Mark is correct in saying that these changes will bear watching over time. A personal observation:
My family of four gets by quite nicely with a single car. I'm four miles from where I work in downtown Minneapolis and generally bike or bus. I make heavy use of the bus in the winter. In short I'm quite inconvenienced by the bus strike. Because of personal values, if the bus system were eliminated we might just forge ahead with one car and I'd have to get more used to biking in the winter. But not every family or household is going to adjust in this way. Lots or most would pick up an additional car, leave the bike in the garage, stop bumming rides off friends and drive to work. The first week of a bus strike gives us zero indication of the impact that mass transit has on congestion. What is safe to say is that the impact is far greater than what is evident so far. Tom Leighton Seward Mark Anderson: If almost all of the people who took the bus end up sharing a ride with someone else, then there won't be much effect on congestion. If the number of people commuting by bus are insignificant compared to those driving, then there will be little effect on congestion. If no mass transit results in more people tele-commuting or working at different hours, there will be no effect on congestion. Those are just the possibilities that occurred to me off the top of my half-brain. I find it to be irresponsible to ignore the facts in front of you just because they don't match your pre-conceived notions. As I said, it is premature to judge the congestion level based on just a few days. But it's worth watching to see what happens instead of jumping to conclusions. And yes, David Strom was as guilty as you of jumping to conclusions. Mark Anderson Bancroft REMINDERS: 1. Think a member has violated the rules? Email the list manager at [EMAIL PROTECTED] before continuing it on the list. 2. Don't feed the troll! Ignore obvious flame-bait. For state and national discussions see: http://e-democracy.org/discuss.html For external forums, see: http://e-democracy.org/mninteract ________________________________ Minneapolis Issues Forum - A City-focused Civic Discussion - Mn E-Democracy Post messages to: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Subscribe, Un-subscribe, etc. at: http://e-democracy.org/mpls
