TELECOM Digest OnLine - Sorted: Telecom (off topic) - Re: Clean Technology Bigger than Internet

Telecom (off topic) - Re: Clean Technology Bigger than Internet

The Kaminsky Family (kaminsky@kaminsky.org)
Fri, 18 May 2007 14:48:58 -0700

Wesrock@aol.com wrote:

> Unfortunately for such transit systems, most cities in the U.S.A. have
> grown in the automobile era so that there is no real focus for public
> transportation -- no central point. This makes it almost necessary to
> have a car, since there is no practical way to serve all the
> criss-crossing travel patterns which in some cities may have the
> majority of travel.

It is worse than that. The key to a successful public transit system
is housing and workplace density. Without a sufficient concentration
of people and jobs, there are not enough riders able to use public
transportation without using their cars -- at one end or the other.

> There are some places where this is not true in limited areas. There
> is no way I would try to drive in New York City, with its excellent
> public transit system. San Francisco's seems to work well, too. It
> is said that Boston's does too, but I have no personal experience.

Even in New York, there are exceptions. My father was ten minutes from
work by car - but about 45 minutes by public transportation. Even
worse, he had to change from bus to subway in an iffy neighborhood,
and then walk from the subway to work in a neighborhood which was not
iffy at all - it was unquestionably dangerous. But he had a parking
spot in the basement of building in which he worked (evening shift).
Needless to say, I did not get many opportunities to drive his car ...

Mark

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