the misconception I hear a lot is that riding transit means you’re stuck “on someone else’s schedule” whereas driving a car apparently gives you a greater ability to travel whenever you want. People who say this must believe traffic is like a random force of nature that can’t be managed rather than something that happens on clear time tables. They also must believe transit is always unreliable and buses only arrive every 5 hours or something, which is a fair belief if they’re american.
In a properly operating mass transit system you’re never going to be waiting for more than maybe 15 minutes for the next bus/train/trolley to arrive. You show up at the station whenever you like if it’s reliable. I’ve never had to wait more than several minutes to get moving when I’ve been to China and Japan. I’ve only experienced two delays on Japanese trains too. Once was an earthquake and the other was an injured monkey on the tracks (the monkey was evacuated to safety).
Therein lies the problem. The system here is terrible. Trains are 20 min during rush hour and up to an hour off times. I can’t even figure out if the buses are ahead or behind schedule because they’re nowhere near it. Too many times do I see 2 buses on the same route one street the other because the first must be so fat behind that the next bus has caught up to them.
They made bussing free post-covid and still people don’t use it.
This is really the problem for a lot of transit systems in the US. I guess you could say they operate below critical mass, so it’s neither fast nor frequent enough, nor goes places people are or want to go in too many systems across the US. It doesn’t help that our urban density levels suck.
Public transit also ends up being the last bastion for folks that society has discarded, and while I don’t have a problem with helping people, a lot of folks will flat out refuse to ride public transit because they’re terrified of getting harassed or having to exist in the same space as homeless people (I wish I was kidding). I think that some things that could be done with regard to that is to enforce some basic standards on public transit without shutting out the people who absolutely depend on it, such as: don’t smell like you just came from a Magic The Gathering tournament, don’t harass anyone else or cause a disturbance, and you have to be at least conscious enough to obey commands in order to ride.
How about fuck no. Who’s going to enforce that? The pigs? You’re advocated for the unhoused, mentally ill, disabled, and people who suffer from addiction to be further oppressed. Shut up.
For some USian cities the transit is managed so badly that this misconception is kinda true. Buses that arrive every 30mins or even every 60, and that get stuck in traffic because there are no dedicated bus lanes, are tough to schedule your trips around.
Yeah, it feels deliberate though. Underfund and hobble public transportation until people are convinced that public transportation itself is the problem
People who say this must believe traffic is like a random force of nature that can’t be managed rather than something that happens on clear time tables
Your local news probably has a “traffic forecast” every morning, where they say the exact same thing, every single day, without ever stopping to consider the absurdity of it.
“IT’S EIGHT AM! TRAFFIC ON THE HIGHWAY IS STOP-AND-GO! WHO COULD HAVE POSSIBLY PREDICTED THIS?”
the misconception I hear a lot is that riding transit means you’re stuck “on someone else’s schedule” whereas driving a car apparently gives you a greater ability to travel whenever you want. People who say this must believe traffic is like a random force of nature that can’t be managed rather than something that happens on clear time tables. They also must believe transit is always unreliable and buses only arrive every 5 hours or something, which is a fair belief if they’re american.
In a properly operating mass transit system you’re never going to be waiting for more than maybe 15 minutes for the next bus/train/trolley to arrive. You show up at the station whenever you like if it’s reliable. I’ve never had to wait more than several minutes to get moving when I’ve been to China and Japan. I’ve only experienced two delays on Japanese trains too. Once was an earthquake and the other was an injured monkey on the tracks (the monkey was evacuated to safety).
Therein lies the problem. The system here is terrible. Trains are 20 min during rush hour and up to an hour off times. I can’t even figure out if the buses are ahead or behind schedule because they’re nowhere near it. Too many times do I see 2 buses on the same route one street the other because the first must be so fat behind that the next bus has caught up to them.
They made bussing free post-covid and still people don’t use it.
This is really the problem for a lot of transit systems in the US. I guess you could say they operate below critical mass, so it’s neither fast nor frequent enough, nor goes places people are or want to go in too many systems across the US. It doesn’t help that our urban density levels suck.
Public transit also ends up being the last bastion for folks that society has discarded, and while I don’t have a problem with helping people, a lot of folks will flat out refuse to ride public transit because they’re terrified of getting harassed or having to exist in the same space as homeless people (I wish I was kidding). I think that some things that could be done with regard to that is to enforce some basic standards on public transit without shutting out the people who absolutely depend on it, such as: don’t smell like you just came from a Magic The Gathering tournament, don’t harass anyone else or cause a disturbance, and you have to be at least conscious enough to obey commands in order to ride.
How about fuck no. Who’s going to enforce that? The pigs? You’re advocated for the unhoused, mentally ill, disabled, and people who suffer from addiction to be further oppressed. Shut up.
Removed by mod
Better idea: mandatory re-education for those who can’t stand to be around the poors.
.ee user don’t dehumanize unhoused people challenge failed yet again very surprising
For some USian cities the transit is managed so badly that this misconception is kinda true. Buses that arrive every 30mins or even every 60, and that get stuck in traffic because there are no dedicated bus lanes, are tough to schedule your trips around.
Yeah, it feels deliberate though. Underfund and hobble public transportation until people are convinced that public transportation itself is the problem
Absolutely, it’s a common strategy for destroying public services. Make it shit, then point at it and say, “it’s shit let’s get rid of it.”
A really good book on this matter is “Making Mobilities Matter”. I think you can get it on libgen or the like
Your local news probably has a “traffic forecast” every morning, where they say the exact same thing, every single day, without ever stopping to consider the absurdity of it.
“IT’S EIGHT AM! TRAFFIC ON THE HIGHWAY IS STOP-AND-GO! WHO COULD HAVE POSSIBLY PREDICTED THIS?”
The only time I ran into a delay in Japan was due to a fire on the tracks. I like to imagine it was caused by monkey.
Also the delay was like 10 min max. Even the delays are shorter then USian wait times for on time transit
Monkey on the tracks?
Yeah certain parts of Japan have very rambunctious groups of monkeys who like to get up to mischief
saru for party rocking