Let the Journey Begin
Introducing a new transportation newsletter from two Canadian researchers
One of your Ride On writers fondly remembers getting his first driver’s license when he was a teen, followed by his first car: a brown 1986 Mercury Marquis. To this young metal-head, this car was the embodiment of freedom, as no longer did he have to ride the bus to and from school every day: he could drive himself at his leisure while blasting Mötley Crüe through the car’s tape deck! And on Friday nights when he wanted to go on his weekly mission to rent videos and buy Coke and munchies, he could quickly drive to his destinations while listening to Nirvana’s new single, “Smells Like Teen Spirit” on the radio. It felt so great to be able to blast this music without his father complaining that it is too loud!
A couple years later when that car bit the dust, but before he could afford another one, this writer rode the train to and from Ottawa where he was a university undergrad studying Economics. He felt so relaxed staring out the window while the train clickity-clacked down the tracks while the theme to the Littlest Hobo ran through his head, and he imagined what was out there beyond the fields. There was a whole world out there to discover, and his imagination ran wild with the possibilities!
When this young dreamer then graduated with his Master’s degree and got a job at the Canadian Competition Bureau, he started studying airline markets for a case in which Air Canada was accused of predation against two of its young competitors: CanJet and WestJet. It was also for this case that he traveled on an airplane for the first time: a turbo-prop from Ottawa to Toronto — certainly not the smoothest ride for a first-timer, and also not a long trip to any kind of exotic destination, but it was still exciting to imagine where a big metal bird could take someone.*
* This was also before 2001, so traveling by air was a lot less stressful, but we digress.
Over the years since then, as both of your Ride On writers moved on to Edmonton and then to Calgary, the importance of well-functioning transportation markets has been front-and-centre in our minds, not only professionally but also personally. We now both travel strictly on public transportation for many reasons, including financial and environmental; doing so has highlighted once again the importance of well-functioning transportation markets to personal freedoms. For example, if one does not have access to an automobile for whatever reason, then they are effectively held captive to how frequently bus routes operate, how well connections are timed, how accessible they are to persons with disabilities, or whether a bus will show up late (or not at all) due to weather or mechanical issues. Recent stories such as this one in The Sprawl demonstrate that when a person can lose their job due to problems with public transit, they are motivated to leave much earlier than otherwise necessary for their bus/train to work, so their personal and economic freedoms are diminished.
All of this is to demonstrate that transportation markets are vital to economies, cultures and their citizens. Well-organized transportation systems help connect us all with each other as well as with the goods and services we need to live, work and play. When supply chains are effected by a pandemic, grocery prices can rise significantly as supplies of groceries on store shelves can also be significantly reduced. Even in the absence of a pandemic, people in remote communities (such as in northern Canada) have problems accessing quality food in sufficient quantities due to sub-par transportation systems for those supplies.
It is therefore the mission of your Ride On writers to conduct research into different transportation systems of all kinds, whether by geography (i.e., local, regional, national, international), mode of travel (e..g, car, bus, train, airplane, boat), what is being transported (e.g., people vs. cargo), or level of government involvement (i.e., public, private, or mixed). We will conduct case studies and comparative analyses to understand what creates an optimal transit system under various conditions, both theoretically and practically, with due consideration for political factors that come into play.
We hope you will join us in this journey, during which issues of this newsletter will be published every Friday starting January 6, 2023. To receive new posts and support our work, please consider becoming a free or paid subscriber. Also, this post is public, so feel free to share it. Finally, please give us feedback and suggestions for what you would like to see us cover in the future.