That still doesn't exactly solve the "30% of seniors thing", though.

And quite a few of them have will have unplanned trips to do from very sparsely distributed locations (also known as "houses in the countryside") to other very sparsely distributed locations (aka "their doctor" or "their family").

Also, car loan is perfectly suitable for planned, long distance trips with lots of cargo, which unfortunately happen at the same time for everyone (they're also known as "vacations"). I would not want to be Hertz on the 15th of August in a world without personal cars - unless you ban people from traveling cross country to see their family twice a year, which might be required.

I used to bet on "small scale on demand public transportation", but it requires either "communities paying drivers" or "engineers solving self-driving in rural roads", none of which is happening anytime soon.

In the meantime, though, we have to invest in trains, bike lanes, and downsize cars at the same time as electrifying them.

Mobility devices are great for bike lanes. What's funny about this comparison is that you're ignoring children, who absolutely cannot drive.

Well, they're part of the "cargo" during holidays, I suppose ;) ?

But yes, of course children need a different kind of transportation.

Though, arguably, it's easier to pedal with your toddler on your back than with your grandma !

I'm curious, is "30% of seniors thing" solved by having a car in the US? Here in Japan, driving by senior is getting more problematic. Senior people live in rural are hard to give up having cars because public transport is getting poor and rural town have shrunk because of car society. Older people tend to cause car accident and anyway every people finally can't drive, so gov want them to release their license earlier.

Is "realising licences for old people" a thing in Japan ? I can't event imagine someone arguing for that in France. (Old people are practically the only ones to vote in substantial numbers.)

What's the typical age limit ?

There are no hard age limit but over 75yo needs cognitive test when renewing license. IMO "driving by old people isn't the best way for transport" is general consensus now, even for most old people. But many people still want driving to live because there are very few alternative, and rural farmers are tend to old. Hate for old dangerous arrogance driver is increased by an notorious deadly accident in 2019. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Higashi-Ikebukuro_runaway_car_...

The point was precisely that all of these odd jobs are individually occasional but collectively common. You only need to move a mattress once every few years, but you also take camping trips a few times a year, you have vet appointments several times per year, you want to take your dog to a more remote park a couple times a month, you want to take your kids (and all of the things they require) to visit their relatives out of state a few times a year (plus other road trips), you have to transport large furniture or shopping items a dozen times per year, etc.

Moreover, it’s also just convenient to be able to get across town in half the time that you can by public transit.