Designing “Drive Slower, Travel Faster” LEAN Networks

Check out some new stuff by Metro Analytics*

With new styling and better batteries, the nerdy golf-cart has been reinvented! The market
for eBikes, scooters, and all kinds of low-speed electric vehicles is exploding! Such vehicles
are designed for short trips on 25-30-mph neighborhood roads and multi-modal paths. These slow vehicles travel faster than expensive, heavy, fast vehicles.

Low-Emission Alternative Networks (LEAN networks for Lean Vehicles!) The high-speed, heavy vehicle network often isn’t fast at all. After accounting for stop-lights and congestion, you might average just 10-20 mph quite often. So the growing popularity and low cost of low-speed human-scale vehicles makes it worth asking if it’s worth creating super-safe LEAN networks for short trips (the vast majority of trips).

Peachtree, Georgia shows the value of such networks – where bike paths double as “golf-cart
networks.” By installing just one low-cost overpass or underpass, thousands of people can suddenly connect to your commercial areas more quickly than they could get there in a regular car.

When such networks exist, many buy Neighborhood Electric Vehicles (NEV) to replace one or more of their regular cars. The elderly who can’t or shouldn’t drive heavy vehicles can still get around safely into their 90’s – if there are safe paths not required to contend with the “Drive Faster, Travel Slower” network. Such vehicles are low-cost and require far less parking. For a mere $10-million, less than one modest-sized heavy vehicle bridge, Peachtree created 25-miles of LEAN network, which included several tunnels and light-weight overpasses. That’s orders of magnitude cheaper than arterial street widening. Their commercial parking lots are full of Neighborhood Electric Vehicles.
NEVs, LEAN networks, and “Automated NEV Shuttles,” when combined, can expand transit’s reach from 1⁄4 mile around a stop, to 2-3 miles! If your area is quickly developing greenfield land, or if you need first/last-mile solutions for transit, please call us for advice on how to create a LEAN network that can fill transit, fill stores, and foster walkable development!

*I work for them. But I still think this is a good idea.