Getting There

After a hiatus due to COVID-19, rideshare electric scooters are back on Sacramento streets. They are a relatively new transportation option, around in the U.S. since 2017. Just about everyone who rides a scooter knows how much fun it is.

Unfortunately, there’s growing evidence that e-scooters also pose danger. As shared e-scooters have proliferated in cities, scooter trips and injuries have surged. Injuries nearly doubled between 2018 and 2019.

The pandemic has dramatically affected how we get around. While movement has rebounded from lockdown lows in March and April, people still travel less, decreasing road congestion from pre-coronavirus peaks.

Public transit has seen the steepest declines. On New York City subways and Bay Area Rapid Transit, passenger loads plummeted 90 percent. Sacramento Regional Transit lost 75 percent of its riders. Ridership has recovered a bit, but levels are still far below norms. The revenue loss created an existential crisis for transit. Even in the best of times, transit finances are perilous. It will take time, and maybe a vaccine, for people to feel comfortable enough to flock back to buses and trains.

Traffic stops are the way most people encounter police. About 25 million such contacts occurred in 2015, according to the U.S. Department of Justice. Should those interactions always include an officer with a gun?

One consequence of current traffic law enforcement is that Americans, including a disproportionate number of Black citizens, have wound up dead after being stopped. The instigation is often minor: a broken taillight, an improper lane change.

Activists for walking and bicycling sometimes refer to drivers as “cagers” since automobilists are encased by a ton or more of metal and cut off from their environment.
In the age of COVID-19, instead of being a cage, a car seems more like a protective steel bubble in a world that’s turned hostile. When they aren’t staying home, people take advantage of that protection when they venture out, even taking pleasure rides when cabin fever becomes too much.

The coronavirus pandemic’s impact on transportation has been so profound and pervasive that simply listing the changes is overwhelming. Overnight, we adjusted how far we travel and how we get around.

Air travel and public transit have been decimated. Cruise ships are anchored in port. Congestion on the roads has disappeared as vehicle trips evaporate or shrink. Emptier streets have increased driving speeds. Social distancing makes shared trips via ride-hailing services like Uber and Lyft suspect.

The world’s population keeps growing. In 1900, the planet was home to 1.6 billion people. Today, the population is 7.7 billion and it’s projected to approach 10 billion in the next 30 years. Most of the growth will be in urbanized areas.

The California Department of Finance expects Sacramento County’s population to increase 54 percent by 2060—nearly 800,000 more people. El Dorado and Placer counties are growing at faster rates. Yolo County is just behind. Those three counties could add another 430,000 residents to the region’s population, bringing the newcomer total to more than 1.2 million.