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I disagree. The losers/lower class/criminals ride the bus/light rail in Seattle and Portland. You do get looked down upon, it is just people are not into open mocking as they may be in other places.
Despite the hype, transit use is just a drop in the bucket in these cities. Despite the myths, cool kids don't ride the bus or the purse-snatch-rail.
This is an aside, but years ago I spent a night with the homeless in Seattle. One of the strategies was in fact to take a long bus ride to the airport and back just to be out of the weather. It's understood in any city that the downtrodden element is gonna be on PT.
I take the bus here in Seattle. Sometimes people make fun of me for it. Even here in Seattle, you can get looked at as being a 2nd Class Citizen for taking the bus. I try not to worry too much about what people think. I live in Downtown Seattle so taking the bus works good for me. I guess I could make fun of my friends for spending lots of money on gas and parking if they ever make fun of me for taking the bus. I love living in Downtown Seattle because I can often just walk to many good restaurants or I can just hop in a cab and take a short 5 or 10 dollar cab ride. Also, I love drinking alcohol so not driving a car works really good for me as far as avoiding getting DUI's.
LOL! This could be me (except for the drinking part) writing the same thing about my friends in Portland. I don't live downtown but I live close enough to downtown to be one of the lucky few to be able to have decent bus service. But, yeah, if I worried about what people thought about my second class citizenship because I don't drive I would have bought a car just to fit in long ago.
To quote Virginia Postrel in a recent Time Magazine article in which she was describing people who glorify parts of the world in which they do not live, "It's easy to imagine an idea life in a time or place you know only from selective images, whether that's Ernest Hemingway's Paris, Ayn Rand's Galt's Gulch or Carrie Bradshaw's New York City."
I would paraphrase that a bit to read it's easy to glorify or imagine cities in which one reads about in Social Media or on the Internet or on a TV show that satirizes them as being entirely a certain way than getting the real scoop from the people who actually live in those cities. And even within those cities, when one is speaking of public transportation, much of the time, the ones who glorify it are not those who frequently have to depend upon it.
Here in Houston, the public transportation system is nowhere near the greatest, and is below average compared to most cities. Along with that a lot of people, many who are middle class or higher, look down on people who ride the bus, or think that they would immediately get robbed or attacked while riding the bus.
I have no problem with riding the bus, and I've been doing that for around 15 years. There are certain advantages to riding the bus, like you don't have to worry about freeway/highway traffic, and parking, but it takes longer to get to places on a bus than in a car.
Portland long ago decided to build light rail due to its environmental heritage. Minneapolis has snow, which might enhance the desirability of mass transit. But I thought Atlanta's MARTA was pretty popular.
Being seen at a bus stop in the Sunbelt is social suicide. lol
I take public transit down here, and there's a stigma attached to it. Since I can't afford a car, my sister calls me a bum for taking the bus. Oh well, I got to get where I have to go.
I think a lot of people don't know the flexibility with owning your own car. Public transit doesn't get you from point a to b. It only circles a given region. It just so happens your destination is in said region. Commuting in public transit could even be tiring despite not having to drive. Just watch how there are a lot of miserable commuters in NYC transit. People hate taking the Subway as much as they don't like to admit.
No, they built it to line the pockets of certain connected developers.
Absolutely true. The latest light rail going in is being fought against tooth and nail by the citizens of Milwaukie but the government funds have already been procured by the city of Portland so they are getting it rammed down their throats. The citizens of Portland for the most part do not want any more of these.
If I remember correctly, the original light rail was not really welcomed by the majority of Portlanders. It was supposed to clear up the ever increasing congestion on the SW Sunset Highway from the SW suburbs to downtown during rush hour so people could get to work faster. It didn't do that because the majority of riders turned out to be the people who formerly took the buses on the routes it replaced. The amount of traffic decrease was insignificant.
Congestion on the highway has continued to increase.
Quote:
Portland long ago decided to build light rail due to its environmental heritage.
It had nothing to do with "environmental heritage." There is no evidence I have ever seen that light rail has done anything for the environment or that there has been any improvement in the environment since its inception. Where on earth do people dream these things up and where are the stats to prove it?
I think a lot of people don't know the flexibility with owning your own car. Public transit doesn't get you from point a to b. It only circles a given region. It just so happens your destination is in said region. Commuting in public transit could even be tiring despite not having to drive. Just watch how there are a lot of miserable commuters in NYC transit. People hate taking the Subway as much as they don't like to admit.
You have obviously never been to NYC. It's far easier and more pleasant (and cheaper) to ride the subway than it is to drive somewhere. But I suspect you're very young and just need to get out and experience life. Some day...
I think a lot of people don't know the flexibility with owning your own car. Public transit doesn't get you from point a to b. It only circles a given region. It just so happens your destination is in said region. Commuting in public transit could even be tiring despite not having to drive. Just watch how there are a lot of miserable commuters in NYC transit. People hate taking the Subway as much as they don't like to admit.
That couldn't be further from the truth.
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