TTAC’s longstanding policy: remain skeptical about all surveys. Check the source, scan the methodology, parse the results, throw-up our hands and walk away. To wit: we’ve just received a press release from HNTB, a troika of construction companies that designs and builds airports, bridges, tunnels, toll booths, convention centers, sports stadiums. parking lots, libraries and… a couple of commuter rail stations. So I guess they’re expanding that last bit, because they want the world to know that “more than 24 million Americans — 11 percent of the adult population — are using buses, light rail, commuter rail and other forms of public transportation more than they did last year. An even greater percentage of survey respondents, 16 percent, said they expect their ridership to increase in the coming year.” Uh, how much more? And if this is the same group that was using public transportation before, what does that actually mean? Peter Gertler, HNTB’s national director of public transit services has the answer. “As today’s Americans face increasing demands on their time and money, riding public transit is shifting from something they should do, like eating their vegetables, to something they want to do.” Because of.. rising gas prices! Hang on; doesn’t that move public transportation back into the broccoli category? And here’s my takeaway: environmental concerns are at the bottom of the switch list, at just four percent. Of course, all that’s based on an emailed opt-in survey of 1000 “random” Americans. (I know exactly how they feel.)
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Take surveys with a huge grain of salt.
As of (recently…this year) All senior citizens in Chicago are eligible to ride public transit for free. If you are retired & don’t mind taking longer (2x+ as long driving), wouldn’t you take it ?
To make a long story short, I prefer to NOT take public transport unless I have no other choice due to the pricing, restrictions on monthly passes (I had a Metra card with “linkup” to CTA buses), and already having a paid-off motorcycle and mostly paid off car.
Public transport $ > cost of parking in the basement of the building I work. It also takes longer (42-70 minutes vs 30 min flat, driving) and is more unreliable (even with gps tracking) than simply driving. I pay $300+ in insurance monthly already for a wedding ring, renters insurance, 2 cars, and a motorcycle with great coverage…might as well use the vehicles.
Good riddance, really. The only positive is it keeps some other people off the road making my temperature controlled commute speedy.
I know the scene in that photo well. I used to live just off the right margin and commuted over that bridge (the smaller one on the right, which later sank into the lake during a storm) every day in the mid-late 80s. That construction project dominated my life back then.
What they say in the caption is true though. Once completed that stretch of road is no longer the nightmare it once was. The nightmare has only shifted to the other bridge over Lake Washington.
As for public transport, when it works for my situation, I use it. When it doesn’t I don’t. I imagine most Americans view it that way. I’ve ridden busses, trains, bicycles and carpools at various times in my career, and will again when it suits me.
Gas prices worry me not, I drive a Diesel and make my own fuel.
–chuck
I would love to use public transportation for my commute and leave the driving to someone else. But it has to meet certain conditions for it to be acceptable to me. I live in Atlanta and here is my scorecard:
1. It has to be available (obviously). PASS
2. It has to be economical PASS
3. It has to be easy to use and figure out, with easy to read maps and minimal transfers FAIL
4. It has to have enough available seats so I don’t have to stand for my 1.5 hour commute FAIL
I wish we had more trains and less buses.
What the F*** are they doing to my old neighborhood???! I used to live probably another 1/3 mile in from Lake Washington beyond what’s in the photo, and maybe a tenth of a mile to the left, in the mid-50s and 1960-61, long before Chuck did. It really was beautiful there, and now, I think I’m afraid to go back.
Also, if I get on the Mass Pike and drive 3,000 miles west, I’d be on that Floating Bridge again.
Anyway, I’d probably take public transit if I lived in Paris, or NYC. Here, in Boston, I take it less than once a year, and the same was true when I lived in DC. The problem was time. I lived five blocks from the metro there, and had only one change to get downtown to my doctor’s office. Nonetheless, door to door was 40 minutes by metro, and only 20 by bicycle or car, and parking wasn’t bad.
If I had to go into Boston a lot, I probably would start taking the subway from a stop that’s a seven minute drive from my house, just because parking is so bad in a lot of places.
The only mass transit that I used that I thought was worth it was the PATCO high speed line from South Jersey to Philadelphia. It was quick, air conditioned, the trains ran every 6 or 7 minutes during rush hour, and the parking at the stations was (mostly) free. All other types of mass transit I tried were FAIL as the previous commnter said.
I agree totally with your perspective on surveys.
Here is a possible explanation – mass transit tie ins to event sites. It has become easier to get to sporting events and other activities at the Houston Astrodome complex by driving downtown, and then taking the train. It doesn’t reduce mileage by private cars by very much, but it does increase ridership.
Also, I suspect lots of people tried public transport when the price of gas went up, but I don’t know how many kept at it. The way this survey sounds, almost all of those people would have answered yes.
When the public subsidy of roads is reduced in a very slight way, and your favorite roads are full of potholes, broken concrete and disintigrating curbs, lights and signs you may then decided that your car can’t even make it. But then again, as a country, we haven’t invested in much public transit so you will be snookered good. Or perhaps you believe that there is lots of tax money to be spent on roads, and that gas is going to get cheap again.
David, the answer is simple: They paved the lake! ;)
Once completed though, they really cleaned up that big ugly spot in the photo. The freeway is covered by a lid, with a big park and a nice link to the bike trails that loop the lake. I’d guess that photo is circa 1988 or so.
I lived in the Mt. Baker neighborhood (33rd & Lander) back in the 80s, worked in Bellevue (now that town has changed a LOT!)
–chuck
Landcrusher>
Even sporting events don’t work that well.
I have come out of wrigley field to get on the train and there is a 30-40 minute wait to stick your fair card in the turnstile….or I could take a taxi & be home in 15 min.
FAIL again.
The US either needs to invest SERIOUS $$ in public transport of give up on it. Doing it half as*ed makes it useful for very few people.
I hate public transportation. They need to stop subsidizing it and let it live or die on its own.
Chuck,
I think my neighborhood was Denny-Blaine. I lived at 128 33rd (then north, now east), at the top of a hill, just north of Denny, I think. Glad to hear that sore spot is gone. David
Chuck,
I found my old house using that link showing the lid. I was probably a bit less than two miles north of the Floating bridge, but very close to the lake, maybe a quarter mile in. One of the amazing things is that all the woods that were there then seem still to be there. David