Not to worry, over the next several decades large cities will build out effective mass transit systems. High-speed rail will eventually come to America after years of debate.
Look to China to lead the way. What's this low-speed maglev that they're building now?
over the next several decades large cities will build out effective mass transit systems
Which, as the article points out, won't fix the traffic congestion, because as some people switch from driving to mass transit, other people will take their place by driving when they previously walked or just didn't make the trip at all. So mass transit can increase the total number of trips made, but it won't decrease road usage.
People like me, who use mass transit, don't care about traffic congestion. Queue all you want. I just want more mass transit because travel by mass transit happens in constant time regardless of the amount of travelers (within reasonable bounds. Carriages do get full eventually).
People drive usually because it's either faster and/or cheaper. Right? I'd rather not intentionally make it expensive to drive so solve for X... Faster and cheaper... Everyone wants to save money and get home sooner.
People drive usually because it's either faster and/or cheaper. Right?
Or because it gives more freedom--you're not restricted to particular routes or particular times.
Mass transit can beat driving on all these metrics (speed, price, and freedom of travel) when the population density is high enough that it's cost-effective for mass transit to have dense coverage, so that you're never more than a short walk from a train station or a bus stop. But many people (including me) don't want to live in a place with that high a population density. That's ultimately why mass transit hasn't caught on in the US the way it has in other countries.
I think people are basically more or less the same everywhere in that respect. Americans don't like public transit because it really sucks in America. In places like NYC where it doesn't they don't. But not every city with great transit has to be a stressful megalopolis like NYC - Vienna or Zurich for example are really nice and quiet (and clean and have low crime) despite having great transit.
It's kind of a chicken and eggs sort of thing but I'm pretty sure if you've suddenly by some miracle have really awesome mass transit in LA or Houston like you do in NYC, Tokyo & lots of European cities (even medium sized ones like Prague or Copenhagen) I'll bet loads of those freedom and sparsity loving folk will start using it and over time population and living patterns will adapt to the new conditions.
Americans don't like public transit because it really sucks in America.
Not everywhere. When I was in school in Boston, I went everywhere by public transit. I never missed having a car (I rented one the few times I wanted to travel somewhere like up to New Hampshire to see foliage). However, I also learned from that experience that I don't want to live in a place like that for the rest of my life.
not every city with great transit has to be a stressful megalopolis like NYC - Vienna or Zurich for example are really nice and quiet (and clean and have low crime) despite having great transit
I didn't find Boston to be a "stressful megalopolis" (I haven't lived in NYC so I can't speak to that). I just realized I didn't want to live permanently in a place that dense. I've also visited London and Paris, both of which have excellent mass transit (at least by US standards), and while I enjoyed visiting them, I don't think I would want to live permanently in those cities either. Maybe I'll get a chance sometime to visit one of the smaller European cities you mention to see what they're like.
Well Paris & London are the largest cities in Europe (together with Istanbul and Moscow, if you consider those Europe) so if you aren't after the "big city experience" it's not really surprising you wouldn't want to live there :)
I wouldn't either btw - and I live in Berlin which is also a big city (but still 1/3 of London and less than 1/2 of Paris in terms of metropolitan population - and still double or more the medium sized cities I mentioned).
Vienna/Zurich/Prague/Copenhagen/etc are more like living in Portland than in London or Paris (or NYC for that matter).
Vienna/Zurich/Prague/Copenhagen/etc are more like living in Portland than in London or Paris
Hmm, interesting comparison. Portland is smaller than Boston, I believe. I have visited it (briefly), but never stayed long enough to really get a feel for the city.
You don't need to live in a city at all. I grew up in a village in Sweden, population 4000. The village itself was walkable/bikeable, and there was a bus to the nearest city (pop 90K) until 3 AM every night, departing every 20 minutes during rush hour.
I thought that it went without saying that we were discussing mass transit in densely populated areas. If you don't live in such a place, you probably don't have 9 lanes of road either.
As for why it hasn't caught on, it's because it's incomplete and inconvenient for most people. Even where it works, it's still not great. Ever take a slow bus across town in Manhattan? It's faster to walk.
I thought that it went without saying that we were discussing mass transit in densely populated areas. If you don't live in such a place, you probably don't have 9 lanes of road either.
The 9-lane roads in metropolitan areas aren't confined to the densely populated areas; in fact, many of them are there only because so many people commute from the less densely populated suburbs to the densely populated inner city to work, instead of living in the inner city where they could easily take mass transit.
It is the onion, and is flippant, but as a general belief it touches upon a basic truth -- everyone would love if everyone else used public transit, leaving the roads available for our use.
This is occasionally used as an argument in favor of cheaper or free public transit: that even from a self-interest perspective, it makes sense for road users to subsidize public transit, as a way of effectively paying other people to get off the roads and out of their way. However most road users don't seem to see it that way.
As with most articles from the Onion, there is an element of truth, but if you look at a city with good public transit options (NYC is the only one in the US) over 50% of commuters travel by public transit. If you look at cities with adequate but not great public transit options (DC, Boston or San Francisco) more than 30% of commuters travel by public transit.
Not to worry, over the next several decades large cities will build out effective mass transit systems. High-speed rail will eventually come to America after years of debate.
Look to China to lead the way. What's this low-speed maglev that they're building now?
http://usa.chinadaily.com.cn/epaper/2014-02/19/content_17291...