Personal mobility is not what it used to be...

Another one from the vault. Personal mobility is a derived demand, derived from a more fundamental demand for “access”, access to products and services, access to gainful employment, access to cultural and educational enrichment, access to recreational and leisure experiences. The market is for access, not mobility, and the distinction is a critical one. There are instructive parallels between the access vs. mobility issue in transportation planning and the conservation vs. energy growth debate of the 1970's. I wrote this article in 1996, but conversations at recent conferences have suggested it might still have some mileage all these years later.