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Yeah, but as the posts you link to show, this thread is full of people who are think the only solution to Americans who drive is to artificially increase the costs of driving to give transit a greater economical advantage. The fact that transit is already far more subsidized per user and just don't work as well for driving for most Americans irks them. So while it's great that you don't personally care about what happens in 90% of America, the same can't be said for many of the "regulars."
Those links were to my posts though. I tend to focus on my posts more than other posts, and think about when thinking what was said in a thread. They're the most important ones to me and it was mentioned in the thread places where transit doesn't work well, which is what Skipett whined of.
Quote:
Of course, modal split between transit and cars is about 80% in Europe as well. That's lower than the United States, but cars work better for most Europeans than public transit does for most trips as well. The bigger than getting rid of cars is that more of Europe is walkable than the US.
If they're trip numbers rather commute numbers, I'm a bit skeptical due to how walking or trip chaining is counted. Are trips to multiple places counted as one or multiple?
Over the past year, there have been 141 threads (987 posts) that mention Boston in the urban planning forum compared to 12 threads (27 posts) that mention Oklahoma City. Both cities have roughly the same population, with Oklahoma City growing at a faster clip (OC’s population increased 13.8% between 2000-2010, Boston increased 4.8%). Why the love fest for Boston on the urban planning forums? Oklahoma City is a major metro region, where the people in the city just happen to rely heavily on the automobile.
No love for Oklahoma City on here.
Last edited by impala096; 02-08-2015 at 10:15 AM..
Over the past year, there have been 141 threads that mention Boston in the urban planning forum compared to 12 threads that mention Oklahoma City. Both cities have roughly the same population, with Oklahoma City growing at a faster clip (OC’s population increased 13.8% between 2000-2010, Boston increased 4.8%). Why the love fest for Boston on the urban planning forums? Oklahoma City is a major metro region, where the people in the city just happen to rely heavily on the automobile.
No love for Oklahoma City on here.
Two things:
1. Just like every other sub-forum on this site, you have two options when you don't see content you like. You can stop visiting that forum, or you can generate the content you're more interested in.
2. Boston is about 48 square miles. OKC is about 607 square miles. (when you have so few people spread out over so much area, of course you're going to need a car to get around) But, more importantly, the Boston MSA is about 4.5 million people, and the OKC MSA is about 1.3 million people, so a Boston/OKC comparison is apples and oranges.
Annual ridership of 8 million riders / year. [Note Denver's bus service hours per capita on the link] At the extreme is Honolulu: 40% less people, but an annual ridership of 74 million / year. Note that at that ridership level, subsidy isn't that high, and by fuel usage it comes out ahead of driving:
But, more importantly, the Boston MSA is about 4.5 million people, and the OKC MSA is about 1.3 million people, so a Boston/OKC comparison is apples and oranges.
Fair enough. Boston MSA is 3.5x the population of OKC MSA. It would be reasonable to expect Boston to be discussed 3.5x more often then. The reality is, Boston is discussed 36x more than Oklahoma City (987 posts vs. 27 posts). I'm really stating the obvious, but some cities get more attention than others on this forum. Why anybody would get defensive to that fact is beyond me.
I don't think anyone did get defensive nor disagreed. People post on what interests them, and suggesting people should post more what you think is important doesn't go over that well.
I'll add the difference is magnified since no one lives near Oklahoma City nor is familiar with it. While I've visited Boston frequently so post more on it. Might be others as well, can't remember.
Fair enough. Boston MSA is 3.5x the population of OKC MSA. It would be reasonable to expect Boston to be discussed 3.5x more often then. The reality is, Boston is discussed 36x more than Oklahoma City (987 posts vs. 27 posts). I'm really stating the obvious, but some cities get more attention than others on this forum. Why anybody would get defensive to that fact is beyond me.
So what is the point of bringing up how many posts are about these two random cities?
Annual ridership of 8 million riders / year. [Note Denver's bus service hours per capita on the link] At the extreme is Honolulu: 40% less people, but an annual ridership of 74 million / year. Note that at that ridership level, subsidy isn't that high, and by fuel usage it comes out ahead of driving:
The correlation could be made that cities with low transit modal shares aren't discussed as often as cities with high transit modal shares on this forum. Why is that though? So much of a city's transportation network is reliant on roads and highways. Focusing so much attention on transit and so little on roads/highways doesn't jive with reality. Maybe the argument being made by some on here is that urban planners are out of touch with reality?
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