Monday, January 16, 2006

The sorry state of public transportation in the US

It never ceases to amaze me how pathetic public transportation is in this country. I live in Philadelphia, the 5th biggest city in the country. It's an old, northeastern city and has an extensive public transportation. You would think it would affordable and reliable.

You would be wrong.

For the first time since moving back home, I took the train into town the other day. Not only did it cost a whopping $6.75 to go 20 minutes, but the train was late both ways! On the way into town, it was 9 minutes late, and then it was 5 minutes late on the way back. Terrible. And today I took it again, and again it was late. Three out of my four trips, it has been late. Hmm.

Now call me snobby, but I can't help but think back to my semester abroad in Berlin, Germany. Not only was the public transportation there cleaner, cheaper, and far more efficient, but the
trains ran on time! What a concept.

I can vividly remembering the tram actually coming early on many mornings. The usual 9 minute delays of SEPTA were unheard of. The system wasn't perfect, but it was head and shoulders above any system in the U.S. I was reminded by this the second I stepped off my plane from Germany in Philadelphia. The train was over 10 minutes late, naturally.

Now I could complain until the cows come home, but that's not what this is about. This is about solutions. And there's a simple solution: stop wasting money on funding wasteful projects for the Defense Department, and put that money into public transportation. Stop giving every corporation under the sun tax breaks. Repeal the ridiculous Bush tax cuts for the wealthy.

This country has more than enough money to have efficient public transporation systems in our largest cities. We have so much pride in our country. Shouldn't we be able to have public transportation that works?

4 Comments:

Blogger Hydra said...

"The extent to which urban transportation systems would change under optimal pricing and service frequency and improved operating efficiency is shown in table 4-2. Averaged over all systems, bus fares rise roughly four fold while frequency is cut more than two-thirds. Public bus transportation no longer runs a deficit, but this only appears to be possible with a national mode share of less than 1 percent, as compared with buses' current share of 5 percent. The changes in rail fares, frequencies and mode share are qualitatively similar, but less dramatic. Auto travel would also become more expensive, especilly during peak travel periods in cities with traffic congestion. But the share of autos and car pools still increase because travelers would find public transit's substantial fare inreases and cutbacks in service more onerous than optimal congestion tolls. Thus net-benefit maximization would solve urban transportation's budgetary problems and significantly increase total welfare, but would have only a modest impact on traffic congestion. (19)

Footnote 19. Although auto's mode share would increase, congestion and travel time would be reduced because some travelers would begin to use off-peak departure times or car pools. These changes, however, are not enough to produce large time savings( the largest decreases in average travel time are only a few minutes."

Winston and Shirley, Brookings Institute.

If you want to travel on time, and pay something like the full costs of your trip, then go buy a car.

Your $6.00 trip on the train cost the rest of us $9.00, in addition to your fare.

True, the trains in Germany run on time. but the cost in citizen taxes is enormous.

10:49 PM  
Blogger Ben said...

thanks for the comment, ray. can you provide a link for that whole report?

and it's not a question of taxes, it's a question of PRIORITIES. as i said, stop wasting money on foolish corporate subsidies, and put that into infrastructure and public welfare.

10:59 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

The analysis presented leaves out the less-easy-to-quantify benefits of reducing congestion and air-quality problems when not EVERYONE who works in the city drives to work in a car.

When I visit large cities I am really, REALLY glad not everyone on the sidewalk drove in. And I don't mind contributing, in tax dollars, to keep it that way. Tax snobs say they want metropolitan jurisdictions to pay all the costs of their public transportant systems, but that's nuts. When I visit New York or San Francisco or Chicago I want a working public transportation system to help me get around town and get my work and errands done. If I had to find a parking space everytime I go from place to place on a trip to the big city, I'd soon go postal.

11:24 AM  
Blogger Ben said...

Thanks for the comments, Christopher. I have never really understood why so many Americans complain about their terrible commutes, yet they don't necessarily actively support better public tranportation. I think it's largely a matter of ignorance and laziness.

Whenever I sit in traffic(which is rare, because I usually use public transportation), I always wish that things were more like Europe. And whenever I sit in a nice train and enjoy the relaxing commute, it always boggles my mind why more people don't use public transportation.

Unfortunately, it all comes down to taxes in the end. Despite our very low tax rates compared to the rest of the industrialized world, Americans complain incessantly about taxes. If we just slashed a small percentage of our defense spending by eliminating obsolete Cold War weapons, we could easily fund billions of dollars of improvements in public transportation infrastructure.

10:42 PM  

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