I do what I can not to drive. We have a car, but I predominantly bike, scoot and walk. We’re also among the best-served neighbourhoods in Ottawa with transit, fortunate to have multiple useful bus routes near by as well as the LRT. A couple of years ago, I bought an e-kick scooter and that’s been a game-changer. Within my neighbourhood, walking, biking, scooting and busing are all good options. To get around the city, the new LRT is easy to reach by scooter and bike, and navigating the system with either is easy. For some trips, I choose to drive.

I think there’s a sweet spot when each of the different modes makes the most sense. In 2024, I’ll be tracking as carefully as I can the trips I make and how I make them. For the purpose of this tracking, I’m calling a trip a journey from a starting point to some finish point, tracking the number of stops I make along the way. If I commute to work by bike, the journey there is a trip, and so is the journey back. For any given trip, the destination is assumed to be the stop furthest away from my starting point since my assumption is that distance will be what drives my modal choice.