Behold, our modern commuting options: Arterial, collector, and local roads; transit routes; bike and pedestrian lanes. But is there more?
Sure: Forest Travel. Routes through the woods. Anything to pull up our Big Green Commute score.
In other words:
WWRD – What Would Radagast Do? Bunny sleds, that’s what Radagast would do.
Sounds odd, but after all, this is the wizard who was assigned to protect the flora and fauna of Middle Earth.
“We know exactly what people are thinking,” said Lydia Shackelford, Senior Associate and a Transportation Demand Management specialist. “They’re saying, that’s absurd: Radagast’s bunny sled was NOT real – it was only in the movie, not the original books.”
“Listen,” continued Lydia. “Any wizard who came from Valinor during the Third Age of Middle-earth and was one of the Maiar is real enough for us. Radagast has freakin transportation style.”
Besides, sometimes you’ve got to think different. That’s what our TDM team is always trying to do – reimagining how commuting and travel can be improved.
Transportation Benefits of Rhosgobel Rabbit Sleds
So what are the key transportation benefits of our newly acquired Radagast-style rabbit sleds?
- Go natural. Look at a map of any metropolitan area. There are loads of woods and wild-ish areas that no vehicle could get through. Let’s take advantage of these little-used routes. If a sled can get through Mirkwood, for sure it can skirt through suburban neighborhoods.
- Rabbit Power #1 – the low-carbon option. You’re thinking: Rabbits?? What about horses? Nope. As swordhale explains on TheOneRing.net, “vegetarian horses are too big and clumsy in the woods.” Magical rabbits are better. Especially ones that can outrun the Bats of Dol Guldur to carry their friend Radagast the Wizard to the Trollshaws. That’s the equivalent of getting from upper Montgomery County, MD to the city-ness of Silver Spring in a jiffy, but you already knew that.
- Rabbit Power #2 – speed: As swordhale puts it: “Rabbits are fast, especially Rhosgobel Rabbits. And a sled makes more sense than wheels, if your wizarding skills include making the runners slippery enough to work on grass and leaf litter.” If a Radogast sled can outrun a warg, then our W+A version can certainly outrun your typical Interstate slowdown.
Customized for W+A Transportation Standards
We’re not stopping there. Our team here is, after all, a Fellowship of sorts. So we’ve redesigned Radagast’s Rhosgobel Rabbit Sled to allow for multiple riders. In our line of work, we’re always trying to reduce the use of single-occupancy vehicles. Carpooling is where it’s at.
“While Lothlorien may not have much of a vehicle congestion problem,” said Chris Kabatt, PE, “our urban and suburban clients are certainly concerned with it. Our new four-person sleds should come in handy.”
We’re pretty pleased with the increased capacity of our rabbit sleds, and have no interest in using them to help defeat the Orcs in bloody mosh-pits like the Battle of the Five Armies.
After all, we don’t want to win the Big Green Commute that badly.
Our 2017 Big Green Commute Transportation Strategy
Day 1: Beam Us Up Scotty: New Star Trek Transporter Room at W+A
Day 2: W+A’s Latest Rideshare Technology: Straight from Star Wars’ Galactic Empire
Day 3: Watch Out Wizarding World: W+A Joins the Floo Transportation Network
Day 4: Carpooling Middle-Earth Style: Radagast’s Retooled Rabbit Sled
Day 5: Back to the Stone Age: W+A’s “New” Flintstone Transportation Solution