M3.5 Transportation

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Public transportation and I have a love hate relationship. One the one hand, I love not having to worry about driving in the city, trying to find parking, and paying exorbitant amounts of money to park my car for two hours. However, I do not love the smell of urine in the BART stations, open needle use, crowded trains, and feeling like I have no control on my arrival time (mostly due to train delays). I believe that public transportation is a great idea, but if there is no one to maintain the system to accommodate an influx of users than it becomes more of a burden compared to driving your own vehicle.

I listen to a podcast done by Joe Rogan, a comedian (known for hosting the show Fear Factor), and he had on Dr. Neil Degrasse Tyson (Astrophysicist). The first question Joe asked was "Why dont we have flying cars". Dr. Tyson's response was that flying cars give us the ability to travel in 3 dimensions, and we already have that-its called the subway. He continued with saying how public transportation in that form is so efficient and that is where we should be heading from a futuristic and environmental stand point.

I agree with everything that Dr. Tyson says and everything that the article  "Public Transportation
A Link to Better Health and Equity" encourages, but I can't help but wonder with the push for more people to use public transportation, will we have enough systems in place to be able to accommodate them in a way where the benefit of public transportation outweighs the cost of driving a personal vehicle?


Comments

  1. Daisy AlbarranSeptember 16, 2018 at 3:49 PM

    Hi Kera,

    You bring up a valid question. I don't think we will have enough systems in place to accommodate the influx of people. At least not in our life time. There are other countries that have managed to centralize their public transportation and have improved their environment circumstances. I think if transportation companies are willing to work together more rather than competitively (in this capitalistic economy), it would make it easier to connect public transportation that it would outweigh driving a personal car.

    ReplyDelete
  2. AnonymousSeptember 16, 2018 at 8:07 PM

    Hi Kera,

    I personally don't use public transportation, mainly because using my car to get around is more convenient for me, given my busy schedule. You bring up an interesting idea about how public transport systems, such as subways, are somewhat futuristic. I think that if we were to improve the quality of public transportation, it could possibly be more appealing for others to use. Great post!

    Carmen

    ReplyDelete
  3. UnknownSeptember 17, 2018 at 11:13 AM

    Hi Kera,

    I agree with you about the love hate relationship with public transportation. There is a lot that can be improved with our current transportation system especially in regards to cleanliness and safety. Great point you make about how we will deal with an influx of people using public transportation and how we can accommodate increased use. Also interesting how Lyft and Uber have changed how we get around especially with Line and Pool car sharing.

    ReplyDelete

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