Mobility Options Hit a Speed Bump

Tim Jackson, who formerly headed a state automobile dealer association, is an avid bicyclist.

He loves both his bike and car. But he wouldn’t give up the latter in this age of alternative mobility. It’s a time in which some ardent environmentalists want the number of cars drastically reduced, especially in big cities.

He thinks some such people are going to extremes.

“It’s impractical to expect society to give up its cars,” Jackson, CEO of the Colorado Automobile Dealers Assn. for 18 years, tells WardsAuto.

Who wants their own car these days? Well, just about everybody.

Yet some forecasters, pointing to a growing list of mobility options, once saw an uncertain outlook for personal cars.

A few headlines from the recent past: 

“Say Goodbye to Owning Your Own Car.”

“Is a Post-Car Future Actually Possible? Experts Say Yes.”

“The Days of Personal Car Ownership Could be Numbered”

Those were provocative propositions “for a while,” says Renee Slocum, a strategic consultant for market-research firm Ipsos. 

She joins Ipsos colleague Graham Gordon for a Society of Automotive Analysts presentation entitled, “Will the Personal Vehicle Ever Be Supplanted?”

The answer: Never say never, but currently, the most-used mode of transportation (81%) by far is the personal vehicle. That’s according to Ipsos survey sources which also indicate that 92% of respondents prefer their own vehicles to get around.

It’s a car-centric world, says Gordon, Ipsos’s director-U.S. automotive and mobility.

“There is interest in mobility options but we’re not seeing much growth,” he says. “We’ve heard before that personal vehicles are in trouble, but we’re not seeing that.”

There’s a “cautiously optimistic” future for alternative mobility, but for now, personal vehicles still reign, he says.

Slocum adds: “Our current mobility options are far from perfect. Only 60% of surveyed people are satisfied with their ability to get around.”

Take Your Pick

Options include ride-hailing services such as Uber and Lyft, which have become popular in populated areas but are nonexistent in many less-populated areas.     

Walking is an alternative for relatively short trips. Even so, some survey respondents call many urban areas “pedestrian unfriendly.”

Electric scooters are another option, yet some cities (including San Francisco, New York and Honolulu) ban or restrict them as public-safety threats.   

Then there are bicycles. They are among the most popular forms of alternative mobility. But they’re not so hot when winter hits snowbelt states. Sunbelt places like Florida are another story, though intense heat can prompt riders to abandon them.

Mass transit? It moves millions of urbanites from here to there. But not every city has a subway or bus system. “My city of 500,000 people does not have a bus system,” says an Ipsos survey participant.

Car-sharing companies such as Zipcar were once heralded as potential game-changers. But Ipsos ranks car sharing as dead last (11%) among surveyed people’s mobility preferences.

 “Cars do too many things well for them to be completely abandoned,” Gordon says.

The I-Hate-Cars Crowd

Even so, some people disdain automobiles, says Jackson, author of a 2024 book, “Dude, Where’s My Flying Car?”

“Rabid environmentalists are working on policy positions to get people out of cars,” he says. “They cite quality of life. We all want that. But to me, quality of life involves cars.”

He notes that many cities have converted vehicular traffic lanes to bicycle lanes. He’s all for designated bike lanes, but he wants them separate from main roads, not part of them.

“I don’t want to be biking down Broadway Avenue (a major Denver thoroughfare) even if there’s a bike lane,” says Jackson, who bicycles up to 4,000 miles (6,400 km) a year.

Leaders of some cities, such as New York, are considering charging a toll for motorists entering Manhattan. London has a similar system in place to reduce traffic congestion. Some urban areas have cut down on the number of available parking places. 

Jackson deems those acts as misguided.

“My concern is that (such fees) will hurt a lot of big-city offerings like restaurants, nightlife and cultural events,” he says. “If people from the suburbs have a hard time getting into a city, they won’t go.”      

In his book on so-called flying cars (which don’t look like conventional cars), he says about 200 companies are working on developing them.

 They will include collision-avoidance systems and the ability to take off and land vertically.

“The sky is the new frontier of mobility,” Jackson says.

He foresees flying cars in commercial operation by early next decade, initially as taxis.

“Add them to the mobility list,” he says.