Why People Don't Ride Public Transit in Small Cities

[mahatmakanejeeves]

Why People Don't Ride Public Transit in Small Cities

Booming regions like Charlotte and Nashville are stuck: Residents love their cars, so support—and justification—for expanding bus and rail systems is hard to find.

Alana Semuels | 10:27 AM ET

NASHVILLE—This is one of America’s booming cities. An average of 82 people move here every day, amounting to a growth rate of 12.7 percent between 2000 and 2013. ... And, as is the case in many booming cities, the traffic is terrible.

Congestion costs the average Nashville auto commuter 45 hours a year, according to an annual Urban Mobility Scorecard prepared by Texas A&M. There’s little public transit in Nashville, and most people get around by car: Drive around one of the city’s hot areas—The Gulch, Germantown, Downtown—on just about any night and you’ll see parking lots chock full of giant cars and people driving around in automobiles, looking for places to put them.
....

But, even if the city could find the money for a new light-rail line, would people use it? Like most Americans outside the biggest cities, people in Nashville are accustomed to using their cars. According to Census data from 2009, fewer than 3 percent of workers in the Nashville metro area used public transit to commute to work, making the city less public-transit-friendly than Houston, Richmond, Memphis, Tampa, and Kansas City, to name a few.

Evidence from other cities indicates that even if Nashville somehow finds the money to put into light rail or bus rapid transit, it could be challenging to get people to use those systems. And though transit may reduce congestion temporarily, commuters will return to the roads once they see traffic is down.

[PoliticAverse]

1. Because it doesn't go where they want to go when they want to go, that's the simple answer.

Also if you already have a car the marginal cost of going somewhere can be less than
what public transit would charge.

[MANative]

3. Depends on where you're heading. I commute to Manhattan from CT

and the gas, tolls and parking are definitely more than what I spend even on a peak-fare round trip ticket. The monthly pass is where you get better value, and it's well worth it - the whole month costs less than 11 single-ticket round trips, so about half-price for normal 22-day work month, but I can use it on weekends, too. In 19 years of working in the city, I've only driven in once; I'd never do it again, even with all faults that Metro-North and the MTA admittedly have.

[Warpy]

4. I used public transit as a kid in Charlotte. It was SLOW

and that's the real problem. When it takes 45 minutes to get downtown, you have to wait for your transfer bus to show up, and then it takes an hour to get where you're going, it gets onerous quickly. Light rail with limited stops would be quicker, but that city sprawls out all over the place and it would be difficult to build enough to serve the whole area. Plus, drivers would kvetch about the inconvenience of having to stop for trains and having some streets devoted to the train lines instead of traffic.

[Rond Vidar]

5. Second that. For the majority of Americans, public transit simply isn't as quick (or convenient)

as a car. Now, if you're in New York City....sure. But in many large cities, buses and light rail just don't cut it.

[Warpy]

6. The T in Boston is great

It's such a small city in area that it's relatively quick and even when I was going from the end of one line to the end of another, riding rail was smooth enough I was able to read or knit, not as easy in a herky-jerky bus trying to go through traffic. Besides, Boston traffic is nuts. When I had a car, I used it to get out of the city, not around it.

[BlueJazz]

2. I don't use public transportation but would gladly pay higher taxes for those that either..

...need to or want to avail themselves of the system.

[Chan790]

7. Often the systems are sub-par.

I live in the Hartford suburbs. The transit system blows so nobody uses it so they don't improve it so people continue to not use it so there is no motivation or capital to improve it.

In the end though, we have a shitty transit system that nobody uses because it's shitty.

[Travis_0004]

8. I would rather be in my own car

Crank up my music, relax and drive on my schedule. If I want to go somewhere after work or on lunch I can.