Car, Train, or E-Bike?

It’s the monumental challenge. Which gets you from point A to B faster: A car, a train, or an E-Bike?

The Hollywood Reporter took on such a challenge. Three of their writers decided to test which way was fastest in light of a new Metro line to Santa Monica being added to their system. Three riders, one in a car, another on train, and another on E-Bike started at a Starbucks in Downtown LA and found their fastest way to a Starbucks in Santa Monica. Which do you think was the fastest?

I’ll leave that to later … but the process is interesting…

If you care about the details of transportation, you’ll love it, and the details should not be ignored. The E-Bike rider talks about the problem with vehicles in his bike lane (a decent problem her in the Syderville Basin). There are comments about how drivers use their e-devices instead of driving, thus slowing things down. The train rider notes that the train is both relaxing and generally empty for much of his ride (It’s like when I’m the only rider on a red eye on Delta… I feel good for me… but bad for Delta).

So, which mode of transportation was fastest from downtown LA to Santa Monica? Wait for it… The Car.

Yep, the old fangled.

It must be stated that the e-bike rider said that he estimated his speed was equal to the cars (but he arrived a few minutes later) and that the train rider said that “I may have come in third (behind the train rider and the car), but sounds to me as if I had the best commute of all.

The more I read, the more I come to the conclusion that we in Park City aren’t going to “solve” transportation at all. There will be a number of different modes. As a rider/driver/passenger, sometimes you’ll win and sometimes you’ll lose… but winning and losing is all subjective.

I hope we don’t spend $60 million to learn that lesson though.