Depends on population density. Even if there was passenger train service on the existing lines here, a lot of people would need a vehicle to get to the station, and I don’t think public buses / vans could cover all the roads at a reasonable schedule.
But, also, you don’t have to get very dense before public transport is better than individual vehicles for intracity trips.
If public transit was valued by the local government, the city would be built in a way to make that work ok. If cars are valued, the city is built to be driven in.
I agree, by the time you really deserve the term “city” you should provide public transit as a community good and it can be made so that most people want to use it.
I’m in the “city” of Cove, Arkansas. It’s a 15 minute drive to the nearest produce section, and I have to work remotely because there aren’t computer programmer jobs within a reasonable commute.
At low densities, EVs are the way to go. The more dense, the more public transit makes sense.
I do still wish passenger rail service was restored along the line through here to the county seat; there are days it would save me a drive.
We’ve been trying to get a LRT in a 400k population area for decades and can’t make it happen. There’s even an old unused rail line with right of way all the way from the biggest nearby municipality that causes all the traffic problems to downtown.
They still don’t think it’s enough people to warrant the upgrade/conversion costs.
They have been adding bus only lanes between downtown and that area though including in town and on the highway, but they’ve maybe only connected half the highway with bus only. That has been helping, and more frequent busses on it.
Yup. Here in Chicago we now have bike racks inside the trains so you can bring your bike into the city on the metra, as well as allowed in all trains including the colored lines outside of peak hours
I prefer to arrive at work/school/shops not sopping wet, and it sometimes rains.
I, personally, could bike or walk because the station would be particularly close to my residence. But, there are others in the county where to get to the closest station they’d be biking much further than they are currently healthy enough to accomplish.
Bikes are not a good option at this density either.
I prefer to arrive at work/school/shops not sopping wet, and it sometimes rains.
Raincoats! I have a nice yellow raincoat that folds up and inverts into its own pocket, turning into a little square you can tuck away in a bag or something. It’s super convenient.
Ablest is when pro environment . Yeah no. It’s easy to create exceptions for the small portion of the population who is fully incapable of biking. Less car dependency will allow those who can’t drive to get around far more safely, actually leading to more mobility for people with issues like legal blindness that prevent them from driving but not prevent them from other multimodal forms of transit
Depends on population density. Even if there was passenger train service on the existing lines here, a lot of people would need a vehicle to get to the station, and I don’t think public buses / vans could cover all the roads at a reasonable schedule.
But, also, you don’t have to get very dense before public transport is better than individual vehicles for intracity trips.
If public transit was valued by the local government, the city would be built in a way to make that work ok. If cars are valued, the city is built to be driven in.
I agree, by the time you really deserve the term “city” you should provide public transit as a community good and it can be made so that most people want to use it.
I’m in the “city” of Cove, Arkansas. It’s a 15 minute drive to the nearest produce section, and I have to work remotely because there aren’t computer programmer jobs within a reasonable commute.
At low densities, EVs are the way to go. The more dense, the more public transit makes sense.
I do still wish passenger rail service was restored along the line through here to the county seat; there are days it would save me a drive.
A universal building exemption would push a lot of things in the right direction
We’ve been trying to get a LRT in a 400k population area for decades and can’t make it happen. There’s even an old unused rail line with right of way all the way from the biggest nearby municipality that causes all the traffic problems to downtown.
They still don’t think it’s enough people to warrant the upgrade/conversion costs.
They have been adding bus only lanes between downtown and that area though including in town and on the highway, but they’ve maybe only connected half the highway with bus only. That has been helping, and more frequent busses on it.
That plenty of people! There’s probably only 30k in my entire county.
I think part of the concern is ridership outside work commutes, but I think it’s more if you build it they will come kinda thing.
But something like this doesn’t need to be profitable. It can be a service. Need to get away from the thought that it all has to be profitable.
BIKE. BIKE TO THE TRAIN STATION
It also solves the problem at the other end where I’m 4 miles from my office.
Trains don’t make it easy to get bikes on but that’s easily resolved also
Yup. Here in Chicago we now have bike racks inside the trains so you can bring your bike into the city on the metra, as well as allowed in all trains including the colored lines outside of peak hours
You can not bike the roads where I live. Also, there is no bus station or train station to bike to.
Sounds like a problem that needs solving.
Also, local bus that runs on the train timetable. Brings people to and from the train as well as the shops. Ideal.
I prefer to arrive at work/school/shops not sopping wet, and it sometimes rains.
I, personally, could bike or walk because the station would be particularly close to my residence. But, there are others in the county where to get to the closest station they’d be biking much further than they are currently healthy enough to accomplish.
Bikes are not a good option at this density either.
Raincoats! I have a nice yellow raincoat that folds up and inverts into its own pocket, turning into a little square you can tuck away in a bag or something. It’s super convenient.
Okay but what if I’m sopping wet with sweat from the heat and I also smell bad now.
Unless the general stink of the any large concentration of humans will overpower it.
If only science could devise some sort of way to keep you dry in the rain. One day, perhaps
A car does it pretty well!
Caring about convenience over the environment and health is exactly the problem. They’ll get healthy enough.
This is a very ablist view.
Ablest is when pro environment . Yeah no. It’s easy to create exceptions for the small portion of the population who is fully incapable of biking. Less car dependency will allow those who can’t drive to get around far more safely, actually leading to more mobility for people with issues like legal blindness that prevent them from driving but not prevent them from other multimodal forms of transit
“They’ll get healthy enough” is an albist view, no matter what else you might believe in.
It’s strictly true. It’s not ablest. The overwhelming majority of those who cannot have no serious underlying reason as to why not