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Also, the physical exertion of tooling around at 10-12 mph isn't very intense. Until you start fighting the wind around 16 mph or so, you're not really doing much. Depends on the bike, of course. Mountain bike or beach cruiser with knobbies is going to make you work a lot harder than a road bike. I never found it really uncomfortable riding at 90-95. The problem is your core temps ARE elevated and as soon as you stop moving you pretty quickly get drenched in sweat. If you can find a ventilation fan (parking garage) to stand in front of for a few minutes, it works great. But you can't always find that.
Part of it is your heat is humid. Still, I've found if the sun's not that high and there's shade, heat isn't too bad.
We have standing room only on both SFs Muni (buses and light rail) during the commute and certain lines nearly all the time, and on BART during the commute (particularly if you are getting on in the middle of the system).
I've learned to bundle up for walking outside. I didn't know prepare to carry extra in my car for driving. I'd be wearing mittens (better than gloves), coat with hood anyway and boots anyway. Why would you carry cold weather clothing you'd wear normally anyway?
I don't normally wear a blanket, or walk around carrying a bag of kitty litter around with me. I don't always wear boots (if I'm going to work,say, or to the mall). I don't always wear gloves or a hat inside the car, either.
I don't normally wear a blanket, or walk around carrying a bag of kitty litter around with me. I don't always wear boots (if I'm going to work,say, or to the mall). I don't always wear gloves or a hat inside the car, either.
A blanket or kitty litter isn't cold weather clothing. As for gloves and a hat, you might take them off, but it's not bringing something extra.
But the biggest problem with this perspective that "mass transit sucks, it is never better than a car," is that it assumes everyone has access to a car. Depending on how you calculate things, 20-30% of Americans cannot drive at any given time. If we only build infrastructure assuming everyone will have access to a car, then the people who are carless by choice, circumstance, ability or age are stuck without mobility.
A couple problems, in my view:
First, in spite of having access to a good transit system, he fails to acknowledge that there's public transit, and then there's public transit. For almost everyone in the U.S. public transit means the bus and only the bus, and buses do work very well for certain trips in certain situations--mainly short trips, and longer trips with minimal traffic impact. Otherwise, nobody takes a bus if they can possibly avoid it, but many will consider taking the train if there is one.
Second, his argument about long distance train travel is flawed. If he allocates $500 for good three nights of good lodgings, I doubt that this includes food. You could cheaply buy groceries along the way, but then you either have to prepare it at the end of a long day on the road, or else be content with one cold sandwich after another. On Amtrak the price of the sleeper includes all your meals, the quality of which is far better than what we used to get on airplanes, or from roadside fast food chains. $1792 is a lot of money, sure, but if you're traveling you're going to have to eat and sleep somewhere. I don't know what first class air costs now, but in the days of Pullman service it was typical for a cross country trip with Pullman service to cost about the same as what the same trip would cost by air. This would have been by what the airlines used to call "regular" service--today we call it first class. As compared to first class air travel today, $1792 doesn't seem that horrible. Sometimes, too, you can get really good deals on Amtrak; in 2005 we (two people) traveled one way from Seattle to L.A. with sleeper service, and the whole thing was $470--basic fare, sleeping compartment, and all meals included. Regardless, though, intercity passenger rail and urban mass transit belong to different arguments.
Ok, public transport is difficult, it's could outside, timetables unreliable and poorly synchronized and so on. Well, not any intention to boast, but here is an example that you can do it right if you want to.
In this example I live in the city of Helsinki, the capital of Finland, with 615,000 people within city limits and 1.3 million in the metro area. I live there in the top right area of Malmi and my workplace is behind that bay in Tapiola in the lower left corner.
It's a chilly morning here today, sunny but 34F outside. It's already 9:20am and past rush hour, but I decide to take public transport anyway. The train (green) leaves at 9:36 and arrives at the Central Railway station on 9:51. I have to walk half a mile to the bus terminal (shown here in light blue). I have 12 minutes as the bus to my destination leaves at 10:06. The bus #110 arrives in Tapiola at 10:20, which is surprisingly fast, but as almost whole of the route has a "bus only" lane, congestion is not a problem.
