Americans Hitting the Trains?

With gas prices rising, Americans are finally checking out the buses and trains -- Gas Prices Send Surge of Riders to Mass Transit. "Nobody believed that people would actually give up their cars to ride public transportation,” said Joseph J. Giulietti, executive director of [The South Florida Regional Transportation Authority]. “But in the last year, and last several months in particular, we have seen exactly that."

Cool. And that's with prices just a tad under $4 a gallon. Imagine what will happen when it goes to $6 a gallon? I'm sure behavior will change even more. The US is designed around the car, though, so it will take some time to get really good mass transit systems in place. Until then, Americans will pay or be inconvenienced. I had to laugh, though, because the lead photograph in the article doesn't quite fit the text in the first paragraph. It says something about "standing-room-only" or something. Ok, the people in the image are standing, but really, there is a massive amount of room on that train. Try this in Tokyo. And I'm told that's nothing compared to some places in India and China.

Comments:

Hi,

Yes.. Its been like this in London for quite some years.
Although, The guards don't shove you into the train them selfs you can thank the other animals we travel with for that..

It's a totally joke. I prefer to have a short walk around the city instead of rushing to go home at the 'normal' time with the notion of missing this.

Regards,
Edward.

Posted by EdwardOCallaghan on May 19, 2008 at 08:23 AM JST #

I don't know about Japan, but here's the cord in Mumbai's local trains:
Rush hour in the men's compartment : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-fxmWn9OmcM

Rush hour in the women's compartment:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QBbSAvhbDs8

I lived in Mumbai until I was about 21 years old, and travelled by trains everyday in such crowds since the age of 15 (I'd started working very early in life).

Today, I've moevd away to Bangalore and I pay a slight premium for the luxury of being able to walk to office in 8 minutes.

US life is very much car centric, and I've noticed that lots of people in Silicon Valley don't really know how to get around using public transport :)

In another interesting case, I wanted to travel from Walnut Creek to Monterey Bay last year. The person at the whale watching center at Monterey had been commuting by car for about two years on weekends, and insisted that there was no way to reach Monterey Bay from SF by public transport. I managed the trip by a travelling to Salinas by Greyhound, and then took a local bus to Monterey.

I learned this year, that there are places in and near San Diego that very definitely do not have public transport at all.

I don't know if having low public transport is a conspiracy theory implemented over the years etc, but I suspect that much of the US' way of life and perspective of the outside world will change with an increase in gas prices.

Posted by Sriram Narayanan on May 19, 2008 at 10:26 AM JST #

That’s just the beginning.
I wonder why companies are so reluctant to adapt to new times.
Work From Home!
I would be really happy if I can work from home. No more cars, bus, trains, no more waste of time in transportation.
One physical meet per week should be enough. We have email, instant messages, phone, video conference and so forth. Technology can really help us if we want it.
There are jobs that can't be made from home but just think about jobs that can be telecommute. The number of people moving everyday could be reduced. Less pollution, companies spend less money in electricity, installations, machinery....
I hope some day to wake up, take my coffee cup in front of my computer and start to work. Sitting at home, near my family, wife, girlfriend, children, whatever, chat with colleagues, talking by phone, coding, writing emails. Organizing my time...

Posted by Pietro Zuco on May 19, 2008 at 10:37 AM JST #

In most parts of western Europe the gas price is around $8/US gallon but people use their cars just as much as before even if bus and train traffic also increases. People tend to travel more and longer to work it seems. So, the better solution was to work from home or neighbourhood in my opinion. Sun Rays can play a big role here I think, letting companies have their employees at home but have control over the data.

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