Reply #60: Problems with multimodal vehicles

[dcfirefighter]

From a safety perspective, they have to be desinged for their most hazardous working environment: the street. But all that weight and technology is useless when it's sitting on a train.

Likewise, all that expense and technology is useless when it's parked, taking up valuable urban space.

Why not just rent or borrow a car when you get off the train?

I'm quite sure that if the true costs of fuel, road, and parking use weren't nearly completely hidden from the user, we'd use far less cars. Likewise, if the socially created value of urban lots was shared, rather than privatized, we'd have a lot more destinations within walking distance of transit stops; we'd also have a lot more transit stops: e.g. building a transit system may cost millions of dollars, but it creates billions of dollars in property value. Socialize that value to pay for the transit.