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Ask Slashdot: If Public Transport Was Free, Would You Leave Your Car At Home?
dkatana writes: The Estonian capital launched a program of free public transport to encourage people to leave their cars at home. But they never did. When Tallinn launched the program ridership numbers did increase, but not by the 20% the city had projected. Instead, they grew by a modest 3%, and by people already using public transport. What happened is that more pedestrians and bike users started to use public transit instead of walking and cycling. But car users continue to drive to work. Do you think the same would hold true in the U.S. if a similar program was started?
In my neck of the woods, I have been told there are these things called "buses" that come around and pick people up... I often see people waiting under signs that indicate they are "places of bus stopping" - yet I rarely see these elusive contraptions actually on the road, or picking up passengers.
Public transportation is a great idea in theory, but poorly run in practice, even in metropolitan areas. As for Michigan, it might as well as be non-existent. Rural and suburban areas are always poorly serviced. The solution, of course, is for people to move to areas closer to work and other required destinations - but that only works well for people who do not put down roots somewhere with a mortgage.
Free or not, I simply don't have the option. My current employer used to be willing to let me telecommute, now they expect me to commute an hour or more every day, each way, to satisfy some CEO's bizarre notion of esprit de corps (though most of my team members are in other states). I'd gladly ride a bus if it was convenient, both in timing and within a reasonable distance to my destination, but it doesn't even exist.
Or if public transpo even goes to places you need to go. I don't want to walk 40 minutes to the grocery store only to walk 40 min back to the stop (and then waiting 20 min at each stop while transfer).
That said, I already take public transportation >5x days a week, exactly because it is convenient for me.
My favorite is when the routes are changed, with poor communication about the changing (signs on stops are wrong, info from the "telephone for help" line is wrong... etc.) Waiting for an unexpected extra 2 hours after sunset in the cold goes a long way toward making people forget about the bus as an option.
I've ridden public transit to get to work from where I live in the past, first I have to walk about a Mile to get to the nearest bus stop, then it takes about an hour with one transfer to get to work. On a good day, it would probably take me about 1.5 hours to get to work from home using public transport.
Compare that to driving now, I have pretty easy interstate access where I live and my place of work is right off of that interstate. Traffic doesn't get too bad here most days but even when it does, it rarely takes longer than 45 minutes to get to work, and under normal circumstances, it takes me about 20 minutes. So my answer? No fucking way would I willingly take public transit unless I had no other alternative.
Personally I'd rather have my idiots at home glued to the TV than out doing idiotic things
I work in San Francisco and live in East Bay. My house is a block away from a Transbay bus stop, and with its use of the carpool lanes I can get into the city faster via bus than is possible in a car. Once in the city, I can either stroll for a pleasant walk along the Embarcadero to my office or I can ride a Muni for under a buck, and the latter drops me off next door to Safeway with their Sriracha Sausage Breakfast Burritos ($2.71 including tax).
It's easier, faster, and cheaper to ride the bus than drive, and I get breakfast burritos. I'm living the dream.
Dewey, what part of this looks like authorities should be involved?
For me, it would be HIGHLY inconvenient. Having to wait on their schedule, and not being able to come and go on my time table is a deal killer.
Have you ever read about Personal Rapid Transit(PRT)?
Faster, no waiting, you'll probably trade the short walk to your vehicle for a shorter walk in at work. IE it'll balance out. See a car that's unacceptably dirty hit the appropriate button and it goes off to the cleaners and you get the next one, which is probably already in the station. Since it's non-stop and individually routed, even if it's limited to 25mph, the fact that it doesn't stop makes it competitive with cars, and it blows them out of the water if it can go 45+.
The point that I was making is that public transit has to compete on more than just price, as you mentioned. That you will 'NEVER' take it as a primary means of movement is also mistaken, if they can make it 'good enough'.
Thing is, once it's good enough and you get even higher densities in the cities, things get better still. And you can avoid a lot of the cleanliness problems by adequately caring for the homeless population(IE rendering them not homeless).
I don't read AC A human right
It won't be free, so the entire thought experiment is pointless. To make the public transportation no charge at time of use, that means somebody else is going to be taxed to provide that. Since I'm always one of the people being taxed for this sort of thing, the real question would be, "If your taxes were raised substantially in order to get rid of fares for public transportation, would you use public transportation in order get some of your tax money back, even though you will lose the convenience, flexibility, speed, and independence that comes with driving?"
... and yet any attempt to use it in order run any sort of errand or outing means lengthy walks and waits outdoors, a dirty and smelly ride, almost without fail some rowdy and threatening teenagers, and a price tag that's roughly the same as typically expensed driving mile. So here in this area we spend literally billions on public transportation, but it's used by only a narrow group of people who happen to have residential and work proximity to the perfect route.
I live in the close-in burbs of a major metro area. There are buses, metro rail, some light rail
I live about 12 miles, as the crow flies, from a datacenter I use. It's normally about a 25 minute drive. There's a metro rail stop just two blocks from that destination, and one (with no parking, and little bus access) about two miles from where I live... but that rail ride costs about $12 (or $20, if you can park), and takes about 70 minutes one way. If somebody's taxes were raised to make that trip "free," it would still be grotesquely expensive in terms of time and flexibility.
Don't disappoint your bird dog. Go to the range.