The problem with public transit

[eurydicebound]

I've been thinking about this a lot, actually, and I think I've figured out a major stumbling block. For example, I'm planning to go downtown today, and for all the right and ethical reasons, I should take the bus. Parking is a pain and costs money, it's another car on the road, it's extra gas I don't have to use, etc. So I went to the trip planning website for the MetroKC, and I figured out my trip.

It will take me nearly an hour to get downtown, and nearly an hour to get home again... presuming, of course, that the bus during rush hour isn't full and I can get on the first one I try.

That's an hour each way for someplace I live only 10 miles from vs. twenty minutes each way on my own. Dude.

Now, I'm unemployed currently, so you'd think it wouldn't be a big deal. Bring a book, read, listen to music, whatever. And if I didn't have the gas or the money for parking, I would totally suck it up and deal. But in reality, it's a huge deal, because I don't own a laptop and I'm writing for money right now, and I could get between 500 and 1000 words done during that time -- and that may not sound like much, but it is for me, and it's 500-1000 words I would have done and not have to redo again. I've got deadlines that I'm over, I've got a burning need to get paid, and I don't think I'm actually willing to donate that extra 40 minutes each way to the cause -- especially since I could take one of those extra 40 minute blocks and hit the gym on the way home and still have an extra 40 to get between 250 and 750 words done.

The problem with in-city public transit is that it presumes my time is less valuable than the gas/economic impact/environmental impact my driving would make. For someone else, it probably is. For me? Right now my time and my brain is all I have. This is why I'm looking forward to the train, because at least it won't take an hour for me to get from the station to downtown.* This is just crazy.

*It should be noted, I took public transportation when I lived in Chicago. It took a crazy long time to get across the city -- roughly an hour. However, it took at least that long to get across the city by CAR, often longer. I saved time taking it, even counting in the walk from the station to work and the sketchy industrial neighborhood it was in. I miss Chicago public transit (and I really never thought I'd say that).

Comments

[tsob.livejournal.com]

Oh, absolutely.

Olympia Intercity Transit is as expensive (in gas) as a car per month, but at least it takes three times as long to get somewhere. For extra points, coverage is quite limited.

[trollbabe.livejournal.com]

Okay, so I started to write and say that I had the same problem here in Madison, and then decided to check to see how long it would take me to get downtown from my apartment via bus, only to discover it's not nearly as long as I thought. Which is a nice surprise, and something I will try to remember next time I'm in the mood to get downtown and don't want to bother with parking hassles.

Of course, thinking about it, that's just because I only want to get downtown. All the buses here go downtown. But that means if you want to go from one side of town to the other without stopping downtown? Too bad. Pretty much all routes go through downtown. So a trip that I could make in 25 minutes, from west side to east side, would take well over an hour, and require I transfer a minimum of TWICE, if not three times. And that's just one way.

[b3zsgirl.livejournal.com]

Our public transportation is much the same. It is a total afterthought. The train stops at stoplights for pete's sake. I used to use it to go downtown, which took me at least an extra half hour. Though, I was seeing clients I could arrange to go to at non-peak hours and see all the downtown clients on that day. I also saved $15.00 in parking. The train is $2.00 to park and $2.00 to ride. Now I don't use it at all as I no longer have downtown customers. Pity because there are some great things downtown.

On the other side of the Atlantic...

[daydreamweaver.livejournal.com]

We live 5 minutes walk from the commuter train line. It takes 10 minutes to get to the part of town where my husband and I work and Gabe has nursery, another 10 minutes walk from the station on the other side. Weekly return tickets for both of us (Gabe's free) are £12. (about $20, I think. Haven't checked the exchange rate in a while.)

To drive it in morning traffic would take 45 minutes at a minimum, and there's no such thing as parking. That's to say nothing of the actual cost of owning, maintaining, and feeding a car--it's simply something we would be incapable of doing right now.

I haven't owned or wanted to own a car since I moved to the UK. Natives whinge about the public transport system constantly, but I know it and love it.

[ennui-13.livejournal.com]

I had the glorious joy of a re-routed bus line due to construction. It was awesome, for a year. A direct line that picked up two blocks from my house, toodled only slightly up the hill to the park and ride, and then on the freeway straight to work. Back was the same thing. Then they ended the construction and now that route takes roughly an hour and a half to get from my home to work. Longer getting back due to traffic. About two other people rode it for the length when I tried it out. Sure they get the hop ons but really ... to go from a full bus to the occasional half full for three blocks, idiotic.
I can get another bus that only takes an hour to get there but I have to transfer twice.
I live 12 miles from work.
Our problem is not only that public transit was an afterthought its that, until just last month, transit competed with each other. They are now figuring out it's hurting their bottom line. That's why, after eons, you can now buy a pass that covers all of them.

[sefue.livejournal.com]

I have to say, that's something I'm not looking forward to after the move. For all that it's not that much farther south, it's adding a lot of time to my commute--and I don't even want to think about the evenings when I go to the University after work!

My commitment is to public transport--frankly, I can't afford a car now anyways, but I believe in not driving unless it's necessary. It just bites that the line between convenience and necessity is increasingly thinner. Like Monday, when my bus just didn't come. All of us loved that...our bosses too. :(