Thursday, February 14, 2013

What's good, bad, in human transportation

Good
  • Fare-free transit - breaks the back of autosprawl critical mass.
  • Car sharing - allows people to live without car ownership
  • Bike sharing/bike lanes - promotes car-free lifestyles
  • Walkability - this should be the goal of all other plans
  • Gardens/Farmers Markets with local food - less driving to supermarkets
  • Good schools - reduce suburban flight and consequent commuting
Bad
  • New subways - take people underground to allow cars on surface
  • Bus rapid transit - in most cases supports suburban commuting and makes city more dangerous
  • Bus on shoulder - seriously?
  • HOT/HOV lanes - promotes inequality, tries to make the unworkable road system work
  • Road pricing/tolls - squeezes the people for more money to keep roads working
  • Solar panels/insulation for sprawl houses - avoids the problem - promotes inequality
  • HSR - solving the wrong problem first, divisive

Mixed:

Rail projects, including HSR, can be good or bad, depending on whether they promote car-free living or are just trying to preserve the suburbs.