With the price of gas approaching $4 a gallon, more commuters are abandoning their cars and taking the train or bus instead.
Mass transit systems around the country are seeing standing-room-only crowds on bus lines where seats were once easy to come by. Parking lots at many bus and light rail stations are suddenly overflowing, with commuters in some towns risking a ticket or tow by parking on nearby grassy areas and in vacant lots.
“In almost every transit system I talk to, we’re seeing very high rates of growth the last few months,” said William W. Millar, president of the American Public Transportation Association.
“It’s very clear that a significant portion of the increase in transit use is directly caused by people who are looking for alternatives to paying $3.50 a gallon for gas.”
Some cities with long-established public transit systems, like New York and Boston, have seen increases in ridership of 5 percent or more so far this year. But the biggest surges ”” of 10 to 15 percent or more over last year ”” are occurring in many metropolitan areas in the South and West where the driving culture is strongest and bus and rail lines are more limited.
Despite the claims of mass transit development in the West, one place not mentioned is: Arizona. For ages, a long area designated for light rail in central Phoenix along Camelback has been quietly moldering. Nobody feels like they can develop there while the plans are (interminably) under discussion. But in that heat Arizonans cling to their a/c cars. Will they ever move take public transport? In Tucson, Sun Tran buses are better than the Phoenix system and more used. (Tucson to Phoenix is as SF is to LA.) But Tucson too needs to do some hard thinking: it wants to stay a modest-sized city without big-city problems, but is growing so fast that unless it makes decisions soon it will lose the chance to provide a proper infrastructure.
Maybe if more transit traveling occurred we would have an oil glut happen as occured years ago. Nothing like buyer resistance to make prices fall.
Phoenix is building a light rail, but not along Camelback; it is runnung from downtown to Tempe and I think Mesa. Tucson floated the light rail idea several years ago but it was voted down in a referendum.
Florida is one of the worst for any kind of mass transit. A few years ago, a new company came in to Tallahassee and replaced our aging “Tal-Tran” with their own “Star-Metro” system, and expanded the routes to include park and ride and into the Northern parts of the city. However, many parts of the city/county are still NOT served, even as more developments move into those areas. I moved into this neighborhood in 1999, and the nearest bus stop is still driving — not walking — distance.
Another problem with mass transit is in county to county programs. It’s more and more prevailant for people to live outside the county in which they work. For example, both Gadsden (to the west) and Jefferson (to the east) Counties have become ‘bedroom counties’ to Tallahassee in Leon County, due to lower land/house/property costs and lower taxes. However, there is NO bus or train service to and from these areas.
Also not addressed are those who live in the main urban area, but work in the neighboring counties, what is called ‘reverse commuting’, which is what I do.
Yep, there is a lot of discussion and planning still to do on this issue.
And by the way, what ever happened to the electric street car systems? Time to bring those back?
Yesterday, for the first time in literally generations, a passenger train came up the Kennebec through Gardiner all the way to Augusta. It had two engines, one on each end since there was no way to turn the train around. It was the Down Easter which normally runs from Portland to Boston and is doing, I’m told, very well. I have taken thee Downeaster to Boston and it is SUCH a relief. I sit with my coffee and look out the window as the traffic piles up in Boston, jillions of cars, drivers all cursing the traffic, everything snarled, and then the engine moves out and I tip my seat back and close my eyes. Oh what a blessing.
T he reason the one passenger car train came to Augusta was to drum up support for returning passenger service to Maine. When I was a kid, you could take a train anywhere here, often in cars that still had wood stoves in the middle fo winter time. But, you know, when I was a child, oone could pick up an open sided trolley in Amesbury,Mass and ride it all the way to the beach in Seabrook, Hampton or Salisbury. You hopped on, sat down with your picnic basket and towels, and then hopped off at the beach stop you wanted. The trolleys used to run every half hour as I recall, all summer long. No cars! No traffic snarls! With sweating cursing drivers who were no more likely to find a parking place near the beach than there were likely to go to Heaven. Bring ’em back, I say. Larry
With gas prices in the UK getting up toward $9.00 for a US Gallon, (1.12 pounds per liter when I went past the gas station on my way into Cambridge this morning), the one thing that can be said is that the trains and busses are plentiful and heavily used. We have people driving out of town to our station in Waterbeach, in order to get seat on the London trains before they get to Cambridge train station. However, trains and busses tend to be rather expensive — unless you happen to be a senior.
Let me tell you about Merced County, California. We are a mostly agricultural county……cattle ranches, farms, and wildlife management areas. With the exception of the cities of Merced and Los Banos, where my wife and I live……it’s a very rural area, and a relatively poor one eonomically.
The rapid transit system here is a joke. Sure, we have buses; our system is called “The Bus.” It’s fine if you’re a resident of Merced, and to a lesser extent, Los Banos, but the system itself is not well-used, distances are really long between destinations, and most people find it very inconvenient to use…..if they use it at all.
Would light rail work better? Possibly, but why would we need it? High speed rail? There are plans to build it through Pacheco Pass from our area to Silicon Valley, but it’ll be years before that ever happens, and we won’t get a station here in town. It will cost hundreds of millions of dollars by the time all of the delays are overcome. The only people who will derive any possible benefit from it are those who now commute 85 miles to work.
Mass transit does not work for us……and it won’t.
I can, however, see it working in Florida. We are such a spread out state, with large urban areas located all across the state with no easy way to get there. If I travelled the same distance to West Palm Beach from Tallahassee in another direction, I could traverse two states! Air fare is too high, especially from Tallahassee (one of the highest departure airports in the state, even the Legislators noticed this last session). My parents would LOVE for me to be able to come down more often for visits, but I can’t afford to, either by road or air.
Also, there are a large number of college/University students also spread out throughout the state. A (reasonably priced) high speed rail system would allow them to come home more often (if they wanted to, that is).
Not to mention, from airports to Disney; Bush Gardens; Miami Beach; etc.
You are very correct Jim. Just yesterday a co-worker was marveling at how difficult it is to get to Gainesville for a meeting. I’ve always thought a circuit of Orlando, Tampa, Naples, Miami, Orlando would make abundant sense for a high speed rail. Another along the median on I-10 would be nice as well, though perhaps less economical.