deacon
minor bike philosopher
I just read an article in the paper about mass transit. The city's idea of promoting mass transit is to show the buses more in the paper. Why don't they get a little innovative and ask how can mass transit really serve the public.
Who would benefit most from mass transit in a mid-sized southern town: the answer it simple the working poor and the bottom end of the middle-class.
Why don't they find mass transit satisfactory. Well you don't go where they need to be and do it when they need it done. I know mass transit can not be all things to all people but try thinking outside the box. You don't promote dual use for instance. You have bike racks on the front of the bus but you don't ever suggest people buy a bike to extend the usefulness of the bus,
A person might hesitate to walk two miles to a bus stop, but would they be willing to ride a bike two miles. Especially if they can take their bike on the ten mile bus ride to a stop where they can leave the bus, hop on their bike and ride two more miles to the plant or store where they work. You can't just promote riding the bus, you have to give them a system that will really work for them.
I no longer drive, but my wife does. So I don't take the bus, but if she were to throw my butt out, I would need to do just that to go across town once in a while. An ebike has an effective range of about ten miles total per charge, if I ride it like a motorcycle (don't pedal much)
For the sake of argument lets say I had a good lightweight battery system so that I could make my bike self contained and manageable on the bus rack. I could take my bike off the charger and ride it about a mile and a half to a bus stop on the route I wanted to use. I could load up my bike and ride the bus ten or twenty mile to a bus stop near the school I wanted to attend. Why i would want to go back to school is beyond me. Lets just say I did or I wanted to go to the courthouse to file papers in the town several miles away. Anyway you get the point.
So why doesn't the government use some of that stimulus money to educate people to the possibilities for low income people to really use mass transportation in the simi rural areas of this country. By doubling up the transport system, a person could go almost anywhere with a clean personal transport system.
Mass transit works in big cities because it is everywhere you live and everywhere you want to go, but that isn't true in the smaller parts of the country, so for gods sake government think outside the New York City box. That is if you are serious about changing people's lives for the better.
Who would benefit most from mass transit in a mid-sized southern town: the answer it simple the working poor and the bottom end of the middle-class.
Why don't they find mass transit satisfactory. Well you don't go where they need to be and do it when they need it done. I know mass transit can not be all things to all people but try thinking outside the box. You don't promote dual use for instance. You have bike racks on the front of the bus but you don't ever suggest people buy a bike to extend the usefulness of the bus,
A person might hesitate to walk two miles to a bus stop, but would they be willing to ride a bike two miles. Especially if they can take their bike on the ten mile bus ride to a stop where they can leave the bus, hop on their bike and ride two more miles to the plant or store where they work. You can't just promote riding the bus, you have to give them a system that will really work for them.
I no longer drive, but my wife does. So I don't take the bus, but if she were to throw my butt out, I would need to do just that to go across town once in a while. An ebike has an effective range of about ten miles total per charge, if I ride it like a motorcycle (don't pedal much)
For the sake of argument lets say I had a good lightweight battery system so that I could make my bike self contained and manageable on the bus rack. I could take my bike off the charger and ride it about a mile and a half to a bus stop on the route I wanted to use. I could load up my bike and ride the bus ten or twenty mile to a bus stop near the school I wanted to attend. Why i would want to go back to school is beyond me. Lets just say I did or I wanted to go to the courthouse to file papers in the town several miles away. Anyway you get the point.
So why doesn't the government use some of that stimulus money to educate people to the possibilities for low income people to really use mass transportation in the simi rural areas of this country. By doubling up the transport system, a person could go almost anywhere with a clean personal transport system.
Mass transit works in big cities because it is everywhere you live and everywhere you want to go, but that isn't true in the smaller parts of the country, so for gods sake government think outside the New York City box. That is if you are serious about changing people's lives for the better.
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