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It was your link! Your shining example of a wonderful article about transit.
Maybe people are just choosing to do what works best for them. I see no particular "brownie points" for inconveniencing oneself just to ride transit.
BART workers probably have cars so they can get to trouble spots faster (than on the BART itself). You know, no waiting, no wandering all over to get from Point A to Point B.
"Most of us" would not have jaywalked. That's an excuse. "Most of us", would have crossed where it is safe to cross. Look, I would be devastated if anything happened to one of my kids. I know how it feels to contemplate the death of a child, though my daughter did get better. But that's why, in a situation like this lady's, I would have crossed at the freaking crosswalk!
Yep, when the traffic's clear. Not necessarily in the crosswalk. The woman had heavy bags and it would have been about a 10 minute detour. After a long day, how many would choose to make a detour? Few.
The article does raise some good points especially with the NY examples, in that often it seems like those who design and run transit systems don't have the perspective of those who use it.
I am not picking on Minnesota. We have the same problem in the liberal Bay Area. For some unknown reason BART workers have cars to use? And most drive to work. And well park in the freaking station plaza. (I live near this station...)
I'd call it systemic more than anything. We devalue transit so much, that as soon as people have choice, they jump ship in the vast majority of places in the US. (Because transit is a defacto non-option, though we are trying to change)
In Chicago there is a car that has a license plate that states "No More CTA". People use transit when it makes sense, but often it does not and frankly cannot. For instance how are the people who run transit supposed to arrive at work when the transit line they run is down for the night?
People jump ship because the car does not contain strangers that you cannot control (I have run into mentally ill people on transit, disruptive people on transit, and stinking homeless people!). The car is direct and non-stop allowing it to be faster than a bus almost all the time and faster than rail in everything but rush hour. The car can take me near to the door; I have to walk at least two blocks in any kind of weather if I want to use the bus. The car can carry more than I can hold in its trunk making it great for both shopping and storage. The car is available at all hours, unlike busses that shut down for the night.
There are reasons to take transit but 90% of the time it is better to drive. It is usually faster, safer in terms of crime and more comfortable. It is not limited by schedule and it's range is only limited by the amount of gas I can put in the tank.
The car can take me near to the door; I have to walk at least two blocks in any kind of weather if I want to use the bus. The car can carry more than I can hold in its trunk making it great for both shopping and storage.
There are reasons to take transit but 90% of the time it is better to drive. It is usually faster, safer in terms of crime and more comfortable. It is not limited by schedule and it's range is only limited by the amount of gas I can put in the tank.
However, if you can't park right next to your destination you also have to walk a bit. Part of a car's advantage requires convenient parking. I personally find the fact I can do something else (read, etc.) on transit makes it more comfortable.
However, if you can't park right next to your destination you also have to walk a bit. Part of a car's advantage requires convenient parking. I personally find the fact I can do something else (read, etc.) on transit makes it more comfortable.
Most places have convenient parking only a few places are built so dense that they lack parking. My experience is if it is commuter train and not too crowded you might be able to read, but an EL or bus packed to standing room only forget about it.
The only place in town with extremely bad parking is downtown. A few hot north side neighborhood and a couple south have major parking issues but there is parking(in the north you may have to pay quite a bit extra for it). In town there is a kind of yuppie that say lives in Lincoln Park(or Lakeview) where parking is bad or expensive and works downtown(the loop) where driving makes no sense for them the car can become more trouble than it is worth but not for the majority of the population.
If I had lots of time and nothing to do I would go back through this thread and count the number of times the OP has written "two inches of snow" or "a dusting" and also how many times he has ignored requests from posters to acknowledge that it was the ice, not the two inches of snow, which created the problems.
The OP also refuses to acknowledge the fact that two inches of snow - ice or otherwise - in Atlanta is an unusual event, equivalent to much more snow in more snowy climates. Everything is relative.
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Originally Posted by Teddy52
I watched TWC and saw that Kansas City got scared by what they witnessed in Atlanta.
Philly closed its schools on Monday -- announcing on Sunday night -- when 5 to 8 inches was forecast to begin just when the kids would be traveling to school. Atlanta didn't have that luxury - the snow didn't start until afternoon, well after everyone was safely at their destinations.
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Originally Posted by jade408
We devalue transit so much, that as soon as people have choice, they jump ship in the vast majority of places in the US.
People choose transit for two reasons: convenience, or necessity. As soon as a transit rider finds options that are more convenient, that rider will choose another option. It's human nature, and has nothing to do with "devaluing" transit, whatever that is. When it comes to transportation, convenience rules unless there are no other choices - and even when there are no other choices, it's certainly more convenient to have a job, or to get to the grocery store or to the dentist, than it is to not ride the bus.
When is public transit more convenient for me? When I'm going into Center City Philadelphia, where parking is either risky (love that Philadelphia Parking Authority!) or more than a cost of a train ticket, and traffic is a nightmare. There is no train stop less than 1.5 miles from my workplace, which is not downtown, and a bus ride would take at least 90 minutes with at least 3 transfers. Driving takes me 35 minutes.
When I lived in Cincinnati, the bus was more convenient than the car during stormy weather - the bus stop was farther away than the parking lot I used, but thanks to the Skywalk most of that walk from the bus stop could be taken indoors. Otherwise, the drive was 15 minutes vs. 35 for the bus and traffic was usually negligible.
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Because transit is a defacto non-option
Well, bless your heart. How many public transit systems are there in the country again?
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Originally Posted by Katiana
Maybe people are just choosing to do what works best for them. I see no particular "brownie points" for inconveniencing oneself just to ride transit.
Bingo.
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Originally Posted by nei
Yep, when the traffic's clear. Not necessarily in the crosswalk. The woman had heavy bags and it would have been about a 10 minute detour. After a long day, how many would choose to make a detour? Few.
I dunno ... If I were carrying heavy bags and were responsible for two young children, you can bet damn well I'd take the safest route. No doubt I'm not the only one.
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