Mass Transit

[Achilles]

"Public transport (excluding air travel) allows lower emissions of air pollution, contribution to better air quality, noise reduction and reduction in emission of greenhouse gases. A 2002 study by the Brookings Institution and the American Enterprise Institute found that public transportation in the U.S uses approximately half the fuel required by cars, SUV's and light trucks. This is because public transport is more energy efficient, both due to economies of scale, but also because it can use low-friction infrastructure such as rail and water, combined with electric traction." - Wikipedia

As you can see, mass transit has a lot a benefits to the people and the environment. Do you support mass transit? Also, does your state have a mass transit system in place?

 

[elvis]

Why doesn't Al Whore use trains instead of his private jet, if he's so worried about the environment?

 

[Angel Heart]

My day wouldn't work if all I had was public transit to rely on. I have to have 2 kids at one school at 7:30am and the next 2 at another school by 7:45am. both are on routes that run only every hour and would have to catch another bus just to get on the right bus.

Wouldn't work for my husband job as well. He works on office equipment in the customers office. He has to carry parts and tools for all the machines he works on.

Public transit is great but personal autos is still the only way to live in most towns. If I lived in NYC I might have a different view but I live in Portland Oregon.

 

[Diuretic]

I'm a big fan of mass transit (we use the term "public transport"). Unfortunately it's not as good as it could be here but after some years of benign neglect it's advantages have been realised and our state government is putting some money into it.

 

[Diuretic]

Angel, our state government is using Portland as a model for many things, public transport was one of them, I seem to remember something about light rail. I have only been to Portland once and I was driving a hire car from LA on my way to Vancouver BC so I didn't get a chance to look at your systems there.

 

[Angel Heart]

Angel, our state government is using Portland as a model for many things, public transport was one of them, I seem to remember something about light rail. I have only been to Portland once and I was driving a hire car from LA on my way to Vancouver BC so I didn't get a chance to look at your systems there.

Problem we've had with the light rail is the crime that comes with it. On each of the routes as they started running, the crime in the neighborhoods they go through went up.

Here's a bit of history behind it:
http://www.ortem.org/history/

I will not be choosing to buy a house anywhere on a light rail line or any future planned line. The crime goes way up due to it being an easy way in and out. They don't tend to talk about that when they pitch the idea it to new cities.

 

[Diuretic]

Problem we've had with the light rail is the crime that comes with it. On each of the routes as they started running, the crime in the neighborhoods they go through went up.

Here's a bit of history behind it:
Crime History

I will not be choosing to buy a house anywhere on a light rail line or any future planned line. The crime goes way up due to it being an easy way in and out.

That's interesting, thank you. Just as an aside we have the same problem with regular rail in our metro area, crime I mean. I worked transit for a while and after commuting hours it's like something out of the "Twilight Zone."

 

[Angel Heart]

That's interesting, thank you. Just as an aside we have the same problem with regular rail in our metro area, crime I mean. I worked transit for a while and after commuting hours it's like something out of the "Twilight Zone."

Like I added after you started quoting... It's something they don't tell people when they pitch it. Would you?

I think the solution is to arm the public. If people where packing, well... Do you think the creeps would be as likely to fuck with them?

 

[Angel Heart]

Crime on Portland MAX rail line - The Oregonian

Scary when you think about it. That was just 2 years. They are in the middle of putting one in to the Clackamas Town Center. From there they are talking about toward Oregon City. There's the ones fighting for it and then there's us that are trying to stop it.

More bus would help. There's communities that would do better if they had more access to the city. Estacada comes to mind. It's got one bus route and it runs only a few times a day and not everyday of the week. It puts a worker in charge of who gets on and off the bus.

 

[Diuretic]

One of the things I found out very quickly when I worked transit was that a lot of people, and I mean a lot, using rail after commuting hours were suffering from various degrees (and types) of mental illness. It makes sense because here you can't hold a driver's licence if you are suffering from a mental illness and most of the poor buggers can't hold down a job that pays sufficiently for them to buy a car anyway, so public transport is the only option. And since rail here goes from the downtown area right out to the extreme northern and southern (our city is very linear north and south) districts it's the transportation of choice.

It's no so bad on the buses because they tend to be shorter trips but in the last few weeks we've seen operators bashed and idiots chucking rocks at buses from vantage points along the route.

We also have a guided busway which is great for commuting but at night abovementioned idiots think it's fun to hurl pieces of concrete at the buses as they pass.

Now just getting back on track (sorry)

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[Angel Heart]

Those are cool. I think that would be a big help for Portland. It's a nice twist.

How can we help with the crime issues? It drives down home values. It not safe to live near them.

Another solution for people who can't have cars here are the bikes. We have a great bike path system.

MapMyRide.com | Find Rides and Cycling Routes in Portland, OR

Only complaint is the riders tend to forget their bodies are but flesh and bone. They think the law (that says they have to follow nearly the same rules as autos) will stop a huge hunk of steel. My husband has worked downtown for the last few years. The go through red lights regularly. Yet we continue to bend over for them. The latest being the bike box. I think they will find it will lead to more issues than solutions for them. They are boxes in front of the cars behind the limit line. It prevents cars from coming up on the intersection and lets the bikes take the lead. My husband has missed several light cycles in one pass through due to the timing of it all. Extending the lights time will not help the cross traffic.

