As If It Isn't a Choice

This morning, after standing in the rain for 15 minutes, I boarded the Metro Nashville Bus which I take to work each morning (my employer, Vanderbilt University, generously provides free boarding for all employees on the entire Metro system).  I noticed, as I always do when it rains, that the bus was at about 75% of its normal capacity.  I've always wondered about this.  As naive as I am sometimes, I asked the driver why the bus was so relatively empty on rainy days.  "For the most part," he says, "the people riding today have no choice.  They'd drive if they had cars rather than stand in the rain.  You've got a choice, today, you drive."

This concerns me.  Not greatly perhaps but it does concern me.  While I'm certainly not "Mr. Green" by any means, and while one could easily point fingers at me as well, I started riding the bus because I'm not sure we do have a choice.  Whether you're concerned about the damage done by auto exhaust (and this isn't even something I'll debate), or you're concerned about the ongoing global impact of our "reliance on" oil, I'm not sure you should be acting as if you do have a choice.  No one likes standing in the rain, no one likes waiting to move, no one likes the inconvenient route buses often take, but some people take mass transit because they don't have other transport.  If the rest of us would begin to really believe that perhaps we shouldn't have a choice . . . . that in the long run we don't have a choice, maybe our behavior would change.  Maybe but doubtful.

I know the reasons people avoid mass transit, especially in the south, are more complicated than just the matter of convenience.  For instance, unlike other areas of the country, my sense is that people continue to associate mass transit in the south with lower classes.   That is, it's not a way to get to work; it's poor people's way to get to work (or wherever they g0).  So, certainly, we need to work on matters of reputation.  Further, unless you completely get rid of your car and no longer have to pay maintenance, tags and taxing, it's often not significantly cheaper (depends on where you live, of course, and the fares).  And, of course, some people have child care issues and other problems that make it more inconvenient.  But I suppose what I'm aiming at is this:  if we all began to act in our lives as if it wasn't a matter of choice (and I'm beginning to believe it's not), as if there were pressing environment and geo-political reasons not to take individual cars to work each day, could we change our behavior? Would we change it?  (This goes as well for other aspects of our lives).  Now, again, I know it's not that simple:  it may well be a zero sum game: less demand equals lower prices, equals less pressure to create alternatives, equals simply a longer time line.   But a longer time line matters, especially if we believe in discourse, in persuasion, in the ability to change people's behaviors regardless of economic incentives.  I still do.  Barely, but I still do.

Comments

[Daniel]

I don't use mass transit here at home, but I enjoy using mass transit when I travel to places like New York, Washington and the Bay Area. I've tried to riddle out why I like New York buses but won't ride Charleston ones, and so far my best guess is that I understand and trust the New York bus system. Manhattan's surface transit system is a grid of back-and-forth, up-and-down routes that even I can figure out, and this overlays an underground subway for making big leaps at high speed. Charleston's buses meander and detour like school buses. They're famously not on time. The signage is confusing.

Then again, New York has been working on its system for more than a century. Its part of the city's DNA. Charleston's system of trolleys died out in the mid-20th century and its buses have been a political stepchild ever since. Bottom line: I can imagine a local system I would use, but I can't imagine the way in which we would ever build it, given the current economy, public attitudes and political realities.

[Janet Edens]

I think a factor that often gets overlooked in the mass transit equation is where else will/could people have to go during the day?

I live downtown and my kids go to school in mt. pleasant. I don't want to be at work without instantaneous transportation to get to them in case of emergency. As a reporter, Daniel had planned appointments, but also had to be ready to go where ever he was told.

Without sure-fire, on-time rapid routes from here to there, people have to rely on their own vehicles.

There's a catch-22 aspect. People don't ride the bus because routes aren't convenient but routes aren't convenient unless transit authorities know traffic patterns, which is difficult unless people ride the bus.

I like the subways, too, but it's a terrifically complex equation here in Charleston, with no underground and so many bridges. I do not envy the guys trying to figure out how to provide reliable transportation here.

[Daniel]

Yep. Subways aren't an option here, and the heart of the historic district is a colonial city with some real limitations from a transport perspective.

I've wondered whether you could turn downtown into a restricted vehicle zone: If you live or work there, you get a free pass that gives you unlimited downtown driving. If you want to drive and park within a restricted area downtown, but don't live or work there, you could pay for a pass. Meanwhile, you build park-and-ride lots served by good surface public transit and you let anybody on a bike come and go as they please.

This would remove a lot of the complaints about tourist traffic. But I'm pretty sure it would require state approval, and would probably shift road maintenance cost from the state DOT to the city. That said, it would make your public transport better...

... if a group like CARTA can be made better...