On Tuesday 2007-10-02 17:11, William T Goodall wrote: > On 2 Oct 2007, at 22:38, Ronn! Blankenship wrote: > > At 09:25 AM Tuesday 10/2/2007, Charlie Bell wrote: > >> On 30/09/2007, at 8:50 PM, Gary Nunn wrote: > >>> Holy Cow!! > >>> > >>> I make a post and step away for a few weeks and find this topic ran > >>> rampant > >>> - and I missed it! > >> > >> Yep. I'm still wondering what bits of London are 20 mins apart by car > >> and hours apart by public transport > > > > I don't know about London, but most cities I have lived in in the > > U.S. are like that if the two points are both on the edge of the city > > proper, as the only bus routes or other public transportation > > available tends to run more or less radially from the downtown > > terminal, so to get from one point on the edge of the city (e.g., > > your house) to another relatively nearby on the edge of the city > > (e.g., your place of employment or in some cases the nearest shopping > > center), rather than going directly there which would be a 20-minute > > drive you must board the bus which comes closest to your house, ride > > all the way to the terminal downtown (taking the better part of an > > hour), > > <snip> > > Sounds like your public transport is designed by people who want to > discredit public transport. > > Works here Maru
In Phoenix the problem is car-enabled urban sprawl combined with relatively low ridership. The city is big enough that it has subsidiary hubs as well as bus lines that run along the grid. If you are lucky enough to have a direct line or have connections on heavily used routes then travel times can be reasonable. On the other hand you can have an infrequent route with a 1 hour connection in 110F with a half-mile walk at each end. That assumes that the bus system gets to your part of the eternal sprawling suburb. What the world needs is something like the Mercedes Smart car that is plug-in hybrid diesel electric. You combine that with heavy rail and heavy truck single-level car carriers then you have something. If you had a car carrier system there would be no freezing, or wet, or sweltering 1/2 mile walk to the center of a grid rectangle. If you had a form factor for carrier ready cars you could work or party late even if the public transit system went to sleep for the night. Just get in your little mini car and go home. (It would be best if the little cars fit width-wise so you could just roll on to the heavy-rail carrier and roll off at your destination.) _______________________________________________ http://www.mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l
