Ask HN: As an individual in the US, how can I help make public transit better? | Hacker News Reader

Ask HN: As an individual in the US, how can I help make public transit better?

11 pointsmikehines5 comments

I recently had to take public transit to SJC and SFO from Mountain View. Words can't describe how much a hassle it was; a 15-minute trip by car would take more than an hour and half by public transit. It got me wondering if it would ever get any better. Is there something I could help as an individual make public transit a priority to the city/state/country?

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1. Use it when / where it exists. Try to live where it exists.

2. Vote for people who want to make it better.

3. Advocate for it to people who vote.

Sigh. I think public transit is pretty hopeless especially in California. For one, the state is broke. Since driving is the lifestyle here, I could see people would rather vote for wider freeways and bigger parking lots than expensive projects like the hyper loop.

It really goes back to what Henry Ford said: "If I’d asked my customers what they wanted, they’d have said a faster horse." We need someone with the power and vision to disrupt and build the future.

Just to say you were probably in the best areas for pubic transit than most of the other parts of California, there are several bus and rail services along the bay area. Learning which ones to pick can help improve your experience (which may not be the obvious ones).

A lot of the "helpful" apps and sites don't compare against taking a few minutes with a paper route map and a few timetable pamphlets...

I just had a thought: maybe having a point to point travel guide where people are able to submit various methods to achieve that route and then let folk vote/rate/review the methods (ala Amazon review, stars and comments). So, say you enter SJC to SFO and since that is somewhat popular route you might see a few different ways posted to get here, along with reviews of how those went following those ratings and comments on the methods; you see the good, bad, and from what is written you might have some clue of what's actually better.

Aggregating public transit delays. In NYC the current solution is text message alerts and/or paper notices in the subway. If transit apps (Google maps, Transit, etc.) had this information, they would serve as better channels to distribute the information to the public.

Mobile phone charge up stations.

BTW, I use public transit all the time. I don't drive.

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