Village Green: the Design & Context of Public Transportation

by Kaid at NRDC

In almost all American communities, if public transit exists in any meaningful way, it competes for patronage, primarily though not exclusively with driving.  While some advocates seem to believe that the best way to attract more riders to transit is to make driving increasingly as unappealing as possible through fees, removal of or restrictions on parking, "road diets" and the like, I’m not fully in that camp.  There is an appropriate context for each of the things I just mentioned, but for the most part I want to make transit better so that customers choose it not just out of necessity but because it is easily accessible, comfortable, and efficient.

continued at Daily Kos....

Village Green: the Crumbling of the DC Metro

by Kaid at NRDC

The many workers and administrators who make our public transportation systems work as well as they do for so much of the time deserve our praise and support.  Held back by tight and shrinking budgets, frequently placed in poor and dangerous working conditions, and forced by the nature of their business to work with aged and faulty systems at the same time that those systems are heavily used, these good people are asked to do the impossible and to take the heat when expectations are not met.  This certainly goes for the nation’s second-busiest system, in Washington, DC where I live.  But:

continued at Daily Kos...