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How to fix U.S. transit

• HillaryBriss 8y ago
  ...we rode on trains and buses that had their own dedicated sections for families, with places to secure strollers and a variety of seating arrangements. But it wasn’t just about the kid-centric accoutrements. I saw that the real beauty of reliable, accessible transportation is that it allows people of all ages and abilities to move freely around a city—at their own pace. Author was in Sweden and I think it's important to see their transportation system as a feature embedded within a larger context, one where government and social support structures are different than they are in, say, Los Angeles. For example, with LA's context of higher homelessness rates, poverty rates, gun and weapon possession rates, crime rates, and drastically less effective government support for people's needs, we may well expect a different outcome in a similarly designed transit station. Transit design choices do not exist in a vacuum. They exist in the context of a society, cultural norms, government and law enforcement rules and behaivor, etc. You could probably make an argument that in US cities many transportation fixtures (e.g. bus benches, train seats) have been intentionally made less comfortable, less accommodating so that they are easier to clean and less likely to attract misuses such as permanent habitation.