private transport#Personal transport

{{Short description|Private vehicles or commercial fleets optionally carrying passengers or freight}}

{{About|private vehicles or commercial fleets optionally carrying passengers or freight|private vehicles or commercial fleets without passengers or freight|Personal transport (disambiguation){{!}}Personal transport}}

File:07-08 Chevrolet Suburban LT.jpg, are a common method of private transport.]]

File:Larousse universel en 2 volumes; nouveau dictionnaire encyclopédique publié sous la direction de Claude Augé (1922) (14596082918).jpg

File:Cycle bridge over the M11 - geograph.org.uk - 705991.jpg sign in the United Kingdom, for people heading into a city centre to transfer between private and public transport ]]

Private transport (as opposed to public transport) is the personal or individual use of transportation which are not available for use by the general public, where in theory the user can decide freely on the time and route of transit ('choice rider' vs. 'captive rider'{{cite web| url=https://trt.trb.org/trt.asp?NN=Mwatc|title=Transportation Research Thesaurus: Captive riders|publisher=The National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine|website=The National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine|access-date=2019-04-02}}), using vehicles such as: private car, company car, bicycle, dicycle, self-balancing scooter, motorcycle, scooter, aircraft, boat, snowmobile, carriage, horse, etc., or recreational equipment such as roller skates, inline skates, sailboat, sailplane, skateboard etc.

Definition

Private transport is in contrast to public transport, and commercial non-public transport. While private transportation may be used alongside nearly all modes of public transportation, private railroad cars are rare (e.g. royal train), although heritage railways are not. Unlike many forms of public transportation, which may be government subsidized or operated by privately owned commercial organizations for mass or general public use, the entire cost of private transportation is born directly or indirectly by the individual user(s). However some scholars argue that it is inaccurate to say that the costs are covered by individual user because big (and often dominant) part of cost of private transportation is the cost of infrastructure on which individual trips rely. They therefore work also with model of quasi-private mobility.{{Cite journal|last=Urry|first=John|date=October 2004|title=The 'System' of Automobility|journal=Theory, Culture & Society|volume=21|issue=4–5|pages=25–39|doi=10.1177/0263276404046059|s2cid=5434134 |issn=0263-2764|url=http://rcin.org.pl/Content/66739}}

=Personal transport=

Private transportation includes both non-motorized methods of private transit (pedestrians, cyclists, skaters, etc.) and all forms of self-propelled transport vehicles.

==Shared personal transport==

Non-public passenger transport in vehicles owned by the driver or passenger or operated by the driver.

=Commercial transport=

==Shared vehicle fleets without driver==

{{Further|Bicycle sharing system|Car rental|Carsharing|Personal public transport|Vehicle fleet|Zipline}}Self driven transport in vehicles not owned by either the passengers or driver.

==Shared vehicle fleets with driver==

{{Further|Campaign bus|Demand responsive transport|People mover|Shared transport|Vehicle for hire}}

Non-scheduled transit vehicles, taxicabs and rickshaws, which are rented or hired in the short-term on-demand with driver, belong, even if the user can freely decide on the time and route of transit, to the special forms of 'public transport'.{{citation needed|date=February 2021}}

==Shared individual vehicle journeys==

{{Further|Ferry|Heritage railway|Microtransit|Share taxi|Tour bus}}

Means of transport are fixed route and fixed schedule passenger services, for example, excursion riverboats, tourist cable cars, resort ski lifts.

Usage

Private transport is the dominant form of transportation in most of the world. In the United States, for example, 86.2% of passenger miles are by passenger vehicles, motorcycles, and trucks.{{cite web

|url=http://www.bts.gov/publications/pocket_guide_to_transportation/2008/html/table_04_03.html|title=Table 4-3 Passenger-Miles: 1990-2005|website=bts.gov|publisher=Bureau of Transportation Statistics|access-date=12 Mar 2008}}

Examples of private transport

File:Minneapolis Critical Mass August 29, 2008 (2812714739).jpg

Sustainability

Cycling and walking, above all, have been recognized as the most sustainable transport systems. In general, all muscle-driven mobility will have a similar energy efficiency while at the same time being almost emission-free (apart from the {{CO2}} exhaled during breathing).

The negative environmental impact of private transport can be alleviated by choosing the optimal modal share for a given environment and transport requirements.