course i realise i am lucky to live in a city where you can get anywhere on a bus and that is well served by bike lanes
Boycott Gas 4/15/12?
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acctnt shan
Active Member
I could never give up my car completely, my job requires commuting to & from clients located all over New England, and it's very rare that a client is close to a train or bus stop.
However, before starting this job, I went 6 years without a car. It definitely has its pros and cons. For one, it's wayyy cheaper to buy a train pass every month than it is to pay for gas, parking, maintenance, insurance, etc. for a car. However, you are limited in where you can go & when you can go there, unless you're willing to fork over an arm and a leg for a taxi.
However, before starting this job, I went 6 years without a car. It definitely has its pros and cons. For one, it's wayyy cheaper to buy a train pass every month than it is to pay for gas, parking, maintenance, insurance, etc. for a car. However, you are limited in where you can go & when you can go there, unless you're willing to fork over an arm and a leg for a taxi.
however if your work was limited to Boston you could ride a bike , Boston is one of the best bike cities i ever visited
thye also have great baseball and very very beautiful women
Problem is too, public transportation is terrible in the US. Only in the largest cities with well-developed public transport systems can you go without a car. And in my opinion, a "well developed" system has to have a subway. I don't mind walking, and train+walking is the best combination in my mind. New York City is excellent in that sense, Washington DC seemed pretty good too. It's funny how even in many large cities in the US you still need a car or everyone commutes into the city anyway from suburbs.
In smaller cities, forget about it. All the towns and small cities I've been to have a bus route at best along with sidewalks. The smaller you get, the less sidewalks you have. So, you could have a 'city' with 50k people, where a car is still a necessity because there's no place for pedestrians to walk. Bus transportation isn't much better. In the area I work, people call the buses "ghost buses" because no one rides on them.
Until the government or someone starts improving transportation infrastructure, there won't be any incentive for people to let go of their cars.
In smaller cities, forget about it. All the towns and small cities I've been to have a bus route at best along with sidewalks. The smaller you get, the less sidewalks you have. So, you could have a 'city' with 50k people, where a car is still a necessity because there's no place for pedestrians to walk. Bus transportation isn't much better. In the area I work, people call the buses "ghost buses" because no one rides on them.
Until the government or someone starts improving transportation infrastructure, there won't be any incentive for people to let go of their cars.
acctnt shan
Active Member
Subway systems have loads of limitations too.
Philadelphia only has 2 main subway lines, one that runs east-west down Market St, and the other that runs north-south along Broad St, with the intersection at City Hall. So if you live anywhere in the NE,SE,NW,or SW quadrants, you're either S-O-L or you have to take the bus *shudders* (Philly's buses can be downright scaryy.....). There are a decent number of trains to take you to the suburbs too, but still - it's rare that your destination is right near one of the train stops.
Boston's subway system is not perfect, but it is a bit better, IMO. It's shaped kind of like a spoke, with different subway lines going out into different neighborhoods outside of the city, but all meeting at some of the "downtown" stops. I can't really comment on the buses or trains personally, as before I had my car I either took subway, walked, or taxi'd everywhere.
One thing that I think is pretty neat are the car share programs that have been put in place in most cities. Philly Car Share was pretty popular in Philadelphia, and Zip Car is pretty popular here in Boston and in NYC too I believe. They're not exactly cheap, but the cost is manageable compared to the cost of keeping & maintaining a car in a city if you only need it for occasional trips. Oh, and I just saw for the first time the other day a "bike hub" near the Boston Public Library - apparently you can join bike share programs now too.
Philadelphia only has 2 main subway lines, one that runs east-west down Market St, and the other that runs north-south along Broad St, with the intersection at City Hall. So if you live anywhere in the NE,SE,NW,or SW quadrants, you're either S-O-L or you have to take the bus *shudders* (Philly's buses can be downright scaryy.....). There are a decent number of trains to take you to the suburbs too, but still - it's rare that your destination is right near one of the train stops.
Boston's subway system is not perfect, but it is a bit better, IMO. It's shaped kind of like a spoke, with different subway lines going out into different neighborhoods outside of the city, but all meeting at some of the "downtown" stops. I can't really comment on the buses or trains personally, as before I had my car I either took subway, walked, or taxi'd everywhere.
One thing that I think is pretty neat are the car share programs that have been put in place in most cities. Philly Car Share was pretty popular in Philadelphia, and Zip Car is pretty popular here in Boston and in NYC too I believe. They're not exactly cheap, but the cost is manageable compared to the cost of keeping & maintaining a car in a city if you only need it for occasional trips. Oh, and I just saw for the first time the other day a "bike hub" near the Boston Public Library - apparently you can join bike share programs now too.
this is the starting point, of course govts dont always do what people want but the more people that want it the better
so it gets back to the people - people have to want to get out of their cars, thye might want to if they cannot afford the bloody things anymore
I'd honestly never seen a bike lane before I visited Toronto.
dancingpotato
Banned PER USER's Request
I live 10 minutes walk from the city centre which means I can walk almost everywhere. I use my car for going to and from work, if I got the bus I have to wait up to 30 minutes after a 12.5 hour shift to get home cos the.service is shocking at that time. Food shopping and visiting the parents I use my car for too but since I don't do that a lot, I only need to fill my car up once every 6 weeks.
The bus service here is pretty good, for getting to the centre. Can be a nightmare trying to get to the outskirts. They are ruining the city by building trams, I'd rather have an underground but we cant since Edinburgh is built on top of the old city that was before there was overcrowding and the plague.
The bus service here is pretty good, for getting to the centre. Can be a nightmare trying to get to the outskirts. They are ruining the city by building trams, I'd rather have an underground but we cant since Edinburgh is built on top of the old city that was before there was overcrowding and the plague.
acctnt shan
Active Member
We have them all over Boston -there were a lot of complaints when they took out over 90 parking spaces to put in a bike lane last year because Boston already has a huge parking shortage.
satinbutterfly
Miss Piggy
Not everyone has access to public transportation... especially here in the US... so that doesn't really make sense.
because you (they) have not demanded it from govt
acctnt shan
Active Member
Public transportation costs a LOT of money to put in place. Plus you need the people to work it, and enough passengers to ride it - even public transit systems in major cities here lose money. Setting up a train or bus system in the country just does not make sense.
granted but some suburban centres stil dont have it, from what i hear
acctnt shan
Active Member
See above for reasons.
For public transportation to make sense, you have to have enough people wanting to follow the same common paths as other people. You don't really get that outside of cities.
satinbutterfly
Miss Piggy
It would simply not be effective in the smaller cities with a higher number of people travelling from suburbs and rural areas. For instance, I used to drive 40 miles one way to work and it usually took between an hour and an hour and a half one way in a car. With public transporation it would likely take at least double that. It would simply not be with it. To the people with families, it definitely wouldn't.
This is true
a shame you could not have some park n ride affair, i visited Oxford in the uk a few yerars back, drivinng in that city is horrible, many people cannot afford to live in the city limits so they all live within a 40 mile radius in any given direction , so now people drive to the outskirts park and bus in, the city is ringed with park n ride affairs, they certainly spend less on gas and their gas prices are ugly
Every year this goes around...seeing as gas is almost $4.00 per gallon where I live right now, I'm gonna say it's done no good. :24: So yeah, if I happen to need gas on April 15th, I'll be getting it.
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