Hi, [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: > I was writing a thesis modeling public transportation in the late '60's. > No matter what I did, I couldn't get the modeled demand for public transit up. > Then, the rude facts intruded.
Got a spare copy? > In Chicago and most major cities in the USA, the only patrons of public > transit were the very poor. Those too poor to own a car! Oh, some 100,000 > suburbanites took the AM trains into the central business district, but the bus and > the 'el were dead. This seems to be a "class" thing. Even when it is more convenient to use public transport, mixing with "those people" is what really puts people off. > Being a poor college student who's Sunbeam Alpine didn't like the cold > weather, I also used public transit from time to time. You could (and can) still > make it from one side of Chicago to the other in 1.5 hours but it's the > transportation system of last resort. A car is always faster by 2X to 4X and much > more convenient. The people I rode with on my off hour rides were those without > the income to own a car. Not any more. There are many places in the world where car use is just plain contrariness. Public transport, properly executed, will beat private any time when real congestion rears its head. It's usually also better placed to deal with factors such as bad weather. > The most hilarious memory I have of transit in the '70's was watching a Dutch > matron pedal up to a shop in her mink coat. The friends we were visiting in > the Netherlands pointed out that car ownership was not all that wide spread > and that many Dutch didn't know how to drive, much less own a car. She was probably fitter - and could afford a mink coat(!) - than many who drove. > You need a population density of 5,000 people per square mile to support even > a 'light' rail system. We don't build cities in the US like that anymore. > People choose less density and more square footage for their home plots. The > car is the great invention that enables this. And is the great clogger of transport arteries due to this very principle. It is a paradox that will not be solved until governments produce proper tranport policies. Leaving it to the individual just does not work because, generally, the individual chooses the solution best suited to them _as they see it_. Unfortunately, this often does not take into account anyone else. Even in the land of the free and wide open spaces, the time is rapidly approaching when transport solutions will be properly organised. mike
