this post was submitted on 27 Oct 2023
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Unless the reason travel by car takes really long is because of traffic jams, it's actually rather hard to create public transit that actually wins out in time. Bus will be a lot slower, trains can only take you to so many places, and building a large metro system is prohibitively expensive.
I would like to use public transit, but when that would turn a 15 minute drive into a 55 minute trip, I'd rather not spend 27 hours a month extra going to work.
But you can do things while on the train like sleep or internet. It depends what that tradeoff is exactly, but I would still rather have a longer commute I can do things during.
I would rather sleep for an extra 40 minutes then have to get up 40 minutes earlier.
Like get robbed, stabbed, harassed, inconvenienced, annoyed and assaulted?
Tradeoffs indeed.
Still much safer than roads with all the crashes.
How much more likely are you to die in a car accident in a bus or train versus a car? How many times have you taken public transit that you have such a problem with the issues you mentioned?
Where do you live?
Chicken and egg problem. Crime highly correlates with poverty. People perceive transit as being a poor people thing because it's cheap. Only poor people take transit. You get the gist.
Also, the incidence rate is probably lower than people's perception. I lived in San Francisco for about 3 years and only experienced one incident while taking transit everyday. Of course, transit doesn't have the problem mentioned above, so maybe it's not the best example.
I tried taking transit a couple of times in LA and in my hometown in a suburb in Florida. Transit is underutilized in these places (read as, people see it as a poor person thing). It was surprisingly... uninteresting. It was just getting from A-to-B. People mostly just sat on their phones or stared out the window or chatted. Was quite nice.
So maybe grab a friend or two for safety, since you're concerned about that, and give it a shot. I think you'll be surprised.
But if you're in LA or New York, the trains are super dirty. So uh, i recommend not one of those. No idea where you're located
(Edit: I'm assuming you're in the US because that kind of opinion is quite common there.)
I live in Seoul, which has superb public transit. It can work if designed well.
Busses have their own lanes to ensure traffic minimally affects them. Bus-train transfers are well managed. High density means that mass transit ends up being faster due to traffic concerns. Speed limits are quite low, which also makes vehicle accidents less lethal.
As for prohibitively expensive, that's only if you don't sufficiently tax your corporations ;)
So basically, vote for local and national government that will create an environment where public transit works
Bus or car to work takes at least 40 minutes. When there's a morning and evening rush, the bus wins easily because it has dedicated lanes and can go where cars are not allowed. Biking takes me 20 minutes no matter the time of day - even when it snows and it is black ice
I wonder whose friend got multimillion contracts for building 6-lane(per direction) "roads"...
This is 15 minutes of work vs 55 minutes of relaxation.
Either you have a really bizarre definition of relaxation or you've never taken public transport in a busy city during peak hours.
Even in Los Angeles, where public transport is barely used, everything is packed at peak times. And that's a place where people regularly take showers. I dare you to enjoy the relaxing experience of a bus at peak times in August in a third world country like Russia.
Like everything these days, it depends. I live in Seoul, where the density is arguably too high. If you get on the line 2 train, which encircles Gangnam and the business and tourist districts, you're gonna be a sardine. If you hop on line 3 far enough east, it's totally chill during rush hour in August. Literally. Air conditioning. Wifi and cell signal. It's luxurious compared to LA.
I think it's just a matter of city planning. In Seoul's case, I think they didn't properly account for population growth and how much the inner-circle areas would boom. Outside of line 2 and some key transfer stations, public transit here absolutely is relaxing. I brag to my friends in the states about it all the time
I agree, but some cities are just not compatible with public transport. Busses in LA fit 2 bicycles. How do you cover the final mile (which could be as far as 2.5 miles) in a city with mostly single family homes and lots of hills?
Impossible to compare Seoul to LA imho. Population density has its benefits like amazingly fast (fiber) internet connection, but accessibility of public transport isn't one of them.
You replied to comment that I made while I was in public transport. If I were driving, I whould not be able to write it.
Does 17:00-19:00 peak hours count?
Ok?.. How do you know what I did in August?
I know there is saying that Moscow is not Russia, but I did exactly that. Also during summer most of regular people are on vacations, so there will be more space than during winter.