The MT Position

Posted by Fred Jandt
Editor, Mass Transit

We’ve all probably heard the quote an apple a day keeps the doctor away (although I am particularly fond of P.G. Wodehouse’s “an apple a day, if well aimed, keeps the doctor away”). I’m not one to believe that eating a single apple every day will keep you all that healthy, but there is something to be said for living a healthy lifestyle.

That said, there are definite health benefits associated with public transportation. Other than the obvious benefits of extra walking involved in getting to your local transit stops, there are other not so obvious health benefits you can receive from using mass transit.

Take air quality for example. Despite the ingrained image (thanks Hollywood) of buses pulling away from a stop in a cloud of exhaust, public transit does improve air quality. For one, it can mean less cars on the road. For another, many forms of public transit, especially electric rail, have no emissions at all. And buses have never been better for air quality with them running ULSD or having hybrid engines or even fuel cell power.

And then there is the extra benefit of the stress reduction from not fighting through traffic behind the wheel of a car. Many people I’ve spoken with say transit is quite relaxing, and having joined the nodding off club several times on a bus and train, I can attest to that.

There is also the idea that if you don’t have that car available, you’ll change your philosophy when it comes to just “running out” and picking something up for lunch. You could pack a lunch instead of whatever the local burger barn or taco palace has on special. And if you do have that hankering for some fast food, at least you walked part of the way to get there.

We often look at how transit can benefit a region, a state or a city. It isn’t often that we look close enough to see those benefits to the people using it other than, “hey you don’t need a car.”

On another note, we’ve updated the Mass Transit Web site with a slightly different look making it easier to get to the news and we’ve added forums. Just click on the “Forums” button in the upper-right hand side of the home page to check them out. We know our readers value what others in the transit industry have to say, so please give your input and see what others are saying on a variety of topics.

Thanks for reading the MT Position, updated every Friday.

Fred
fred.jandt@cygnusb2b.com

Posted by Fred Jandt
Editor, Mass Transit

For transit, there really is no bigger news this week than the 2007 Urban Mobility Report from the Texas Transportation Institute or the “Congestion Report” as I’ve been hearing it called since its release.

I love it when reports of this nature are released. Not only do they contain a wealth of data, but they make for great spectacle in the realm of media and spin. Within days (even hours) of its release, press releases and stories went flying, all of them seemingly claiming different things. From the fact that transit is responsible for congestion relief to finger-pointing that more roads are needed to relieve congestion to the woe is us, we can’t stop congestion, we can only slow it down.

And the sad truth is that they are all wrong. But they are also, all right.

I’ve spent the last couple days poring over the report and it states simply that we need to do everything to relieve congestion. There is no one solution to the problem. We need more transit. We need more roads. We need companies to change the way they ship things. We need businesses to look into alternatives to the 9-to-5 daily grind for their workers.

The problem is that the general public as a whole just doesn’t get it. It’s true. And they never will. Part of the problem is a lack of focus. We live in a society that almost pushes people to keep their attention span low. There are 100+ channels on cable giving access to any genre imaginable and DVRs to record what you want to watch in case it’s not on when you want to watch it. It’s hard for people to look at the “big picture” of traffic congestion when the NFL season is starting.

According to Commuting in America III the average commute time increased by two minutes from 1990 to 2000. Two minutes. The average Joe going to work just isn’t going to notice a two-minute increase over the span of a decade. If he’s told he lost 40 or more hours a year in traffic, I would suspect you’d get either, “Yeah, that sounds about right,” or “Frickin’ traffic.” I hardly suspect that you would get a what can I do about it response.

People care about congestion. But only as it applies to themselves. If they don’t have congestion in their area, then it’s a “big city problem” or something they don’t have time to deal with because they have their own problems.

Watch the evening news. Traffic congestion will be a hit this week because the report was released, but in two weeks it will be pushed off for the latest info on what’s going on in Iraq or the most recent political stumble by a presidential candidate. Heck, in Wisconsin if the Packers win on Sunday it pushes off pretty much every other news story of the week.

For congestion to truly be combated, we need to stop chest-thumping about which way is the correct way to fix it and start with the top down and make transit as big of an issue as any other in the country. Transit should be as big of an issue on next year’s presidential campaign docket as healthcare, social security or a number of other issues. We need to stop discussing high-minded ideals like “stopping our addiction to foreign oil” and really attack the problem of congestion and the whole U.S. highway infrastructure with all the force this country can muster.

