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As someone who loves trains and buses and planes, I wish that people who pushed public transport would actually engage with the reasons why people don't want to
by throwaway22032 2y ago
As someone who loves trains and buses and planes, I wish that people who pushed public transport would actually engage with the reasons why people don't want to use it rather than just making alternatives worse.
There are three main issues that need to be solved for even me, a train lover, to prioritise using them.
1) Undesirables need to be removed. I don't want to deal with beggars or other general hoodlums. Transport police need to be aggressive with stamping out these behaviours. If I have to interact with these people I won't do it.
2) It needs to be clean and comfortable. My car has air conditioning. If I have to feel sweaty and worry about touching surfaces I'm just not going to do it.
3) I like a good walk, and there are also real limitations to scaling here, so I'm less rigid on this, but it does need to go roughly to where I want to go and it needs to be frequent. If I'm out in the rain for fifteen minutes waiting for a bus I'm just not going to do it, I could already be halfway there by car.
I don't think these are insurmountable, Japan does pretty well, but in the absence of that, the stick just isn't going to work. If travel times via car doubled, I'd probably just do less and then eventually move out of the city.
edit: I can't reply about libraries due to rate limiting.
Libraries are a great example of how public transport _could_ work!
I love libraries!
The British Library is truly public. Anyone can go, anyone can enter the reading rooms. It is a lovely environment to read or work in, as they have strict rules. It is peaceful and pleasant because of the way that it's set up.
It's also a great example of how the many can come together to do more than the few. Almost no-one is able to create a home environment with that sort of atmosphere, and by sharing it we all get more.
I would love it if public transport were like the experience of using a good library.
- prmoustache 2y agoAren't your "indesirables" waiting at the traffic light as well in your part of the world?
- tonynator 2y ago[flagged]
- walthamstow 2y agoIf 'undesirables' are part of your local area, then they'll be on the public transport. The clue is in the name. The reason Japan doesn't have them on the trains is not because the guards have removed them, it's because they weren't there to begin with.
- rangestransform 2y agoBangkok has the most expensive public transit line relative to local incomes (BTS skytrain), and yet I saw nobody jump the turnstile there
- hamandcheese 2y agoI'm pretty sure if they tried in Japan, the guards would remove them.
- deleted 2y ago[deleted]
- kloop 2y ago> If 'undesirables' are part of your local area, then they'll be on the public transport. The clue is in the name. Their examples of undesirables are about behaviors, not sectors of society. Since we're using Japan as an example, Japan does have very strict social rules on public behavior that probably help in this area.
- throwaway22032 2y agoIf the answer is to throw up our hands and say that nothing can be done, then I'll just drive instead, because there are no beggars in my car, I don't let them in.
- walthamstow 2y agoWhat I'm saying is that public transport is a reflection of the local society. You can accept it, work to improve it, or hide from it in your private vehicle. Here in London, hardly a quaint and sleepy village, everyone uses public transport, including beggars and hoodlums as you put it, and it's fine.
- micromacrofoot 2y agoI have to imagine you don't like libraries either