But darn, I missed the train. Well, no problem, the next leaves at 9:46. But now I'm gonna miss the #110, the next leaves at 10:26, and I have no intention to wait. Well, I pick up my smartphone and use this software and see that the bus #109 leaves at 10:16 and stops on a bus stop just 300 ft away from the stop I intended to jump off originally, so no harm done.
But it's cold! Well, the railway station in Malmi isn't inside, but luckily it's next to a shopping center, so I can just wait there and go down the escalators one minute before the train leaves. The central railway station and the bus terminal are obviously inside, and if I feel super lazy I could just take the subway so I don't have to walk that half of a mile. And if I take the #110, there's a shopping center by the bus stop, so up the escalators and I'm inside again. And if need some groceries, batteries or a pair of socks, I'll have three shopping centers to choose from, as the Helsinki bus terminal also is one.
What was so difficult?
Including walk, the length of the route was 13.1 miles and took 45 minutes. I didn't have to wait in 100 million traffic lights, care about the congestion, or search for parking. In ideal conditions (which means nighttime) you can manage this route by car in 25 minutes, but not possible during a normal working day.
And oh, many people here say as well that "it's difficult, it's cold, it's filthy, I don't know the timetable, it's whatever", but most don't even give the public transport a fair chance.
FWIW, on many of the worst weather days this winter, I was glad I was taking public transportation, and felt bad for my co-workers who were stuck with the stress of driving on bad roads, with other drivers who may or may not know what they were doing.
It's probably different for women, but I was able to dress appropriately for the cold, (hat, scarf, gloves, wool overcoat, etc.) and still look business casual at the office.
Ok, public transport is difficult, it's could outside, timetables unreliable and poorly synchronized and so on. Well, not any intention to boast, but here is an example that you can do it right if you want to.
In this example I live in the city of Helsinki, the capital of Finland, with 615,000 people within city limits and 1.3 million in the metro area. I live there in the top right area of Malmi and my workplace is behind that bay in Tapiola in the lower left corner.
It's a chilly morning here today, sunny but 34F outside. It's already 9:20am and past rush hour, but I decide to take public transport anyway. The train (green) leaves at 9:36 and arrives at the Central Railway station on 9:51. I have to walk half a mile to the bus terminal (shown here in light blue). I have 12 minutes as the bus to my destination leaves at 10:06. The bus #110 arrives in Tapiola at 10:20, which is surprisingly fast, but as almost whole of the route has a "bus only" lane, congestion is not a problem.
But darn, I missed the train. Well, no problem, the next leaves at 9:46. But now I'm gonna miss the #110, the next leaves at 10:26, and I have no intention to wait. Well, I pick up my smartphone and use this software and see that the bus #109 leaves at 10:16 and stops on a bus stop just 300 ft away from the stop I intended to jump off originally, so no harm done.
But it's cold! Well, the railway station in Malmi isn't inside, but luckily it's next to a shopping center, so I can just wait there and go down the escalators one minute before the train leaves. The central railway station and the bus terminal are obviously inside, and if I feel super lazy I could just take the subway so I don't have to walk that half of a mile. And if I take the #110, there's a shopping center by the bus stop, so up the escalators and I'm inside again. And if need some groceries, batteries or a pair of socks, I'll have three shopping centers to choose from, as the Helsinki bus terminal also is one.
What was so difficult?
Including walk, the length of the route was 13.1 miles and took 45 minutes. I didn't have to wait in 100 million traffic lights, care about the congestion, or search for parking. In ideal conditions (which means nighttime) you can manage this route by car in 25 minutes, but not possible during a normal working day.
And oh, many people here say as well that "it's difficult, it's cold, it's filthy, I don't know the timetable, it's whatever", but most don't even give the public transport a fair chance.
In the US people often do grow up using public transit if you live in an Major city. If you live in an burb there may be little to no public transit and little to no ability to walk around(depends on the burb). In almost all cases there is parking at work unless you work in an downtown CBD in an major city. In the US we have cheap gas and an expressway(freeway) system that isn't that clogged outside of rush.
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