4 ms·

Yup. Carsharing, or, you know, public transportation.

by arpa 10y ago

Steltek 10y ago
Public transit is great at reducing congestion. A single subway train can hold a thousand people. With 3 minute intervals, the capacity blows away any road network. However there are different challenges: * Fan out from a transit stop. You need to layer on buses, bike share, and/or car share. And whatever you add needs to have ADA accessible and family friendly options. I love my Hubway key but if I have my kids with me, I have no place to put them [+]. * Building or expanding the damned thing. In particular for me, Boston is sabotaging itself by not aggressively expanding and maintaining its transit system. * Changing American mindsets. Even in cities with relatively good transit systems, there's a mindset that it's dirty, for poor people, or too expensive compared to driving/parking. Car-sharing is a familiar concept for these people: I'm an American, I drive a car to places. +: http://wamu.org/news/14/06/03/dc_couple_invents_kids_seat_for_capital_bikeshare http://wamu.org/news/14/06/03/dc_couple_invents_kids_seat_fo...
- jandrese 10y ago
  It doesn't help that most US metro systems have not seen major expansion in literally decades, even as the cities have spread across the local countryside. Lots of people would take the metro if it were a reasonable distance away, but if you're talking about taking a bus to the metro stop to then have to take another bus from the other end to get where you're going the majority people are going to say fuck that. You'll turn a 20 minute commute into a 2 hour one easily.
rokhayakebe 10y ago
In the US public transportation (PT) can only work in big dense cities. I live in Orange County where even the greatest PT will make it challenging because every place is spread apart where as in Los Angeles (just 40 mns away) you may not need to own a vehicle for days.
notatoad 10y ago
and, not or. the only transportation method that really precludes public transport is the personal automobile. ridesharing, carsharing, walking, and cycling all make public transport more effective. people need some way to get from the public transit stop to their eventual destination. and from home to the public transit stop. carsharing makes taking the bus more feasible, it doesn't compete with busses.
- arpa 10y ago
  I'm actually in love with Berlin transit system. Metro/SBahn is always just minutes of walking away. There are at least 4 ways you can commute - SBahn, trams, metro and bus; I prefer SBahn and metro the most, as they are always on time and frequent enough not to be overloaded even in the rush hours. If I were to live there, I don't think I'd need to own a car, or use a car sharing service with exception of transporting something bulky. So, I think, provided the public transit system is well designed and well funded, it would be safe to say that it could be OR inside cities. But that's a lot to ask for, so, yup, you're right.

Yup. Carsharing, or, you know, public transportation.

by arpa 10y ago

Yup. Carsharing, or, you know, public transportation.

Public transit is great at reducing congestion. A single subway train can hold a thousand people. With 3 minute intervals, the capacity blows away any road network. However there are different challenges: * Fan out from a transit stop. You need to layer on buses, bike share, and/or car share. And whatever you add needs to have ADA accessible and family friendly options. I love my Hubway key but if I have my kids with me, I have no place to put them [+]. * Building or expanding the damned thing. In particular for me, Boston is sabotaging itself by not aggressively expanding and maintaining its transit system. * Changing American mindsets. Even in cities with relatively good transit systems, there's a mindset that it's dirty, for poor people, or too expensive compared to driving/parking. Car-sharing is a familiar concept for these people: I'm an American, I drive a car to places. +: http://wamu.org/news/14/06/03/dc_couple_invents_kids_seat_for_capital_bikeshare http://wamu.org/news/14/06/03/dc_couple_invents_kids_seat_fo...

jandrese 10y ago
It doesn't help that most US metro systems have not seen major expansion in literally decades, even as the cities have spread across the local countryside. Lots of people would take the metro if it were a reasonable distance away, but if you're talking about taking a bus to the metro stop to then have to take another bus from the other end to get where you're going the majority people are going to say fuck that. You'll turn a 20 minute commute into a 2 hour one easily.

rokhayakebe 10y ago

In the US public transportation (PT) can only work in big dense cities. I live in Orange County where even the greatest PT will make it challenging because every place is spread apart where as in Los Angeles (just 40 mns away) you may not need to own a vehicle for days.

notatoad 10y ago

and, not or. the only transportation method that really precludes public transport is the personal automobile. ridesharing, carsharing, walking, and cycling all make public transport more effective. people need some way to get from the public transit stop to their eventual destination. and from home to the public transit stop. carsharing makes taking the bus more feasible, it doesn't compete with busses.

arpa 10y ago
I'm actually in love with Berlin transit system. Metro/SBahn is always just minutes of walking away. There are at least 4 ways you can commute - SBahn, trams, metro and bus; I prefer SBahn and metro the most, as they are always on time and frequent enough not to be overloaded even in the rush hours. If I were to live there, I don't think I'd need to own a car, or use a car sharing service with exception of transporting something bulky. So, I think, provided the public transit system is well designed and well funded, it would be safe to say that it could be OR inside cities. But that's a lot to ask for, so, yup, you're right.