A place to discuss problems of car centric infrastructure or how it hurts us all. Let's explore the bad world of Cars!
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In the absence of a flair system on lemmy yet, let’s try to make it easier to scan through posts by type in here by using tags:
As it turns out it doesn't actually cost that much on regular transit, there's an AIRPORT SURCHARGE because it's an "airport train".
No wonder Americans don't use public transit, even when the system exists it's ridiculously difficult and expensive to use.
transit fares are regressive taxes
JFK rail transfer to Jamaica Queens is like... Shit like 8.50? Then you can get on the 'regular' subway. It's way cheaper (and can take about the same time from Manhattan) than using a taxi or an Uber.
So your airport transportation is 8.50 on top of your metro card (34 a week which easily is covered if you are about the city at all).
WAY cheaper using the subway in NYC than owning a vehicle. A month for the metro is 132 for comparison.
No wonder Americans don't use public transit, even when the system exists it's ridiculously difficult and expensive to use.
Here is my daily commute to work:
The Public Transit option is literally greyed out, and Google goes “lmao get a fucking car, peasant.”
If I were going to minimize my car usage and strictly use public transit, it would be a ~20 minute bike ride (in the opposite direction of where I work) to the nearest bus station, to get to a public transit service that doesn’t even cover where I work. Then I’d take a bus to a train station, and ride it south through two cities. Then I’d make a transfer to a northern line, and ride it back north through those same two cities (and a third additional city) in order to get near another rail line. Then it would be another ~20 minute bike ride to transfer from one rail system to another, because the public transit in the southern cities doesn’t service the city where I work. Once I’m transferred to the service that covers where I work, it’s another ~20 minute rail ride, followed by a ~10 minute bike ride after getting off the train.
All in all, it would be about 2.5 hours of public transit riding, (and about an hour of riding my bike in +100°F/38°C weather), just to avoid driving 10 minutes. It would also require maintaining two separate transit passes, because the southern and northern transit systems don’t work with one another. Yeah, it’s no wonder I take my car to work.
Might be better getting a moped/motorcycle and taking the car route. It's more environmentally friendly than the car, anyway, but it doesn't take your entire day away from you.
How many minutes would it be to cycle to work?
It's written on their gmaps screenshot: 53 mins.
Also worth noting that the listed bike route requires riding on a 70MPH highway, which doesn’t have a shoulder, sidewalk, side street, or bike path. If I were going to avoid that highway, (because let’s be real, I’d be dead on day 1 after being hit by a car,) then it would be about two hours of cycling.
FYI, airport surcharges are very common. Across the bay at Oakland has an airport surcharge. Sydney has them too, which I was happy about because Melbourne doesn't have a train (AU $25 for a bus ticket, which was sold out) nor did Hobart. I recall AREX in Incheon also having a significant fare jump for the airport stops.
For argument purposes, BART is $0.18/mile (19th Oakland <> Berryessa). That's still pretty high for regional public transit, which is mostly due to BART's high farebox recovery. That high recovery is now a problem with the whole pandemic and subsequent slow return of ridership.
London has a expensive express line from Heathrow to the city and a regular underground line that costs a fraction.
The Narita Express also costs significantly more than the regular train into Tokyo. Airport trains have to account for travelers with a lot of luggage and thus can carry fewer people than regular trains.
One of the reasons I don't want to live anywhere else in the US is NYC had public transit that mostly works. Even if this weekend I had to do a Q to the N to the 7 to back to the N to get to queens. I played a whole game of Lords of Waterdeep on my phone and read some of my book.
I used to sit on the Prospect Park<->Franklin Ave S shuttle on Saturday mornings and just ride it back and forth while reading a book because it was so calming. Gliding through green backyards in the springtime.
I couldn't handle living in NYC long term, but I did stay, mostly in Brooklyn, for four months. The subway is amazing. I will never drive in that city again if I can avoid it.
The current toll to cross the bay bridge by car from Oakland to sf is $8, and like someone mentioned it's only $4.25 from Oakland to sf without the airport charge, so you are still saving by using bart, just not as much as you probably should.
Here in Kansas City our transit was free for the past four years.
The downer is that, since we subsidized the public transit here in the city, the various suburbs opted to stop funding the routes that went into their various towns and cities, so now fares are going to be re-introduced.
At least the streetcar is going to remain free here, for now, and likely through 2026 due to the World Cup.
Olathe and OP are two big reasons we can't have anything nice here. The streetcar is staying on the Missouri side only (at least for now) so I'm hopeful it'll stay free.
goddamn you know you live in a fucked up society when the missouri side of your city is the more progressive.
You're not wrong. Those two cities love their cars and their shitty chain stores.
I hear she's running for governor of California! That would be amazing. Fuck Newsom.
I'm not a huge fan of Porter. But between her and Kamala fucking Harris, whose big takeaway from the 2024 election seems to be "we didn't run far enough to the right..."
I'll admit I don't know much about her outside of those videos of her grilling CEOs when she was part of the Progressive Caucus. If she's as pro average citizen as she seems, she's better than most. What don't you like about her?
She traveled by airplane to San Francisco -- while campaigning against building a HSR system for the state. She also said she lost the CA Senate race because the election was "rigged". She is not a progressive -- just a stupid populist.
Good grief no....Porter is extremely car-brained. Her first run for office was based entirely on opposing the gas tax. She then went on to support some dumb freeway projects:
That's some light criticism considering the alternative is flirting with fascists. Newsom had Steve Bannon on the first episode of his podcast.
Newsom is term limited, he ain't coming back. That's also the reason he's turning right IMO, gearing up for a presidential run and thinks hariss' biggest mistake wasn't going on right wing podcasts.
Newsom
I see him angling for senate or a whitehouse run..... not succesfully but yeah
You see, we will become the opposition party by moving to the right of the republicans (fox will still call us communists)
Ohhhh I didn't know that. It certainly explains why he's taking this turn.
Newsom isn't running for Governor (he is termed out).
Ohhhh. I didn't know he couldn't run again. That certainly explains his recent turn. I really like Katie Porter overall though, and wish her luck. I love watching those clips of her grilling CEOs. She seems like a no nonsense type of person. A little car brained is something we can work with.
A bus ticket for me to get to work is $3.50 and it’s about 1h40m. It takes roughly 35-45 minutes to drive. Idk if that’s good or not but I consider myself lucky that I don’t need to transfer buses
This is the norm where I live too, AND my city has a relatively good public transportation system.
Toronto’s UP express checking in. $12.35 from down town to the airport. Sub way in the city is cheap and affordable but that dam airport thing is in its own world.
https://www.upexpress.com/en/about-up/things-are-looking-up
Next topic is toll roads. 407. Full there and back trip during main business hours. 274km = $173.50
It used to be more. Then someone pointed out it was more expensive than a cab from downtown to the airport.