Recently reading about the problem with current public transportation I was shocked by the cited statistic that only six percent of urban residents reported using public transportation. Living on a bus route for several years left me under the impression that everyone rode the bus at one time or another. I mean, doesn’t everyone ride the bus? I wonder how high that count would be from city to city. Also, what does “metropolitan” mean to the census bureau? It could greatly affect that figure if they were including towns with one bus along with cities like Portland and Boston, my favorite two public transportation cities.
The article I was reading also discussed how bedroom communities are served by transport. I've always had a problem with the concept of bedroom communities, for a variety of reasons. When people leave their town to work, they take their skills, presence, and perhaps most importantly, money, with them. I think communities suffer when residents only come home to sleep; we should all do our best to keep communities cohesive. This could mean having a local grocery instead of a giant Wal-Mart miles out and other local resources where people can gather, meet their neighbors, and interact with the community in a positive way. This model of a small town is, in my opinion, more environmentally and socially sustainable.
If all else fails and we just cannot kick the box store habit, I could take solace in public transportation shuttling these commuters around. The North Star commuter line going in in Minneapolis and its northeastern suburbs is a heartening example of public transport responding to the needs of the people. Where there were once infrequent buses there will be, in a little less than a year, a high-speed light rail commuter train.
I am full of rhetoric, but the fact of the matter is that the way we live demands cars. Cars demand through-ways and speed. They insist on spitting out carbon monoxide and particulates. They want to eschew traffic lights and prefer point A to B. Tomorrow I will demand a car to take me home. This weekend I’ll probably climb into at least a couple cars to go on extraneous trips to Perkins or Target or somewhere else built in a box with bad lighting. But gosh darn, at least I hate myself for it.
Columbus, Oh is a good example of a city that isn't doing well when it comes to public transportation. We have bus routes, but most of them only have one or two buses that run along them (which means up to an hour between buses arriving at a stop). It often took me two hours to get from one place to another, which would normally only take 20 minutes in a car (in part, thanks to the highways) because of the way the buses ran. The city is also so spread out that there are many, many areas that are isolated from public transit.
New York City, on the other hand, has a very good system, in my opinion. Their passes, called the Metro Card, work not only for the buses, but also for the subway, both of which seem, in my opinion, to run at reasonable intervals. They also compliment each other well.
Cleveland, Oh, also has a decent transit system. Again, it's a combination of buses and trains (known as the Rapids, or Rapid Transit). Its limitations, however, is that both are only in the city of Cleveland itself and have limited reach into the suburbs and outlying areas (where most of the people are now). The pay system for the two are also separate, as well.
I am treated as evil by people who claim that they are being oppressed because they are not allowed to force me to practice what they do. ~D. Dale Gulledge
I am not surprised by the statistic. i believe many sourthern cities in the U.S. are built around suburbs( i once lived in a bedroom community). Cities are not dense enough to provide efficient public transportation. I once used our public bus, and it took me over 1hour to get there. By car it would have taken 20min.
It is unfortunate because simple planning could have avoided this mess.
A lot of the northern cities are the opposite -- they started out as cities, then migrated into the suburbs, decaying from the inside out.
I am treated as evil by people who claim that they are being oppressed because they are not allowed to force me to practice what they do. ~D. Dale Gulledge