cars and events

[amw]

ohnotheydidnt dropped a great wank post today: US Swifties can't comprehend the concept of public transport in Melbourne. But, probably because it was posted when America was awake and the rest of the world was still asleep, there is a bunch of bizarro comments like how people would rather sit in the comfort of their own car for two hours waiting to get out of

Comments

[geminiwench]

I live in a rural half-million sized city that in 1925 had a super-efficient and effective electric trolley mix-ed-with train system that the city ran for free, and would take people to within a mile of whereever they wanted to go, in like a 25 mile radius from downtown! The city was bribed by a bus company to start a fleet of internal-combusting engine busses and give the city a 10% off deal ONLY IF... the city agreed to BURN all their trolleys and tear up the commuter light rail.

There were private bus companies all over the country doing the same thing... but these companies weren't selling public busses, they were bus/car manufacturers and their plan was to make busses less efficient than electric trolleys SPECIFICALLY to push individual ownership of cars in these rural settings with top-notch public transport.

Another weird thing in America that no one else does is our passenger trains (what few there are... only Amtrak is allowed to do commuter trains on major rail lines in the U.S. and it is part private-owned and part public-owned) run on the same lines as the commodity trains.

So... since they have to share the same rails, our long-haul passenger trains are limited (once a day in many locations) SPECIFICALLY because freight trains are allowed rail and yard priority. The other big problem is that freight trains are really hard on the trainlines themselves... the heavy, overloaded trains warp the rails so that passenger trains have strict speed limits (usually 60-70mph) due to the danger... whereas Montana and Texas both used to have no speed limits except in town, even though thousands of people die in car wrecks in this country every year.

It's just... America has some metro areas that have prioritized public transit... but of our 100 largest cities... probably only 25% have functional convenient public transportation.
In my city it's a mess....and there is definitely a "class" thing about using the bus and it's all hogwash... or at least it WOULD be... if our bus system was funded and functional. Even the busiest most populated lines sometimes only run every 30 minutes... where the bus is full for half the time so it can't even pick up new people. They just... KEEP IT LIKE THAT! It's wild how little Americans (and American city councils.....) believe in public transport. But lordy... I loved using the trains and buses all over the UK, France, Switzerland, and even in Italy! Italy's trains are notoriously packed, broken down, and late... and yet they are still 20x better than American style trains or buses... and yet also cheaper.

[amw]

I'm never sure how much of that GM versus streetcars conspiracy really affected the adoption of private internal combustion vehicles and how much was just a result of ordinary people with a fantasy of being kings finding that owning a personal carriage and a castle in the suburbs brought them closer to that fantasy. Although I suppose that's exactly the job of marketing professionals, manipulating people into believing that buying something will give them power, so perhaps it's still the fault of the car companies...

The thing that frustrates me is people who complain that the communists are coming to take their cars (and guns, and meat, and...) when that's not how it ends up working in practice. Lots of Germans own cars, but they use them for longer weekend trips, not for nipping down to the supermarket for a loaf of bread or taking the kids to school. Ravers in Taiwan might live in the city and take the subway everywhere, but once a month they rent a car to go to a festival. Meanwhile children and the elderly and disabled and millions of other people who cannot or do not want to drive are still able to live full lives. It doesn't have to be an all or nothing solution, it's just about using the right tool for the right job, and ensuring the default tool is also the most accessible and inclusive one.

As usual in America, the government failed the people. I wonder if part of the problem is the massively decentralized nature of the US government, but Canada and Australia are more centralized and still have problems with car centric development. Although from my experience slightly less bad than America.

[geminiwench]

Our local papers reported on why they burned their streetcars, exactly stating it was a part of the contract with the new bus company the city had signed. They weren't even allowed to keep one for posterity, although the city had legally asked to keep one, hoping to put it in a park as a band pavillion.

So... do I send copies of that microfische to snopes or.... who? Ha!

The trains were built SO weird in America... it was all self-funded these little local business/development barons who couldn't/wouldn't work together, and just competed to the point the rail system connected... but didn't actually work together. By the 1950s, the highway system was sold (by car manufacturers) as the way of the future and a way around our crappy train system.

And it's just been that way ever since. A few American cities were forward looking enough to invest in major and dedicated public transportation systems. NYC impressed me so much (having only known Seattle's and San Francisco's subways) but then I saw how Europe does it and I realized how far behind ALL our public transport is.
Every facet shows a lack of care, investment, or even... interest in the concept DESPITE how effective and efficient it is INCLUDING cost effective/efficient in mega-business minded America. The public good doesn't often get good marketing in America;) ha!