Cawlin posted:
levgre posted:
it's mandatory that we embrace public transportation
Yes I look forward to spending 90 minutes in transit time one way that will replace my straight shot if I were driving 13 miles over the mountain to my office and arriving an hour and a half late each morning because the ONLY bus route that I don't have to drive to (and just walk 1.2 miles to instead) ONLY runs twice per day, once when it picks me up at 8:02 am (if it's running on time, which it is notorious for NOT doing) and drops me off at work at 9:24 (if it's running on time, which it is notorious for NOT doing) after it goes halfway around the rest of the county.
Also I look forward to telling my employer that I have to leave an hour early too because that same bus route also leaves my employer's location at 4pm and gets me back home at 5:30 at which point I have to walk another 1.2 miles to home.
I especially look forward to this commute when it's snowing and sleeting and just generally sihtty weather from November to mid March each year.
I suppose an alternative I could embrace would be riding my bike up and over the mountain and arriving at work sweating like a hog or after dealing with snow, ice, and other random weather hazards, and finding a place to shower at work and change clothes in the morning. It will be a special treat to repeat that trip in reverse up and over the mountain again in the afternoon on my bike, only to arrive home again needing a shower before I cook dinner.
In the places where mass transit is set up well, available in frequent intervals, it is a treat. My husband, on the days he would have to go into Chicago (we live 3 hours away) would drive or ride his motorcycle to the nearest commuter train station and ride that the rest of the way in. It took the same amount of time as driving, if there was no traffic on the roads, but he could relax and read and not have to put up with traffic or douche canoes on the road. The stop to get off was about a block from his workplace. If you look at the Chicago network of trains and transportation it's this huge spiderweb network that branches out incredibly. I imagine New York and some other places are similar, but they are few compared to the cities with no such network.
When we lived in Germany the bus and train system were incredible. Buses came by the stops every 10 minutes on the dot and were generally used for in-town travel. Sometimes the routes went to a nearby town but never further than that. Trains were for inter-town travel. The trains didn't come every 10 minutes, it was more like every half hour or so, but that was still usually more than enough.
Granted, I am well aware it's not feasible to have a system just like Germany's, partly because our country is so huge and sprawling compared to theirs. In-city transit would be more easily accomplished for all but the most rural towns, though. The trouble is actually getting people to use the transit systems. When gas is cheap and using your own car is more convenient, why bother with public transportation? But now that gas prices are going up so much, I think we'll start to see more people switching to public transportation, and asking for more train/bus availability in routes and times.
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