Do people actually use mass transit?

In My Humble Opinion
1

I live in Tallahassee, where mass transit means taking the dumpy Tal-Tran busses and arriving approximately 1-2 hours later than by car, and only if you don’t live farther than about 3-4 miles from the center of the city. There is no nearby city in which mass transit is in any way useful, as you can almost always arrive quicker to your specific location by car. My question is this:

Do people really live and function normally in their communities without private cars, as is often shown by Hollywood, or are the constant public transportation vehicles just used as a creative tool, much like dinner tables with chairs crowded on one side.

If anyone really does live like this, what is it like to not have your own independent transportation. I would imagine that not having a trunk to load packages into, and having to take a route miles out of the way would be the epitome of inconvenience.

2

Certainly people use mass transit, but I’ve yet to see more than 2 or 3 who have done it as a choice. I did it for years. I wouldn’t call it normal life and function. As a matter of fact, I would call it the most severe form of torture ever invented. You take packages from one store to another while shopping and get the “potential shoplifter” stare boring into your skull. If you have to make two stops, you may as well plan a journey of 3 hours. The dumpy busses break down all the time, and if they aren’t breaking down, they’re crowded full of people, late, or both. Of course, that is if the bus goes there at all, which it does not go to about half of the places around here. If the bus does get there, it takes 45 minutes to take a bus there, whereas it would take 15 minutes via car. Forbid that you have to run to the store at midnight, because there are no busses between midnight and 5 a.m.

Perhaps there is some city where you can live without a car. It certainly isn’t anywhere that I have been.

3

I live in Hamburg, Germany.

I could certainly afford a car, but I’ve decided to stick with the subways for about a year and a half, now. The subways are as fast, if not faster, than a car, run every 5 or 10 minutes, span the city and there’s no hassle with parking. And I can spend my commute reading :slight_smile: That’s a pretty good deal for the 94 DM (about $50) I shell out for my monthly subway/bus pass.

Carrying home crates of beer or new kitchen shelves is a problem, sometimes, but not insurmountable. And one can get both delivered.

If the subway or the busses aren’t an option (after 1 a.m, say) - well, I can afford a LOT of taxi rides for what keeping a car would cost me. And if I have to get home in the wee hours, I’ll quite probably not be able to drive a car anyway.

While I do own a motorcycle, it’s mainly for recreation - it’s in mothballs 4 months per year, anyway. For longer trips in the winter, I take the train.

But of course, the city is carefully laid out so that people can live like that. If buses were my only option, I’d probably be hitting the Volkswagen dealerships PDQ.

S. Norman

4

How big is Tallahassee? Both in terms of population, and area.

Montreal and Toronto have excellent mass transit systems. About 20 to 30 percent of commuters rely solely on public transit every day in those two cities. More people use mass transit on an occasional basis. Out of a combined population of 9 million, that’s a hefty chunk of non-driving people.

In Vancouver, when buses are running (right now we’re in day 123 of a transit strike), somewhere around 12% rely on public transit. There are about 1.8 million people in the Greater Vancouver area.

From my experience, the more convenient it is to jump on a bus or metro, the more people will use it. Certainly in Montreal, it is far easier (and faster) to take a metro across town than it is to fight traffic and find parking.
Let me emphasize that last bit: parking. It’s an essential ingredient of commuting that drivers rarely account for.

In terms of life without a vehicle, it just means you have to plan what you are going to do. No “oops, forgot milk, well I’ll just drive 10 miles to the store.”

It does mean that you get to enjoy your ride-- read a book, talk with friends, listen to music, etc.

5

I’ve made it to the age of 38 without ever having a car. I can see where one might come in handy, but being without one is hardly the “epitome of inconvenience”. It just means I have to plan long journeys, and walk short ones. Of course, cities here in the UK tend to be more compact than in the US (or so I gather).

Whether or not I function normally in my community is for others to say. (Wibble wibble.):slight_smile:

(I must say, I’ve visited Vancouver - I’ve got relatives out there - and I’ve always been very impressed by the public transport system there.)

6

I live in a small village near the south coast of England, we have a couple of dozen shops/restaurants within walking distance of my home, the school is a short walk away, the train station is about a mile away.

I have a car, but I quite like to catch the train to work; the mile walk is much-needed exercise for me and I get to read a book on the train (try [legally]doing that while driving) I arrive at work feeling much more alive than I would if I had spent half an hour sitting in traffic. The journey time is about the same either way (including the walk).

The shops are about 5 minutes walk from my house, It’s actually quicker to walk there than driving (the footpath cuts through a housing development, whereas the road foes right around it, then there’s the time and stress of finding a parking space at the other end.

7

I’ve taken mass transit to work every working day for the past 18 years.

No, I don’t live in Europe, I live in the United States.

