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I am getting so f*cking sick and tired of hearing all this urban hippie suburban hating nonsense. Many people such as myself value living in the suburbs and all of the wonderful benefits it brings, and the thought of anyone trying to make driving more expensive for any unjustifiable reason is beyond infuriating. I live in Greece and work downtown with a one-way drive of about 7 miles. There is no way in hell I'd want to ride my bike 7 miles to get to work at 7 in the morning, even if there were a straight bike line from my house to the city, nor do I want to take the bus. I like leaving the house in the morning at 6:45 and getting in to the office at 7, instead of catching a bus at whatever time much earlier than 6:45. I like knowing I can leave work whenever I want to get wherever I need to go, or run errands on lunch time. And I can't necessarily take a bus to my sons daycare to pick him up after work. Same thing can be said about light rail or any other type of public transportation. For someone like me, and there are a lot of us, it logistically just doesn't make sense.
Public transportation works for those who need or want it to work for them, and it should not be forced to work for those of us who simply don't want anything to do with it. My wife and I go to work every day and bring home decent salaries so we can afford nice things, two of those things being our vehicles.
I like leaving the house in the morning at 6:45 and getting in to the office at 7, instead of catching a bus at whatever time much earlier than 6:45. I like knowing I can leave work whenever I want to get wherever I need to go, or run errands on lunch time. And I can't necessarily take a bus to my sons daycare to pick him up after work. Same thing can be said about light rail or any other type of public transportation. For someone like me, and there are a lot of us, it logistically just doesn't make sense.
You have quite obviously never actually used public transportation in any capacity I see because otherwise you'd understand that what you just stated is completely bologna in cities with highly efficient public transportation. I love my car with a passion and would never give it up too. I'm a huge automobile fanatic, but I'm also not ignorant about a good public transportation system. Whenever I'm in Boston, NYC or Toronto, I'll race you any place in the city. You use your car and I'll use the subway. I guarantee I'd get any place quicker than you. Heck...we can even make the bet assuming you'd have no traffic to deal with. HA! Like there'd be no traffic. But just for the sake of argument, we'll say there isn't. In a good system like in Boston or NYC for instance, there is virtually no time spent waiting for your train. And with a straight path under the city in most cases, you can literally go miles in the city in a matter of just a few minutes. You'll never have that efficiency in a car. So using the argument that a car is a faster mode of transportation over public transportation is completely false IF we are talking about a well planned and resourced system.
We don't live in Boston, NYC, or Toronto and I am well aware of the traffic situations in cities like those and how much they differ from Rochester. I've used the train system in Boston and am well aware of how fast and efficient it is for traveling in and out of Boston and out to the suburban areas, and I couldn't imagine commuting in that area without it. But again, Rochester is nowhere close to Boston in population or commuter density, so I stand by my statement as it pertains to our locality. Also, your argument really only applies to rail, which I'm pretty sure everyone knows is going to be faster in pretty much all circumstances.
Public transportation is definitely more effective in NYC, but will never be in a city like Rochester.
I'm actually a lot like that article posted. I would love to see more public transport here and would love to see people use it more. I can't see myself. I just want to get in my car and go where I need to. It's not like traffic is ever an issue.
Honestly the only way I'd take any kind of public transportation would be if I were living on the eastern or western outskirts of the metro while working downtown and took 490 or 590 in to work during certain hours of the day. If I were an 8-5'er and had the option of taking a train in to work as opposed to 490E, or 490W (or 104 from Ontario) and 590S at 7:30 in the morning and then again at 5, I'd most likely take the train most days, especially in the winter. And even then I'd only do that if the train stations were in relative close proximity to my house. I'm certainly not going to drive 10 mins to a train station from my home just to save 10-20 mins off my commute. But that's just me.
As colton said, until traffic is ever a real issue in Rochester, a scenario which I just cannot ever see becoming a reality at any point in the city's future, I don't see widespread public transit ever coming to fruition.
Also, JWRocks, where did you find that figure showing 20,000 people commute from Buffalo to the county? Did it specify how many are coming in to the city itself? Seems like a lot of people coming in for daily work when I can't think of any really large companies that together would require such a large cumulative workforce. I could see maybe ~5,000 at most, but not 20,000.
I actually remember reading a statistic like that. I can't remember where, but there was a surprisingly high number of people driving in from Buffalo for work.
Also, JWRocks, where did you find that figure showing 20,000 people commute from Buffalo to the county? Did it specify how many are coming in to the city itself? Seems like a lot of people coming in for daily work when I can't think of any really large companies that together would require such a large cumulative workforce. I could see maybe ~5,000 at most, but not 20,000.
It came from the Census Bureau and is a couple years old, but I imagine is still pretty close. Also, it showed that about 5,000 people from Genesee county worked in Monroe, twice as many than worked in Erie county.
I am getting so f*cking sick and tired of hearing all this urban hippie suburban hating nonsense. Many people such as myself value living in the suburbs and all of the wonderful benefits it brings, and the thought of anyone trying to make driving more expensive for any unjustifiable reason is beyond infuriating. I live in Greece and work downtown with a one-way drive of about 7 miles. There is no way in hell I'd want to ride my bike 7 miles to get to work at 7 in the morning, even if there were a straight bike line from my house to the city, nor do I want to take the bus. I like leaving the house in the morning at 6:45 and getting in to the office at 7, instead of catching a bus at whatever time much earlier than 6:45. I like knowing I can leave work whenever I want to get wherever I need to go, or run errands on lunch time. And I can't necessarily take a bus to my sons daycare to pick him up after work. Same thing can be said about light rail or any other type of public transportation. For someone like me, and there are a lot of us, it logistically just doesn't make sense.
Public transportation works for those who need or want it to work for them, and it should not be forced to work for those of us who simply don't want anything to do with it. My wife and I go to work every day and bring home decent salaries so we can afford nice things, two of those things being our vehicles.
I think the urban concept is a good one. Good for the environment and good from a societal perspective. Having lived in cities larger and smaller than Rochester, I know that public transpiration can be quite effective. In those cities, it's actually the primary consideration, with driving becoming a secondary option for those that don't have choices. With bus runs that are every 10 minutes in frequency during commute hours, express runs, etc, there is no planning, nor inconvenience, simply walk out your door and catch the next bus that comes along. That frequency can only (effectively) come with high density areas. Suburbs are not conducive to public transpiration. Businesses, when possible, should be located in centralized, transit accessible, downtowns, not in spread out suburban office parks.
With *functioning* cities, it's a very practical and sensible way to live. There is no disputing that. A suburban lifestyle, it requires more resources to sustain per capita and the longer distances requires more driving at the expense of the environment. Government planning and support in this respect should be less on the car based suburban lifestyle and instead encourage urban planning and living. Subsidies to the oil companies, the artificially low price of oil, suburban infrastructure, should all be re-evaluated. It's encouraging to see that the current 20 something generation is realizing this fact and there's hope for a change in the future.
Those 20 somethings will only deal with urban living until it's time to start a family and they realize having your own home with a nice yard and plenty of space is more practical and sensible. I don't think today is any different than the past in that regard. With the plethora of suburban living options available in this area, and no real reason to start and grow a family in a cramped city condo/apartment, you're going to be real, real hard pressed to keep families in the city. And I don't mean Park Ave kinda city living. I mean Alexander, Monroe, East Ave kinda city living.
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