“Giving people more viable alternatives to driving means more people will choose not to drive, so there will be fewer cars on the road, reducing traffic for drivers.”
Concise, easy to understand, and accurate. I have used it at least a dozen times and it is remarkable how well it works.
Also—
“A bus is about twice as long as a car so it only needs to have four to six passengers on board to be more efficient than two cars.”
I’ve found that a lot of people see the use of public transport as horrors beyond comprehension, and think cycling would kill them instantly.
But that’s fine, no need to convince them to use mass transit.
The approach is to improve infrastructure - good buses, frequent routes, dedicated bus lanes, trains to feed from the suburbs, subway, etc.
Make it more convenient to use, and people will start using it. But you need to stop designing everything around cars, like every single store can’t be a cube in the middle of a huge parking lot…
You might meet immigrants and poor people there. THE HORROR!!!
People just like privacy and playing their own music without headphones. You are just inventing a caricature.
Some people like eating ice cream for breakfast. Just because you like something doesn’t mean it’s a good idea or free of long term consequences.
“But I like it” is not a sufficient justification for destroying our living spaces.
What are you talking about? I said they are making up a fake person and you go off on a side rant.
You said “people like” and one of my peeves is people trying to justify bad things (eg: cars everywhere, single use plastic) with “but I like it!”
Where did I justify it? I said they invented a person and made no comments on the validity.
…is this an AI?
You said that people like music without headphones and having privacy as a reason, a justification, for taking a car over mass transit.
I certainly love hearing their speaker systems and modified exhausts from thousands of feet away.
👌👍 the subway is quieter and more private
A car drivng on public roads is only a false sense of privacy.
👌👍
People get weirdly anti social about public transit. Like, “I don’t want to have to be around other people!!”
Sometimes it’s racism. Sometimes it’s just… anti social.
Personally I think anti-social people can go leave society, and the rest of us can build a better, more cooperative world.
No need to call people who are not overly extrovert “anti-social”.
Ah yes… put all the anti-social people into their own society. I’ll call it a “suburb”. We won’t regret making car dependent suburbs.
Tell me you’ve never been assaulted by a drunk guy on a train without telling me you’ve never been assaulted by a drunk guy on a train.
I’ve taken trains daily in the NYC area (not counting the pandemic) for almost 30 years. So, no, your cliché is wrong.
Good for you. I was assaulted on a train from London to Manchester before I learnt how to drive.
Depending on where you are, this can be just an accurate observation.
I would bet a lot of that is unfamiliarity. “I don’t know where the route is or how to get to the bus or what the schedule is or how long I have to wait or whether I’ll be able to get home at a reasonable time or how I can pay. “
Some of this is part of infrastructure. Yes, in the US buses are unpredictable, always seem delayed, and it’s tough to figure out where they go. Yes there aren’t very many and service can end early, and schedules tend not to be posted. Sometimes the payment system is one that rare riders won’t be familiar with.
At least some of the time subways are a “more acceptable” form of transit and I believe it’s the predictability, better signage, you can spend time figuring out the fare machine without being on the spot for delaying the transit. Subways even have the reputation of running more frequently than buses. These are all things bus transit could have too
For me, even being familiar with transit near me, it was much easier when I rode often enough to get a monthly pass rather than deal with fare paying
That seems to be highly dependent on where they are.
In some cities, everyone on public transport behaves themselves. They’re clean and there’s no fear that they’ll be harassed or assaulted. Some people really like that and get afraid or skeeved when they think about some public transport systems.
In other cities public transportation riders are expected to “live and let live”. Officials won’t stop you from doing anything unless it presents an imminent danger. Some people love the freedom from that sort of system and hate the idea of someone forcing them to behave a certain way.
There are, of course, many reasons why certain public transport systems are more like one than the other; money, age, geography, preferences, etc. While there are great arguments for public transportation and I’m a huge fan of improving the infrastructure around it, I can also recognize that a lot of people’s actual experience of public transport doesn’t paint it in a good light.