An important note - the city is Chicago, which has extensive rail and bus lines which pre-date the automobile. The city grew up along the train lines, so there’s a tendency for businesses to cluster around the stations, some of which have been in existance 100+ years. Down in the Loop area much is accesible by walking. I find the train lines to be particularly useful and, during rush hour, much faster than a car.

For 8 years I lived entirely without a car, and for another 3 used a car only occassionally. If you don’t own a car and you need to haul something you can either 1) ask a friend with a car to help you 2) take a cab (unless you’re hauling the entire contents of your apartment) or 3) rent a car. The train system in the area is such that you can ride from Kenosha, Wisconsin through Chicago to South Bend, Indiana, which is a lot of territory. Thanks to the Amtrak station in Chicago, I could easily travel to Detroit or, if I really wanted to deal with the airports, trains and busses go to them, too, so I was hardly restricted in my ability to travel where I wanted to go.

Three years ago I moved to NW Indiana. I still work in downtown Chicago. I now drive 7 miles to train station and take a train for most of the commute. I wouldn’t call that particular commuter rail cheap, but when you compare it to the cost of gas, wear and tear on your car, and parking the train actually does save you money. And, during rush hour, time. 40 minutes by train vs. and hour to and hour and a half by car.

Once I’m on the train I don’t have to worry about road rage or driving in lousy weather. I can read, nap, listen to music, talk to my fellow passengers, study (did just about all my ground school for my pilot’s license going to and from work), or doing artsy-crafsty stuff - so far 5 afgans, 2 baby blankets, a lace dresser runner, 6 tote bags, and probably some others I’ve forgotten about since most of them get given away. I’ve had people ask me about how I can stand “wasting” so much time in a commute, but since I don’t have to drive it’s not “wasted”.

I will have to say, though, that Chicago is the exception, not the rule, for this sort of thing here in America. And there’s lots of folks who wouldn’t get on a bus or train if their life depended on it. One interesting statistic, though - about 400,000 people a day work in the Chicago Loop, but there are only 65,000 parking spaces. You do the math. A bunch of us have to mass transit to make this work.

Then there are a bunch people I know at work who live downtown and actually walk to work every day (maybe take cabs when it’s really awful outside).

8

When I was in Tally, I depended on Taltran to get me everywhere I needed to go. But then, I lived right off Miccosukee, so I was towards the center of town more. Not out in the boonies like the rest of you :slight_smile:

In Boston, the T (subway sytem) is huge. You can get just about anywhere. My mom commutes to work that way, it’s about a 45 minute ride, but she saves on all the traffic. Once you get into the city, the traffic can eat you alive. It’s insane. I, however, avoid the inner city, and drive everywhere. I love my car…

9

As suggested by the other posters, it’s really a function of where you live.

The Upper West Side of Manhattan is completely liveable without a car.

But cross the river to Bergen County, New Jersey, and life without a car is pretty darn miserable.

10

Where I live, mass transit sucks. I’ve taken the bus before, but its slow, and has different fares for different zones. I don’t use it anymore.
However, when I go to NYC or Boston, I use the trains quite often.

11

Peta Tzunami and I lived for three years in Cleveland without a car. Cleveland’s RTA system is, well, pretty bad. The stations for the RTA trains, with a few notable exceptions, are not near anyplace one might actually want to go, so going somplace almost always involves making a bus connection–and good luck with that. You can check out their site here and see by the maps and schedules how much of the county is uncovered and how rarely buses run on the weekends.

We managed to get by, but I hated it. There was, luckily, a good grocery store within walking distance, so for large shopping days we would take two of those pull-carts, and for smaller shopping, we could walk or we had bike-mounted baskets. Not so bad in the summer, extremely bad in the winter. We usually ended up renting a car about once a month to do serious shopping, or if we were going to buy items which simply could not be accommodated on public transportation.

It was especially difficult when I broke my leg, and was on crutches for several months. Just getting to and from bus stops was very tiring, and people are not always so good about giving up seats in the front to people with injuries or handicaps. Needless to say, shortly thereafter we bought a car.

Here in the DC area, it’s more or less feasible to live without a car. Sofa King doesn’t have one, IIRC.

12

Boston’s public transit is pretty good, but incomplete – lots of communities that are very close by no longer have rail service into the city (they used to have trolleys and such), and buses are iffy. In my last apartment I lived close enough to take the train in. In my current home that’s not an option. Even with the train, though, it was easier and faster to drive my car into Cambridge than to take the train.

New York, now, that’s another story. Every time I’ve gone in during the day to Manhattan I’ve taken public transit. I don’t think you could pay me to drive in.

I’m a big fan of public transit, and would like to se it extended. I’m still appalled at the state of Rochester, N.Y.'s poor public transit. They tried to institute a new non-radial bus line to the University there – a sure winner in my mind – and it failed. Rochester is also the only city I know of that had a subway system and got rid of it because no one was using it.

