3 ms·

We have tried swapping the order. There's no will for good public transit solutions when people can expect to drive everywhere because the current state of thin

by stouset 10y ago

We have tried swapping the order. There's no will for good public transit solutions when people can expect to drive everywhere because the current state of things has disproportionately favored cars.

dbcurtis 10y ago
True, that. So how about instead of mandating parking spaces, mandate an area set-asside for public transit right-of-way. Then allow the right-of-way area to be used for parking until the transit authority exercises it's right-of-way. At first, there will be islands of disconnected right-of-way that make no sense for build-out, and they get used for parking. Eventually, re-development fill-in will connect adjacent regions, and then the transit authority can build a reasonable sized segment.
- mjevans 10y ago
  Your city doesn't have bus lanes or a dedicated transit street? Seattle has both. It doesn't really address the issue, though it does make service for the rush hour suburb / city commuters better. (which is really all the current public transit infrastructure in the Seattle and surrounding areas is optimized for). Nor does it address the issue of it being expensive to extend the service in a way that meaningfully empowers, E.G. those working a late shift somewhere, to get home at 2AM.
wanderr 10y ago
Do you have any links to case studies where this was tried and failed? Every example I've seen ends up being like my story, we did a half-assed version as a trial and it flopped so we gave up. I'm not denying the existence of times when it was given a fair shot, I'm just not aware of them and would like to be. To me it seems like a no brainer that the demand is there whether driving is terrible or not, good public transit can be better than private even if a city doesn't go out of its way to discourage driving (and don't get me wrong, if a city has good public transit options then I think it should commit and strongly discourage driving).

by stouset 10y ago

We have tried swapping the order. There's no will for good public transit solutions when people can expect to drive everywhere because the current state of things has disproportionately favored cars.

dbcurtis 10y ago

True, that. So how about instead of mandating parking spaces, mandate an area set-asside for public transit right-of-way. Then allow the right-of-way area to be used for parking until the transit authority exercises it's right-of-way. At first, there will be islands of disconnected right-of-way that make no sense for build-out, and they get used for parking. Eventually, re-development fill-in will connect adjacent regions, and then the transit authority can build a reasonable sized segment.

mjevans 10y ago
Your city doesn't have bus lanes or a dedicated transit street? Seattle has both. It doesn't really address the issue, though it does make service for the rush hour suburb / city commuters better. (which is really all the current public transit infrastructure in the Seattle and surrounding areas is optimized for). Nor does it address the issue of it being expensive to extend the service in a way that meaningfully empowers, E.G. those working a late shift somewhere, to get home at 2AM.

wanderr 10y ago

Do you have any links to case studies where this was tried and failed? Every example I've seen ends up being like my story, we did a half-assed version as a trial and it flopped so we gave up. I'm not denying the existence of times when it was given a fair shot, I'm just not aware of them and would like to be. To me it seems like a no brainer that the demand is there whether driving is terrible or not, good public transit can be better than private even if a city doesn't go out of its way to discourage driving (and don't get me wrong, if a city has good public transit options then I think it should commit and strongly discourage driving).