Or a train. Massive numbers of passengers.
A farm truck or tractor makes a lot of sense in the middle of a farming community to do work. The same truck or tractor in an urban downtown will kill children and crowd out transit.
2. Remove parking minimums. https://www.strongtowns.org/parking
3. Allow mixed use in neighborhoods. Japan is really great at this. Allow families to turn garages into small bodegas. Allow small businesses to flourish by not forcing them into isolated strip malls surrounded by pedestrian hostile parking lots. https://www.archdaily.com/search/projects/categories/mixed-u...
4. Narrow roads and eliminate on-street parking to create additional pedestrian and cycle infrastructure.
And so on... There are hundreds of plans that are extremely well thought out and just need to be implemented.
Suburbs can support great public transit, and it would be cheaper than cars for everyone.
Suburbs cannot support the bad public transport options they get though. The lack of density makes it harder to design a great network (network is critical here!), you cannot make mistakes as there is no density to save you from mistakes.
While I agree... there is no way Americans will forgo cars. Americans love our rural and public and wild lands too much to not be able to simply visit at moment's notice.
Having lived in Europe, I understand how this works there. Europeans don't have the same relationship with nature that Americans often do. The ones that do usually have cars.
Cars trips in the US are, in their vast majority, short and between common places like grocery stores, gyms, schools, etc.
Look... I live in the inner city. Realistically, I walk everywhere most of the week. However, I keep a car so I can get to the mountains 50 miles away. That is the main reason I keep a car and my main usage of it (and to also visit family and friends who live more rurally).
When I go to the mountains in America I hear the constant drone of cars and generators...
Public transit and alternative forms of transportation such as bikes, are about
1. Reducing traffic, less people driving means less traffic for those that need to drive.
2. Improving safety within cities and suburbs, a car is far more dangerous than a bike or public transit
3. Reducing the cost of infrastructure maintenance, cars are heavy, especially EVs, a reduction in the number of cars on the road would lead to massive savings in the cost of maintaining our roads.
4. Removing the car burden, cars are a expensive depreciating asset, and for low-income folks they are a massive tax just to be able to travel to work. So folks who don't want to, or don't have the means to own a car, they should be able to travel without paying a huge time penalty.
5. Health benefits, less cars on the road means people who prefer to walk, bike can do so safely and gain some health benefits.
6. Cars are noisy, noise pollution is linked to bad health outcomes, less cars = less noise on public areas.
Just because we can't eliminate all cars doesn't mean we can't/shouldn't have great transit. Focus on make a system that is useful for people for the 90% of trips at less cost than the one car they are getting rid of to pay for it.
My point is that covering America with train tracks would cost $trillions. Yes, there was a time when we built something on that scale: The interstate highway system. But those days are long over. American politics is now far too gridlocked to build a public bathroom, much less a trillion-dollar public transit system. Even if it ended up saving money and the planet.
Yes building those trains would cost a lot. It shouldn't be trillions (that it will be is a problem we should fix!). Lets not be defeatist: lets demand better of our politicians. We have good ideas of where things are going wrong, but politicians see transit as a way to throw money at union labor and consultants (democrats); or a complete waste (the Republicans). Both sides need to do better.
>Or a train. Massive numbers of passengers.
>cars seem useful in low-density, very spread out regions.
Well, while I'm here already . . .
Urban trains can be counter-productive in unintended ways.
The electric "mass-transit" Metrorail in Houston runs at street-level on many streets that were originally designed for horse & carriage.
Taking up space that was previously available for freer movement of buses, but worse with the rail crossings which almost always require more passengers in cars to idle much longer while waiting than there are passengers on the trains at the time.
Electric buses would have been much better and less wasteful of finite resources.
The light rail was originally intended for ambitious people who could not afford cars to have a quick commute to downtown jobs, reach Texas Medical Center & Astrodome area to the south, and higher education to the north.
"Massive" numbers of passengers outside of rush hours mainly only occur during Rodeo time or other special events where massive numbers of visitors come from out-of-town.
The rest of the time passengers are quite sparse, somewhat divided between workers & students versus those carless and/or on the streets whose ambitions do not include either. Some of these passengers can be quite predatory on ordinary citizens, and this gives them more efficient ways to travel or gather in places where prospective victims can more likely be found at different times, and a quick way to escape after a crime has been committed:
https://abc13.com/metrorail-violence-light-rail-harris-count... >6th violent incident on or near METRORail in 2 months
I still ride it weekly but never would bring my laptop or even cellphone outside of rush hours since there are always at least one or two questionable characters and that's the only time they are usually well outnumbered by ordinary riders.
But the collisions are quite common and these could have been more amenable to better engineering planning:
3 MAY 2023 "Video of the crash". Notice how the bystander throws up his hands knowingly right after the 1 minute mark:
https://abc13.com/houston-news-ambulance-turns-in-front-of-m... >On Tuesday, METRO said the investigation is over, and no one is being cited for the crash that resulted in multiple people being hurt. ABC13 also called HFD on Tuesday to ask, specifically, if the ambulance driver is still operating ambulances. But they are still citing an open investigation, an investigation we know is closed.
