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"Say all parking spaces vanish over night and now a lot of people are left with cars. What then? What is the next step?" Parking spaces won't vanish over night
by UtopiaPunk 3y ago
"Say all parking spaces vanish over night and now a lot of people are left with cars. What then? What is the next step?"
Parking spaces won't vanish over night, so I'm not sure it's worth entertaining this rapture-esque scenario. I do think we should begin gradually reducing the amount of parking spaces in the United States, though, for various reasons. Instead of subsidizing car usage through building free or artificially cheap parking lots (and highways, for that matter), I'd like to see my tax dollars subsidize public transit and bicycle infrastructure instead.
"What if I need a car for commuting? Is it really reasonable to ask me to start using public transportation and completely revolve my life around a their schedule?"
It's reasonable for some people right now, as evidenced by the millions of people who use public transit for their daily commutes. The alternative is to revolve our lives around finding a place to store a very large piece of property, in addition to planning around traffic congestion.
But I get it - I live in a suburban area outside of a major metro area, so while I have access to an okay bus network that I sometimes take advantage of, it often doesn't make sense for me to take the bus. The busses here simply don't run frequently enough and their routes have to cover a lot of points, which means that the routes sometimes take too long if I need to be punctual. And sometimes the bus stops aren't that close to my destination, which is fine if I want a little exercise and the weather is nice, but often it's annoying. I own a car, so I don't have to take the bus if I find it too convenient.
But I'm advocating for better public transit, which means buses that run more often, have more direct routes, and have stops that are closer to where I want to be.
I also think there are a lot of creative ways to tackle the "last mile" of a trip, such as bicycling and scooters. For example, the busses in my area have bike racks, and since I enjoy biking, that really expands where I can travel without a car. Some scooters can fold up small that are easy for people to carry, and other options can be rented on the spot. And with my bike, there are many places I can easily travel to without ever needing public transit, like the grocery store about a mile away. A 3-5 mile trip feels pretty pleasant on a bicycle, imo. And parking a bicycle obviously requires significantly less space than parking a car or truck.
Ideally, I'd love to see better train networks as well, something approaching the train networks in Europe or Asia. Some major cities in the US are expanding in their train networks, and I'm hopeful that Amtrak will become more robust as it receives some significant funding from the infrastructure bill that Congress passed in 2021.