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If you live in DC you would most likely take public transportation to work anyways. Of course there is always the inevitable where in the world do you park part of DC as well, if you don't get a spot from your employer.
If you are savvy you would also live within walking distance of a train/subway into D.C. as well... Without having to live in D.C. Personally, I would do my best to NOT live in D.C. if I had to work in D.C. But that is just because I don't like big cities. I don't like NYC either. Apparently I am not alone in that thinking. Luckily, it isn't my problem.
Probably best to opine about topics where you actually have some basic knowledge. The district is growing rapidly in large part because it offers the opportunity for high quality life and the option to not even own a car. Parking isn't really a problem downtown because so many people take mass transit.
I stand corrected on some issues and we agree on the public transportation part. I understood you differently.
I also agree that times, they are a changing. Like you I was anxious to get my license and got it as soon as possible. Down in South Florida our buses have bike racks and the cities/county is struggling with figuring out a way to mix bicycles and cars on existing infrastructure. Legally, you can ride bicycles in traffic lanes on most roads. It is still too dangerous for most to ride bikes down here and securing your bicycle is also an issue.
Atlanta proves adding more lanes doesn't necessarily ease traffic... Other alternatives are needed. And it is tough to change existing infrastructure if it wasn't planned for the change initially.
DCForever - Your experience is obviously different from mine. I remember in the mid mornings circling forever trying to find a spot to park remotely where I needed to go. Maybe I just needed to be in areas of DC where every one else wanted to be? And it wasn't like I was only there during a holiday. This was a daily deal for a bit for me. And the point was that once you are in DC it is easier to just leave your car and take public transportation. Did that change in the past few years? Public transportation in DC is now sub-standard to the point you need a car?
Happened right outside the hospital where I work. Even with her spinal problems from before the wreck, and she walked to the ER. Her current vehicle is much better in wrecks.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Dakster
Sorry to hear the wifes car was totaled. And that is kinda of what happened to us and why we ended up with a Volt. Except it was motorcyle that totaled her SUV. (He was going 120 mph and hit her head on - he died and she was lucky she didn't get killed too). I would like to say it was freak accident, but it is all too common down here.
Sounds like you have a good plan - at least I think so....
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OpenD - Actually my family (roots) have been in the US a very long time - multiple generations. I can trace my roots back the US to the late 1700s... Probably further if I really tried. Most of my family ended up in rural areas. And in fact, my immediate/close family moved to South Florida in the 1940s, when almost no one lived down here. (Residential A/C wasn't around yet - and my grandparents used to have ice delivered to keep food fresh) Once Miami started getting built up most left. A few of us stayed, although I am down to just a few relatives left.
Anyways, when the car companies bought out public transportation, the US was just being formed. Hence my statement. A lot has happened in the past 100 years. We are a fairly young country in the grand scheme of things. You hit the nail on the head, we were going towards a country with a mass transit system until big business (car and oil/gas companies) messed that up. I'm not a big conspiracy person, but this is an exception where I do believe that it was a conspiracy to make most of us have to have cars. Also, there is so much pressure for you to own a car - it's like a right of passage for an American teenager to get a car. Although that mindset is changing with the millennials. Most of my neighbors teenagers didn't get a car while they were in high school, a BIG difference from when I was a teenager.
I guess we will just have to disagree on the state of the US mass transit system. But this is America and we can civilly disagree. If you happen to live and work in the right spots it works. And I will agree that the larger cities, if you want to live and work in the larger city it works. And there is a trend towards that, where as my generation and my parents generation (Baby Boomer and X) the trend was to move out to the 'burbs. I still think a large majority of the country is left out. I know that there are economies to scale and at times it just doesn't make economic sense - but I don't think we are anywhere near that point, yet.
I stand corrected on some issues and we agree on the public transportation part. I understood you differently.
I also agree that times, they are a changing. Like you I was anxious to get my license and got it as soon as possible. Down in South Florida our buses have bike racks and the cities/county is struggling with figuring out a way to mix bicycles and cars on existing infrastructure. Legally, you can ride bicycles in traffic lanes on most roads. It is still too dangerous for most to ride bikes down here and securing your bicycle is also an issue.
Atlanta proves adding more lanes doesn't necessarily ease traffic... Other alternatives are needed. And it is tough to change existing infrastructure if it wasn't planned for the change initially.
DCForever - Your experience is obviously different from mine. I remember in the mid mornings circling forever trying to find a spot to park remotely where I needed to go. Maybe I just needed to be in areas of DC where every one else wanted to be? And it wasn't like I was only there during a holiday. This was a daily deal for a bit for me. And the point was that once you are in DC it is easier to just leave your car and take public transportation. Did that change in the past few years? Public transportation in DC is now sub-standard to the point you need a car?
Downtown street parking can be hit or miss and you are limited to two hours when parking on the street so workers don't use that. Commuter parking is in subterranean garages, and no despite some reliability problems with underfunded maintenance, Washington continues to operate the nations second most successful mass transit system. It's amusing to hear suburbanites complain about traffic. I take mass transit and am quickly in and out of wherever I go down town. I put about 3k miles per year on my car.
In 2014 we will celebrate the return of streetcars.
BTW, my experience spans 30 years in the district.
Loving cars is one thing. Loving commuting is entirely different.
One of the real game changers in the whole public transportation mix is that millennials don't mind commuting, but they don't want to drive, because commute time on transit can be used for social media, game play, and reading online, while drive time is just a waste, in their perception.
This may seem silly to some, but cultural revolutions pivot on generational changes in attitude like this.
One of the real game changers in the whole public transportation mix is that millennials don't mind commuting, but they don't want to drive, because commute time on transit can be used for social media, game play, and reading online, while drive time is just a waste, in their perception.
This may seem silly to some, but cultural revolutions pivot on generational changes in attitude like this.
I'm going to quibble slightly. From my data sample of one, millennials would rather live in town than in the suburbs. The entire District of Columbia is being almost over run by millennials. They are gentrifying neighborhoods that their suburbanite parents would even drive through. That's probably more complex than commute alone.
I'm going to quibble slightly. From my data sample of one, millennials would rather live in town than in the suburbs.
True, but there are still enough of them commuting in from their parent's houses in the suburbs to have a big effect.
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