For both of these parties this time liability is limited, same range as for buses:
>Why METRO bus crash victim has to pay up - despite being innocent https://abc13.com/metro-bus-crash-houston-tort-claims-act/62... >Even if everything goes his way, Leger will still be out hundreds of thousands of dollars because he was hit by a bus. >That's because METRO's buses and the rail is protected by the Texas Tort Claims Act. >It caps their expenses regardless of if the victim dies or is severely maimed at $100,000 per person or $300,000 total. >"If a negligent METRO bus driver runs a red light and hits a van that has 14 children from a daycare and kills them, the most that METRO would ever be responsible for is $300,000," said Matt Willis, Leger's attorney.
If the full monetary damages of every incident were to have been recoverable, Metrorail might have been bankrupt long ago. But they still have money to burn going forward:
https://www.houstonchronicle.com/opinion/outlook/article/Met... >Unfortunately, we're already all too familiar with low ridership on light rail. The $1.4 billion Green and Purple lines have dismally low patronage.
A while ago there was an article posted on HN about an old Japanese rail line that still maintained an end-of-the line terminal which was now only used by one passenger. This seemed to be a benevolent gesture. I was thinking how much more benevolent could it be in Houston where they built new rail lines for almost nobody to use very much?
>So how should Metro redeploy that $2.45 billion light rail budget instead?
Sometimes (or even with some currencies) there can be more environmental emissions earning the money to begin with compared to spending it wisely later. Depends on the scale and how wisely:
>For future planning purposes and MetroNext, it really does not matter if autonomous vehicles become available in 5 years or decades in the future. Anything built in the MetroNext plan can be expected to be in service to the year 2100 and beyond. MetroNext needs to be ready for autonomous transit, if and when it comes. The plan also needs to maximize mobility benefits of transit investments if autonomous transit is slow to develop or has a minimal impact. Practically, that means concrete guideways with rubber-tired vehicles than can evolve as the technology does.
IIRC rubber tires are a more modern & versatile technology than rail.
https://www.insurancejournal.com/news/southcentral/2017/12/2... >Some drivers said Metro should turn its efforts internally instead of policing drivers. >“Why don’t they ticket their own drivers for blocking intersections or not blowing the horn?” said Salvadore Martin, who drives downtown daily. >Other drivers said Houston should have anticipated safety problems with a street-level rail system from the beginning.
Engineers are usually aware of things like this more so than bureaucrats, but you can't fix stupid either way.
>“This is why you build a subway,” said Georgine McDonald, another driver in the area.
Not in downtown Houston, 20,000 leagues under the bayou floodwaters ring any bells?
Naturally Houston has the most light rail collisions under a number of terms, averaging about 90 per year in recent times:
https://www.seattletimes.com/seattle-news/transportation/lig...
https://abc13.com/metro-traffic-accidents-pedestrians-killed...
>"Everyday people go in front of that train thinking they can beat it," >Those near misses happen all the time. >If anyone should know better, it's Jim Robinson, the chairman of METRO's public safety committee. >"I was thinking about something else and almost stepped off in front of a train," Robinson said. "It got my attention when he blew his whistle." >"There's still work to do," Robinson said.
As for flooding and subways. The Dutch are literally 6 feet below sea level and seem to manage just fine.
https://driversedguru.com/drivers-ed-training-exercises/stag...
In all my decades of driving I have never seen anyone do this other than myself. People are so committed to passing they literally run people off the road while going head on with tractor trailers and family cars. I've thought I was going to see people die more than once. It's insane how ignorant and self centered people get behind the wheel.
I've never enjoyed public transit, here or in Europe. It's a pain in the ass to some degree, no matter how good it is. An individual car is the epitome of freedom, so you would need to convince me (and others who like our cars) why we should swap.
You mean like roads?
What California light rail project are you thinking of?
What do we get for it? Being stuck on the 91 choking on the exhaust.
https://www.strongtowns.org/journal/2023/2/28/odot-proposes-...
Cities aren't bankrupted by roads, roads are what give cities lifelines. Trains and buses are an incredibly poor substitute in all but the densest of regions.
https://www.strongtowns.org/journal/2016/1/26/roads-and-debt
> Trains and buses are an incredibly poor substitute in all but the densest of regions.
This is patently wrong. Buses, trams and trains are the most efficient, safe and affordable forms of transportation known to man. They are superior on every metric I can think of. Combined with last mile micro-mobility and you just can't build a better transportation system.
Cars take up more space, kill more people, destroy more land, kill wildlife, and pollute the air. Worse, they are slower due to traffic.
Nailed it. The car is the symbol of liberty and freedom, and not without reason. People who present public transit as an alternative to cars confound me. I will choose my own car over any kind of public transit every day. I even try to avoid flights if I can drive to my destination in ~12 hours. I can take a lot of luggage, stop and relax at my leisure, have good food, not submit to security checks. Cars are literally better in every single way to train/bus/tram etc.
If a car is the only form of transportation, your freedom is contingent. Think of what a privilege driving is. Even better, great public transportation makes driving much more pleasurable.
One of these days, you should try traversing 8 blocks in a wheelchair and see how convenient a bus stop feels! lol
https://www.technologyreview.com/2022/12/26/1064764/diversit...