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The article lists San Francisco as having total vehicle kilometers traveled as having declined "-4.8%"; but I would be more interested in seeing the suburbs, to

The article lists San Francisco as having total vehicle kilometers traveled as having declined "-4.8%"; but I would be more interested in seeing the suburbs, too; does it matter if local city centers are declining if the surrounding suburbs are all increasing? I work in SF, and I don't drive any miles in SF. But I drive ~35 miles daily to get to the public transport (CalTrain[1]). There's a less-driving-time public transit route to work, but it doubles to triples the commute time, which is unacceptable. That said, I also don't "commute solo" … the difference between the HOV and non-HOV lanes is too great. I also lived in Providence, RI, for a bit; there the transit system suffered two interesting "failures": 1. it was quicker for me to not take the bus that went right in front of my house; walking was routinely faster. This was mostly because… 2. the bus I was connecting from arrived 2 minutes after my connection had left. (and if you're going to encourage _more_ people to trade driving for public transit, CalTrain is going to need more capacity; trains are routinely full: i.e., there is so little room that it is difficult to board the train, let alone sit.)

acdha 12y ago
> 2. the bus I was connecting from arrived 2 minutes after my connection had left. This was basically 100% of the buses in San Diego. Most of the [quite large] county is theoretically transit accessible but they appeared to have used some sort of de-optimization program which ensured that every connection incurred the maximum wait.
semi-extrinsic 12y ago
If your work is within walking/running/cycling distance I think those options essentially always win over anything else in densely populated areas. I recently spent half a year in central London, 6 km from home to work. I would run or longboard it in < 40 minutes one way, taking the tube or bus took > 60 minutes door-to-door, so even including a quick shower running was faster. If you count in the money saved on not taking the tube, not needing a gym membership, and the time saved by not having to do any workouts after you come home from work, it's a big win. I did have to limit myself to 3 days running a week (2 days longboarding), or my knees started complaining. Also, London: fix your goddamned pavements, they are un-bloody-skateboardable. We have invented concrete and asphalt, you don't need to use cobblestones everywhere.
sukilot 12y ago
It is only mildly interesting to note that cars are declining in the single most bike/walk-friendly climate in America. The rest of the nation has weather to contend with.

acdha 12y ago

> 2. the bus I was connecting from arrived 2 minutes after my connection had left. This was basically 100% of the buses in San Diego. Most of the [quite large] county is theoretically transit accessible but they appeared to have used some sort of de-optimization program which ensured that every connection incurred the maximum wait.

semi-extrinsic 12y ago

If your work is within walking/running/cycling distance I think those options essentially always win over anything else in densely populated areas. I recently spent half a year in central London, 6 km from home to work. I would run or longboard it in < 40 minutes one way, taking the tube or bus took > 60 minutes door-to-door, so even including a quick shower running was faster. If you count in the money saved on not taking the tube, not needing a gym membership, and the time saved by not having to do any workouts after you come home from work, it's a big win. I did have to limit myself to 3 days running a week (2 days longboarding), or my knees started complaining. Also, London: fix your goddamned pavements, they are un-bloody-skateboardable. We have invented concrete and asphalt, you don't need to use cobblestones everywhere.

sukilot 12y ago

It is only mildly interesting to note that cars are declining in the single most bike/walk-friendly climate in America. The rest of the nation has weather to contend with.