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Somebody commented that most of the gung-ho transit advocates seemed to be young, single or childless, males. IMO, most also seemed to give their locations as fairly large urban areas with moderate climates.
I'm a middle-aged, married male. I live in a somewhat large city in a tree-lined neighborhood of mostly 2-story homes and apartments, we have rainy winters and long, very hot summers (typically several weeks of 100+ temps.) . But if you're in my city, you can catch a breeze by standing anywhere near me.
This weekend I drove to San Francisco instead of taking the train, the first time I have done so in about 7 years. It technically took less time on the clock, but my perception of the trip was very different. When I take Amtrak, it seems like I just get comfortable on the train, go buy a sandwich, settle in again and start reading a book, working on some writing or even posting here (the train has Wi-Fi), and boom, I'm in Emeryville and it's time for the short bus hop over the bridge--usually too busy looking at the scenery/architecture to read much on that 15 minute ride. Driving was a lot more direct concentration, focused on not becoming part of the scenery, and at the end of each trip I was pretty frazzled. A lot more exhausting, and while I saved about 30 minutes each way, it seemed like a lot longer trip.
I'm a middle-aged, married male. I live in a somewhat large city in a tree-lined neighborhood of mostly 2-story homes and apartments, we have rainy winters and long, very hot summers (typically several weeks of 100+ temps.) . But if you're in my city, you can catch a breeze by standing anywhere near me.
This weekend I drove to San Francisco instead of taking the train, the first time I have done so in about 7 years. It technically took less time on the clock, but my perception of the trip was very different. When I take Amtrak, it seems like I just get comfortable on the train, go buy a sandwich, settle in again and start reading a book, working on some writing or even posting here (the train has Wi-Fi), and boom, I'm in Emeryville and it's time for the short bus hop over the bridge--usually too busy looking at the scenery/architecture to read much on that 15 minute ride. Driving was a lot more direct concentration, focused on not becoming part of the scenery, and at the end of each trip I was pretty frazzled. A lot more exhausting, and while I saved about 30 minutes each way, it seemed like a lot longer trip.
I agree. I take the Amtrak often to visit my parents. They used to live in Sacramento, and now they live near Stockton. The train ride is 80-90 minutes, plus a 15 minute drive to their home. I have a 10 minute drive to the train station. The car ride is about 80-90 minutes. But typically on a weekend, on the way home, there is the magical Sunday slowdown, so it takes more like 2 hours to drive back to the bay area. The net is that it is both less stressful and only marginally more time to take the train. About 30 minutes.
Train to parents: 115 minutes each direction
Car to parents: 100 minutes average in each direction
For me, reclaiming 3 hours to relax, read magazines, catch-up on a novel or surf the web is more than worth those extra few minutes. That could easily be cannibalized by any traffic incident in either direction.
Somebody commented that most of the gung-ho transit advocates seemed to be young, single or childless, males. IMO, most also seemed to give their locations as fairly large urban areas with moderate climates.
As for winter bicycling, try bicycling through 6 inches of snow, especially the wet slushy kind.
I know that plenty of people take buses in cold snowy areas, but that doesn't mean that they like doing it. I took buses for a couple of years when I worked in downtown Albany because I didn't have a parking permit. Getting free parking working at a suburban site was a major impetus to my changing jobs.
This in bold.
I will note that the countries with the uber-high bicycling rates are those with climates where it's not too hot, not too cold, e.g. Denmark and The Netherlands.
It doesn't matter which mode of transportation is faster. If you're late picking up your child, you can just walk into a bar and have a beer.
Quote:
Fry also says he believes the slower service won’t matter that much to riders. “I think frequency is an overrated thing,” Fry says. “Let’s say there’s a 20-minute [wait]. You can look on your phone, wait inside and have a beer.”
That's right! At $5/min, that's only $100/day in late charges.
That's money that would have gone to a psychiatrist to deal with the psychological trauma of driving anyway. So in the end, I suppose everything evens out.
Because, of course, nobody ever gets delayed in heavy traffic on the freeway in the Bay Area.
No. But nobody is stupid enough to say you can just pull over and have a beer while the traffic dies down and it's no problem. Now, I do do that since I'm the demographic for which light rail is really built for (single, no kids, no responsibilities beyond my own). I can wait around in San Francisco from 4 until 7 when traffic dies down, have a couple beers, and get some work done.
That doesn't mean I don't think it's a problem and everybody can just have a beer while they wait. Also a reason why most businesses are located to the suburbs where the traffic isn't AS bad as it is in San Francisco.
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