information, start collecting it.
If you don’t own a vehicle, GOOD FOR YOU. This is a significant sustainability accomplishment. Describe how you get around to the various geographies of your life.
Include cab rides in personal automobile transportation. Report them separately from the expenses and miles of your personal vehicle, or in place of a personal vehicle if you do not own a car.
Public Transportation
What access do you have to mass transit? Which of the routine destinations of your life can you reach by public transit? How often do you use mass transit?
Estimate the miles ridden per year on public transportation within your city or metropolitan area. If there are multiple forms of public transportation, quantify your travel by mode of travel.
How much money do you spend on public transportation in the year?
Travel
List your trips outside of your city or metropolitan area, by mode of travel, mileage, and expense. Total the miles and expenses for each mode of travel.
Non-fossil Fuel Travel
List miles ridden and expenses related to non-fossil fuel travel (bicycle, tricycle, electric vehicle, roller skates).
Personal Geographies
Make a list of the routine destinations of your life. List their distance from your dwelling. List their distance from each other if there are any that you travel to from a starting point other than your house.
Classify these destinations by their purposes, the frequency of your visits to them, and the method you use to reach them (walk, ride a bus, drive a car, etc.)