Only then will congestion solutions be more than a report on what needs to be done.

Thanks for reading the MT Position, updated every Friday.

Fred
fred.jandt@cygnusb2b.com

Posted by Fred Jandt
Editor, Mass Transit

With the passing of Labor Day weekend, we’ve ended our summer hours and got back to the daily routine here at Mass Transit. Summer hours for us go from Memorial Day until Labor Day and basically, we come in a little earlier Monday through Thursday and get our Friday afternoons off. It’s a nice perk for those summer days, but it is nice to get back to the usual routine as fall blows in.

I recently read an article in the USA Today about people changing their daily routines as a result of commuting. A lot of people are starting work earlier or staying later so they can skip the rush hour traffic. The new routine is to sacrifice time at home to forestall too much time in the car.

For those people who have no transit option or have a job that prevents them from taking transit readily, I can see where they are coming from. Really, I can imagine it is preferable to get to work a little earlier so you can sit and read the paper for a little while before everyone else gets there rather than spending the same amount of time behind the wheel in start-and-stop traffic.

Those who chose this routine over using transit, though, get no sympathy from me. You hear it every day, the belabored call for more roads to ease congestion so people can make better time driving to work. The same people who complain as they get up at the crack of dawn to beat the traffic cast aspersions to those who sleep in a little later and catch that train or bus into work.

Does the bus or train pick you up at your doorstep and drop you off at work? Probably not, but would adding a little walking to our daily routine kill any of us?

Thanks for reading the MT Position, updated every Friday.

Fred
fred.jandt@cygnusb2b.com

Posted by Fred Jandt
Editor, Mass Transit

It must be nearing election season. Growing up in the Midwest, I figured election season was kind of like construction season, there was no real way to avoid it, you just had to suffer through it. Next year being a presidential election year, the election season gets heated up more than usual. Interestingly enough, next year’s election season coincides with APTA Expo … I wonder how many candidates will show up to try to win a little transit support.

Being election season, the media is out in force as well. A couple of stories I read this week are hammering home the point of elected officials not riding transit they are trying to drum up support for. This is nothing new, but with the looming “doomsday” cuts in Illinois, the reassignment of transit dollars in California, the congestion pricing debate in New York and the recent battle for funding in Pennsylvania, this story seems to have blossomed into a trend.

Now, we’ve all heard this story before. Why aren’t elected officials riding the very transit systems they are trying to get funds for? You know, the ones they profess to care so much about. First off, there are a lot of mitigating factors here. Take a look at the average large city mayor (New York, L.A.) or governor’s schedule and see if they get up, go to the office, and come home at the end of the day like the majority of us. They don’t. There are meetings in several different locations with a variety of individuals, not to mention press functions, staff meetings and I am sure a host of other things. And then there is the safety issue. No matter how many bodyguards an official has, being out in public makes them a potential target for anyone who is deranged enough to make an attempt on their life. So for them to be riding public transit on an everyday basis like the rest of the working world just doesn’t work.

But, that doesn’t give them an excuse to ignore it.

Elected officials are the representatives of the people. They are there to provide a spokesperson for the collective voice of the masses. For them to not ride public transit is a slap in the face to each and every person who has anything to do with it from the person who hops on it to go to work to the guy who fills the tires up at the maintenance facility.

Sure they have a busy schedule. Most of us do. And yes, with multiple meetings scattered in various locations throughout the day, I can see why you would want to be able to get in a car and go, but no matter what, there is always that Point A to Point B first trip in the morning. What better place to hop on a bus or train to see what your system is like. Get out there and see what the complaints are about. Find out why transfers are so important to some people or why others are skeptical of expanding your rail lines. That firsthand knowledge is essential for the job.

As for safety? Well, that will always be an issue and no matter what, if the elected officials are scared to ride transit, then what does that say to their constituents?

New York’s Mayor Bloomberg has been called on the carpet for only taking transit a couple times a week and even then, taking a car for more than 20 blocks to the nearest express rail station. But you know what, he’s trying. He’s out there. He may only be on a train twice a week, but it’s more than many elected officials, and much more than the ones who are arguing over transit’s funding future, yet without even letting the idea of riding transit cross their minds.

Thanks for reading the MT Position, updated every Friday.

Fred
fred.jandt@cygnusb2b.com