Holiday Travel
Posted by Fred Jandt
Editor, Mass Transit
Labor Day weekend begins this evening for those of us unlucky enough to still be in the office today. For some the weekend has already begun as I write this. But for the commuters in the San Francisco area, the real work begins at 8 p.m. tonight when the Bay Bridge closes for a hopefully speedy facelift.
Labor Day weekend has long been seen as the end of summer and the designated weekend for family vacations. How many movies and television shows have revolved around that proverbial long-distance family vacation and the hijinks that ensue along the way?
The interesting thing about all those movies and TV shows is that the majority (if not all) of them revolve around a car trip — usually a long one with multiple family members crammed into a car. How many “family vacation” movies can you remember that revolved around travel on public transit? For that matter, how many of us can remember family vacations that revolved around travel on public transit?
I know I can tell you a dozen stories about growing up in Western Wisconsin and the various trips my family took during the summer, but all of them start with “as we packed the car, my brothers did something annoying … again.” It’s not like public transit was totally foreign to us, but we did live in the country and my dad, being a truck driver, was more than used to being behind the steering wheel for a long haul. We never thought anything about it.
If you’re out traveling this weekend, or planning to, think about taking public transit (if you aren’t already). The Bay Area officials are hoping people make that decision as they work to finish up the Bay Bridge by Tuesday morning. With any luck, commuters won’t notice a hiccup in their daily travel. Hopefully those making the big family vacation trips this weekend there will do so via public transit.
I wonder if Hollywood every thought about portraying a family vacation any other way than the “car trip.” Of course, they would probably say that the suspension of disbelief probably wouldn’t extend that far.
Thanks for reading the MT Position, updated every Friday.
August 31st, 2007 at 12:55 pm
There have been many efforts by TV to show public transit - St. Elsewhere, a hospital program had numerous scenes of characters taking the EL and riding on the train. As we all know, Spiderman, lives in Sunnyside Queens, NYC and scenes of the #7 train appear in some movies, and one took place on the EL, though for cinematic purposes (cityscape and water views) it was actually filmed in Chicago… Many Commercials use subways as the backdrop - frequently Toronto……..
as for movies, great action scene in one of the older Disney movies, in the “Herbie” series of a Trolley going up and down the hills of San Francisco.
The use of public transit as a backdrop are decisions of the writer, DP, and producer…..as more RIDE public transit there will be more experiences to incorproate into the movies, TV shows.
August 31st, 2007 at 3:58 pm
Hi Fred:-
You’re right about the car trip and Hollywood. Although they did do some travel movies, not necessarily vacations, but who’d want to go by rail if Trains, Planes and Automobiles was your intro.
Away from theatre though, historically Torontonians’ passion for going to the cottage north of the city was fueled initially by the Radial Car Line. (In the U.S. of A. read interurban car) This was a quick, inexpensive way to escape the City heat and congestion to rest in the hammock for a day or three on the shore of Lake Simcoe. Automobiles took over this travel mode way way too quickly. Ah, for the good old days!
Dennis Rankin
August 31st, 2007 at 6:21 pm
Writing from an attic office in a converted predepression commercial building, there is a special poignancy to Fred’s story line about the public transportation vacation for me. Some of our family experiences did in fact revolve around the public transportation of Northern CA, and from 1947 to about 1960, my Pharmacist Dad knew and practiced travel on the trains, buses, streetcars & ferryboats at hand between Sacramento and San Francisco (”The City”.
Learning from his Uncle Will Palin, the logistics of combining personal vehicles with public transport. Dad would send most of the family on the train (EsPee’s El Dorado Express…)to the Ferry Building, and meet us there, sometimes with the car, but often he would park the car at our uncle Jim’s, and use the trolley coach/streetcar to sneak up on us in the Ferry Building!
Too many precious memories to share here- the more current ability to use the Capitol Corridor to repeat the experience is at hand in 2007. Train rides in combination with ferryboats at Jack London Square to the Ferry Building can still be enjoyed. Or use BART from Richmond to Stations along Market Street, go upstairs and grab a 40’s vintage PCC to Fisherman/s Wharf.
The serious side of this is the fact that once you learn the schedules, there still are hundreds of places in America where these commute routes can be vacation venues too. Or vice versa. Eventually, we will see more diligent inspections & separation of baggage from passengers, and that will suit me. But, for now, bicycles can be brought along on some of these routes, one can learn to travel light, and there are lots of empty seats if you plan for the weekend and off-hours.
Transit planners should be tip-of-the-tongue savvy about their own respective operating vacation possibilities, and better yet, what could be accomplished with strategic line extensions and schedule tweaking to match up with the next jurisdiction or mode… There are millions of commuters who can be introduced to public transportation via vacation trips. This travelling geezer knows there is a great need for new and expanded intermodal ways & means of vacation travel. You will build workday numbers as well!
It is not possible to relate to people in the new generation memories of an SP 4400 popping off alongside as you & your shrieking siblings scurried up the ramp in the Oakland Pier, to wait for the next Ferry. But anyone now in the transit business can spend some time with the map, even old dusty ones, and cogitate on ways to connect the dots that work for commuters and their families too, on special occasions. This is an honorable task.
September 4th, 2007 at 8:53 am
The only family vacation movies I can think of involve Good insight. The Home Alone Series, where the family at least flew to their destinations-but with certain complications, is the only one I can think of.The other transit movies, like Planes, Trains & Automobiles are for the single road warrior type, and don’t necessarily portray mass transit as a desirable alternative-Art reflecting life perhaps. Perhaps someone should send these story lines to an up and coming screen writer- or novelist to help reacquaint the nation with mass transit as an alternative they should demand. Any aspiring writers listening out there?
September 4th, 2007 at 9:42 am
Have Hollywood do a comedy about vactions using public transporation????? You think we have perception problems now, wait til you see how the mis-guided comedy writers would have a field day. It is extremely unlikey that they could do any positive justice to the thousands of drivers and agencies that commit themselves to the seriousness of their jobs and how we serve the public.