Mass Transit Grows as Commuters’ Trip of Choice - NYT

[Cassandra]

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/09/02/nyregion/02commute.html?ref=nyregion

" A growing number of New Yorkers are deciding that if the trip to work takes more than a half-hour, then someone else can do the driving, a new survey by the Census Bureau shows.

In the metropolitan region, which for years has been home to the nation’s longest average commute, tens of thousands of workers have stopped driving to their jobs and switched to riding subways, trains, buses and ferries, according to an analysis of the data released this week by demographers at Queens College.
<snip>
The latest figures reinforce just how unusual New York is in its reliance on public transportation. No other American city makes half as much use of mass transit. Of the 6.2 million transit riders in the country, more than 40 percent live in the metropolitan region, which, by the federal government’s definition, includes the city and 18 surrounding counties in New York, New Jersey and Pennsylvania."

They don't include walking or biking, which a lot of people do. I'm actually taking mass transit a bit less than I used to because I'm walking more.

[Selatius]

1. If only we had spent more money on mass transit

But the road and car lobbies have dominated this country for decades. You've got bullet trains and massive mass transit networks connecting major areas of European countries, but all we have are interstates.

[Cassandra]

2. I was surprised to realize recently that...

I could take NJ Transit to Trenton and connect to the SEPTA system of Philadelphia to get from NYC all the way into Philadelphia on about $20. It would take some time but is way cheaper than the Metroliner which costs at least $50 each way.

[Vogon_Glory]

4. Don't Forget Right-wing Ideology In Transit Funding

Don't forget the role of right-wing ideology in transit funding. Right-wing ideology plays a very powerful role in determining how little US transit systems get as compared to the rivers of wealth lavished on public highways and airports.

In classic right-wing thought, even public highways were thought to be functions that government had no business funding. The right-wingers holding the Republican Party and the country by the throat have slightly modified that notion; these days the far right believes that publicly-funded highway construction is good, that publicly funded barge canals are good, that publicly funded airport construction is also good, although if the highways or airports or highways can be sold off to cronies at below-market rates, that's even better.

In both classic and contemporary right-wing thought, though, publicly-funded transit is BAD. Right-wingers believe that transit ought to be either solely funded through the fare box or that its construction should be done at public expense. The contradictions of building a transit system (light rail, heavy rail, commuter rail, or even mono-rail) at private expense against the subsidized road network or the hideous cost of real estate doesn't disturb the thoughts of such ivory-tower theorists.

A classic example of such contemporary right-wing ideology in action is Tom DeLay's long campaign against Houston Metro's light rail system, as well as former Dallas congressman Jim Collins' campaign against Dallas' DART light rail network.


My own opinion about such right-wing thinking:


:crazy: :dunce: :tinfoilhat: :rofl:

[marmar]

3. "to the nation’s longest average commute"

Longer than the commute in Hell-Lay? I took me an hour and 15 minutes to go 14 miles from Norwalk to Hollywood on a SUNDAY MORNING! I can't imagine any city, and I lived in the NY metro area for four years, having a worse commute than LA's.

[Cassandra]

5. I was visiting my parents in Westwood...

a few months ago. The traffic is frightening, although I am comforted by the fact that, if they had to, they could walk to Ralphs and Whole Foods, and banks, restaurants and movie theaters in Westwood Village and the walk involves almost no traffic.

[NNadir]

6. The nice thing about mass transit is that being electrically powered...

...the form of energy that is most flexibly obtained by the cleanest possible means.