Message text written by Randall Young
>And, if we had mass transit like what I rode in the Netherlands, I think
many, if not most, commuters would use it.<
Cities grow up around their transportation systems. Mass transit works in
places like Amsterdam and Paris and London because the mass transit systems
were there as the city developed. Here in the states the mass transit
systems were dismantled after the second world war for reasons too numerous
to detail here (more than just collusion between the automobile companies
and the petroleum companies) and hence the cities have grown up around the
highway systems.
Now the argument is made that mass transit won't work because it can't go
everywhere cars can. Well, duh! Which came first, the chicken or the egg?
Arguing that we shouldn't invest in mass transit because it won't solve
all the problems is missing the point. The transit system we want in place
50 years down the road is the one we should start building now. Build it
and they will come. The fact that the metrolink is so popular in
car-loving LA just shows that other modes of transportation are viable even
if they will not universally replace cars. No transportation can be
expected to replace cars. Cars shouldn't be expected to replace all other
modes of commuting.
Here's the current scenario: I get in my car each morning, drive some
surface streets to the interstate. Drive the interstate for some 18 miles.
Exit the interstate and drive the surface streets a few more miles to the
office. Elapsed time: 30 minutes. During this time I listen to the radio
but little else (yeah, I guess I could read a book as I have seen others
do).
Preferred scenario: I get in my car each morning, drive some surface
streets to the metro station. Ride the metro for some 18 miles. Exit the
metro and drive/ride the surface streets a few more miles to the office.
Elapsed time: 60 minutes. During this time I could eat breakfast, read the
paper or a book or some trade journals, or work on some paperwork. I would
consider buying a beater to keep at the station at the office end if a
shuttle was not available (which after a while, given enough traffic some
entrepeneural soul will provide a shuttle service).
Then I could save my driving for the fun parts.
And then maybe gas would not have to go to $10.00 a gallon placing a
hardship on those for whom mass transit offers no real option (traveling
salesmen, for example)
Dave
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