I like having the option of public transit but can't stand the issues that come with it. I have several friends that rely upon it regularly. Myself, I'm looking forward to not living on a main bus path too. Fingers crossed the housing market does here what it's done across the country. Portland is just starting to feel the stress of the housing market. Granted we hit the bubble later than most areas too. But that's for another thread.

 

[YWN666]

If I lived in a place well served by mass transit, I'd gladly give up the car and the gas and insurance expense.

 

[editec]

I think we ought to slowly get rid of all cars and create a light magnetic levitation rail system to replace autos altogether.

The investment to do this would be enormous, but the energy savings would more than pay for it.

We have more than enough rights of way to build these light rail systems, and I doubt they're cost much more per mile than building most roads.

Mag lev rail light rail systems can easily reach speeds of 200 - MPH and the whole thing can be run by computer.

You walk a block or two to your local station and transfer to intercity systems if your trip is longer than local.

We also ought to be creating pedestrian bike paths that give every person FREE passage from anyplace in America to any other place.

The cost of those people paths would be nominal, but I swear to God, if we built them, people WOULD use them, too. I can actually envision a whole way of life developing (for some Americans) based on not using (or using only minimally) those advanced transporation sytems I'm envisioning, too.

I'd ride bikes all the time if I had a SAFE PATH to take from place to place. AT 10 or 15 MPH even a trip of thirty or 40 miles is NBD

Seriously, instead of saving the AUTO INDUSTRY we really ought to be completely rethinking transportation in America entirely.

All transportation ought to be electric powered, 99% of the land transportation ought to be by rail including shipping material and people.

We ought to get rid of Jets' too.

They're incredibly wasteful, horribly polluting and they're not really all that much quicker, than serious modern light rail, either.

The FRENCH and Japanese have rails in service that do over 200 MPH in service now.

The USA can't do the same?

Sure it can.

And it should, too.

 

[KittenKoder]

In Western Washington we have one of the best public transportation systems available, you can get anywhere by bus, and $2.00 at the most. I use it because it's economically more beneficial and safer than cars. The sad thing is that there are just too many motorists and most people who have cars do NOT actually own them, they are borrowing them from the bank. I can walk where a bus doesn't go, really, if you can't walk a mile at least to get somewhere then you are lazier than me.

 

[alan1]

For a bus to be more efficient than a car it has to have something like 12.2 people per mile travel. Where I live, the average is 8.7 people per mile travel. But hey, it's a bargain for the bus riders since the buses are supported by a sales tax. If buses are so great, how come they rely on taxpayer money to support them instead of ridership to support them? Ditto for light rail.

 

[KittenKoder]

For a bus to be more efficient than a car it has to have something like 12.2 people per mile travel. Where I live, the average is 8.7 people per mile travel. But hey, it's a bargain for the bus riders since the buses are supported by a sales tax. If buses are so great, how come they rely on taxpayer money to support them instead of ridership to support them? Ditto for light rail.

Not all do, for one thing. It's just like supply and demand for another. If more people were actually not so lazy as to drive their cars everywhere and took the bus then walked a short distance so many of our problems would lessen (not the environmental ones). Humans would be healthy again, and we'd actually see more of what's really going on instead of just what we see on TV or the net.

 

[alan1]

Not all do, for one thing. It's just like supply and demand for another. If more people were actually not so lazy as to drive their cars everywhere and took the bus then walked a short distance so many of our problems would lessen (not the environmental ones). Humans would be healthy again, and we'd actually see more of what's really going on instead of just what we see on TV or the net.

Oh boy, that's a riot. So now, public transport is a more healthy lifestyle.
Bwahahahahaha.

 

[KittenKoder]

Oh boy, that's a riot. So now, public transport is a more healthy lifestyle.
Bwahahahahaha.

It promotes healthier habits, so yeah. If you enjoy being fat and lazy fine, just don't whine when you get painful and horrible health problems because of it, and do NOT expect our taxes to cover your lazy ass. I like being outside, love it, hiking through the woods when I can (thanks to the buses I don't have to worry about where I parked), swimming at the beach, walking through a park or just napping under a tree ... and because I am healthy I can do it all in one day ... if I had the time.

 

[alan1]

It promotes healthier habits, so yeah. If you enjoy being fat and lazy fine, just don't whine when you get painful and horrible health problems because of it, and do NOT expect our taxes to cover your lazy ass. I like being outside, love it, hiking through the woods when I can (thanks to the buses I don't have to worry about where I parked), swimming at the beach, walking through a park or just napping under a tree ... and because I am healthy I can do it all in one day ... if I had the time.

Do you make many assumptions about people?
Last I looked, me being mid-40's 5'9" 150 lbs isn't fat.
I do tend to be a bit lazy though. That was just a lucky guess on your part.

The more the government stays out of my health care the happier I'll be.

 

[KittenKoder]

Do you make many assumptions about people?
Last I looked, me being mid-40's 5'9" 150 lbs isn't fat.
I do tend to be a bit lazy though. That was just a lucky guess on your part.

The more the government stays out of my health care the happier I'll be.

Fat isn't an actual weight-height ratio like so many think. The fatty content of your body can be high without you weighing a lot, while it can be VERY low while weighing a lot. Being lazy will increase the fatty content and decrease muscle mass.