Where's the very last place in the Austin Metroplex you'd live?

[Aquitaine]

Live where you want, for any reason you want, and to hell with anyone who gives you grief over any 'hidden' reasoning behind your choice.

Oh I do, but I think I share with the "I hate the burbs" crowd a desire for good mass transit, and I'd rather figure out what the ingredients are for a good system, even if it's years away, than berate them for telling me my business.

Mass transit is so easy to like. It's not a courageous point of view. Who out there actually hates the opportunity to have access to rail? It's not like you can't have a car in Seattle, or even in Brooklyn (though you definitely can't in Manhattan unless you're filthy rich...) But it doesn't help matters to slobber over Seattle and upbraid Austin for not doing its job unless we know the job Seattle was doingwhen it was in Austin's position, which appears to be quite a number of years ago.

[riaelise]

I can't work from home. But no biggie...I use Metrorail, and everything is good.

[supernaut112]

Originally Posted by Aquitaine

Mass transit is so easy to like. It's not a courageous point of view. Who out there actually hates the opportunity to have access to rail? It's not like you can't have a car in Seattle, or even in Brooklyn (though you definitely can't in Manhattan unless you're filthy rich...) But it doesn't help matters to slobber over Seattle and upbraid Austin for not doing its job unless we know the job Seattle was doingwhen it was in Austin's position, which appears to be quite a number of years ago.

I love mass transit. I see nothing wrong with it.

However, as another poster insinuated, some people still attach a stigma to "public transportation" with being a poor, dangerous, loony or otherwise undesirable segment of the population. It's a shame, but it's also true to a certain degree.

I ride the bus downtown all of the time. I see a lot of well-kept urban professionals who take mass transit simply because they want to save their hard-earned dollars. Hey, that's the reason I ride it. If I didn't care about money at all, I'd probably have no issue living far outside the city center.

[TexasHorseLady]

I don't have any stigma attached to mass transit (son lived in DC and Boston and NYC for several years, best friend lived in Silver Spring, MD and commuted to DC for 20 years). However, when I've talked to clients, one of their concerns has been, what if the kid is in day care and gets sick and the parent(s) have taken the Metrorail to downtown to work and are called to come pick them up. This seems to be something that a lot of parents can't get past, given the distances and the time factor, and having been a mother myself, I can understand that.

[Aquitaine]

However, as another poster insinuated, some people still attach a stigma to "public transportation" with being a poor, dangerous, loony or otherwise undesirable segment of the population. It's a shame, but it's also true to a certain degree.

I've never run into this. I guess the closest I've seen is people that prefer rail to busses. Maybe it's because I grew up around Philly and NYC, but Philly isn't really all that great for mass transit as big cities go -- it's pretty middle of the road.

Things like adapting to your school-age child taking the subway might encounter some resistance for people who have never spent any time around a good transit system, but that's just nervousness about the unknown more than a real objection.