13

If you build a good, reliable mass transit system then people will use it. And we have a pretty good one here, Honolulu. We won the best transit system in America from some mass transit association in 1995 and again last year. Up until last month at $25 (now $27) monthly bus pass (we only have buses) which will get you as much trips as you want anywhere on the island. And since our gas is always very expensive and cars are very expensive it’s the perfect thing for a college guy not wanting to be burdened with yet another bill. And it’s not just me but hoards of little old ladies ride it all the time for their shopping, socializing and whatnot. Tourists also use it all the time.

As for what it’s like not having a vehicle it is not that hard. In fact I find it very relaxing. First off I never have to face driving in traffic. I take a book, some music sit back and just relax in the nice cool air conditioned bus. We have what I’d guess is nearly 100 routes so most buses go right to where I want to go and rarely have to go out of my way. I tend not to buy big packages anyway but if I had to buy a new couch I have friends who do have trucks who all owe me favors and I’d call one in. And the best part is knowing I am not going to get dragged into litigation from any accident I may find myself involved in because I am only an innocent passenger.

14

If I lived in a city with round-the-clock mass transit that covers the city (I don’t), and if America had cheap and efficient train service (like Japan), I’d probably chuck my car.

But as it is, neither scenario is true and so I’m forced to own a car that I can scarcely afford. The nearest bus stop is a good mile and a half from my house (and I do live well within my city’s limits), and the buses only transfer from the main Downtown Bus Complex, rather than at points throughout the city. IOW, for Mrs. Rastahomie to get to work, she’d have to first walk a mile and a half, then take a bus downtown, then get on another bus to the part of town where she works. The whole process would take about an hour and a half. It’s a ten-minute drive on a bad traffic day.

Ditto for transit between cities. One thing about living in Japan was that, no matter where you were going, there was a train leaving for that place in 15 minutes. Even dippy little farming villages had a train stop there twice a day or so. And fares were reasonably cheap. But supposing I wanted to take the Amtrack® from Springfield (IL) to Chicago: it costs $55 or thereabouts round trip and it takes four to four and a half hours. I can drive there in three hours for around fifteen bucks, there and back.

So, public transit only works were cities are compacted and close together (like, say, Europe), or where governements and/or private donors have invested HUGE sums of money in it (like, say, Europe).

15

ummm. Were you reading about Chicago, New York, Montreal and Toronto?

**

To which I counter-- how much has government spent on building (and repairing, and repairing, and repairing) your local roadways.

16

I think we’ve pretty well established that the General Answer is “yes.”

So I’m gonna send it off to IMHO.

17

“But cross the river to Bergen County, New Jersey, and life without a car is pretty darn miserable.”

—Ummm, I live in Bergen County, New Jersey. No car, no need for a car and no plans to ever get one. In my small town, the grocery store, library, bank, post office, vet, and bus stops and train stations to NYC are all within easy walking distance.

18

Live in NoVA and work in DC. We have one car between the two of us, which Valkyrie uses primarily to get her to work and back - though I suspect she could get there on the bus as well; not sure how long it would take her to do so, though.

Before I succumbed to the temptations of married bliss I didn’t own a car and walked pretty much everywhere I needed to go, unless I could cadge a ride. I used the buses and Metro some, but not a whole lot - actually only recently have I begun studying the metro system here to figure out how to get around. It helps that my job pays me $100 a month in transit benefits - covers my monthly bus pass and gives me more than enough for Metro fare.

IMHO, it would be a nice thing if metropolitan areas did some heavy investing in expanding their public transportation system, made it affordable, and more jobs were required to offer a transit benefits package for their employees. So I suppose I should go live in Sweden or something like that. Not that I’d mind :slight_smile:

19

Pittsburgh.

Love the Public Transit. I laugh merrily at the people stuck in the parking lot formerly known as Forbes Ave. (The bus has its own special lane that flies by…) I have been able to get where ever I have needed to go. And its free to students!

20

During the brief time I lived in Toronto, I did so without a car and it was great. Since I had a metropass for commuting anyway, I could hop on any bus at any time and go anywhere in the city without worrying about gas or parking.

But it does affect the way you shop. When I first came to Caltech and moved into grad student housing, my roomie gave me a lift to a far-away grocery store (there were other stores in walking distance but he thought this one was cheaper). I bought about three bags worth of stuff, which would suffice me for at least a week; he bought at least ten bags of stuff. I was just used to shopping more frequently, and getting fewer things each time.

So it’s not the epitome of inconvenience; you just have to plan your shopping a bit ahead of time and make smaller, more frequent trips for things you buy regularly.

Another thing you might want to keep in mind is that cars are expensive to own and maintain. Independant transportation is something of a luxury item, and for some people it’s out of reach.