It was, of course, the railroads and the increase in personal travel and freight that created the demand for a "last mile" transport system that led to a substantial increase in horse drawn carriages and carts and, with their many disadvantages, drove the race to develop a horseless carriage. So there is no generic conflict between a substantial role for transport services on dedicated transport corridors and personal transport across a broad network of public rights of way.

However, new employment centers in the United States are located away from public transport routes because of a substantial system of subsidies and zoning controls that strongly encourages it and, in some cases, come close to demanding it. Changing that, changes the individual cost-benefit of Auto-And-Nothing-Else.

And personal vehicles that provide supplemental local transport, including to stops on dedicated transport corridors, are cheaper today, in total cost of ownership, than a car. Experience in many places has shown that with availability of effective services on dedicated transport corridors, combined with TOD, can result in a substantial change in the mode-split.

We do not know how close we are to a threshold where there is a positive feedback between the benefit to retailers to cater to those in non-freeway-speed vehicles and the increased appeal of local vehicles because of the range of those catering to local vehicles ... but if we hit that threshold, we will clearly leave an auto-centric transport system in the direction of a diversified system.

I've been accused of being a Marxist, yet while Harpo's my favourite, it's Groucho I'm always quoting. Odd, that.