Just Get on the Bus Gus
So oil prices have hit $111 a barrel last Thursday which brings our current gasoline prices higher than the "oil crisis" years of 1973-75. In spite of this, there has been no appreciable decline in the demand for oil. Why is this?
There are many reasons for this, but one that struck me as I motored home from the town next door is a lack of options. I live in a county of 1 million people just outside New York City and it would take me between 20 to 45 minutes to make the trip by bus that I just made in my car in 5. This is because our transit system of rail and bus assumes that the only place that people want to travel is to New York City for work. There is no easy way for me to go from town to town to go to a restaurant, my bank, shopping, or to visit friends unless I happen to be on a bus route that runs people into and out of "the City". Even if I am lucky enough to be on such a route (which I am), the schedule is still inconvenient because it requires the bus(es) to go from "the City" out to the end of its route and return. It does not run merely from town to town within the county.
It is time for transit systems (or maybe even private transport companies) to start thinking about filling in the holes. Not everyone wants to commute to the big cities that most transit systems are geared towards. People are going to be more likely to consider a quick bus ride to the local supermarket or restaurant in town as the cost of filling up the car exceeds $50 (at least). However, people will pay the $50 if it means saving them many hours of waiting for a bus or riding the bus into the city to transfer and ride out on a different bus just to travel to a town 3 miles away.
Transit officials frequently lament the poor ridership. Instead they should be thinking about how to provide new services. Quit thinking about the commuter and start thinking about everyone else! Quit thinking about standard size buses and start thinking about mini-buses. Quit thinking about full trains and start thinking about single cars or interconnecting light rail. Think outside the box and be surprised at how many riders you will gain!!
Thoughts anyone?
1 comment:
I can't see how any significant public transit will be available in the next few years. On the other hand, gas is going up ($10/gal next year? Already $9 in Europe). Some poor countries are already being priced out of the oil market. Some of these are switching to coal, but that does not work well in cars. At some point, behavior may start changing. In some jobs you can "work from home" over the internet, but corporate opinion is still mostly that this is not a cool thing to do (no on the career advancement path). Or perhaps that job that is closer and pays less is more appealing now because you can actually afford to get there every day. Or perhaps those state subsidized solar panels on the roof don't look so bad when you can cut your power bill and charge your plugin hybrid (that you ditched your thirsty SUV for).
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