Symposium Panel 3-Public Transit
One of the big questions during this panel seemed to be whether or not people will stop driving, or, if they will not, how we can change driving habits to reduce pollution. My first thought on this is that people continuing to drive gasoline powered cars does not seem to be an option. As other countries grow economically and their citizens begin driving more, it becomes even more pressing to figure out alternatives to gasoline powered cars that other countries can emulate. Alternative automobiles seem a bit too good to be true because the energy consumption they require to produce their fuel (whether ethanol or hydrogen) outweighs or significantly undermines their fuel savings over gasoline. Will reducing the effects of driving have enough of an impact on climate change? Or, despite its challenges, should we be focusing on developing public transit systems?
A couple of the speakers challenged the idea that public transit could replace automobiles. Robert Crandall pointed out the high cost of building rail systems, describing it as cost-prohibitive. Andrew Morriss pointed out that many areas are too spread out for public transit to be feasible. This may apply only to cities, but especially as cities continue to grow, I think we should consider public transit in cities part of combating climate change. I think anyone who lives in New York recognizes the challenges of public transit. It is expensive, often frustratingly slow, and prone to breakdowns. Nathaniel Keohane’s story about the doors on his subway car refusing to open embodies that. People easily get frustrated when public transit fails and quickly decide to go back to driving cars. However, despite the economic challenges involved, and though I do not have an answer to this, I wonder if a thorough analysis of building comprehensive public transit systems would demonstrate that even as an expensive option it remains a viable, perhaps even desirable, one?
Tags: cars, Climate Change, public transit
March 28th, 2008 at 6:15 pm
I as well question the assertion that people simply won’t stop driving. It’s important to recognize that mass transit isn’t the right solution for all of the United States. However, it seems to me that rising fuel costs will exert pressures on residential development and home buyers. I wonder if the longterm trend may be toward clustered development, rather than the current suburban/exurban pattern.
April 27th, 2008 at 12:54 pm
[…] to belabor the blog discussion brought up in Lars’s earlier post regarding public transportation (good post, Lars!), but as I was listening to […]