If you drive, you need to read this article.

[upstart_crow]

This is everything, EVERYTHING, I have been trying for over a decade to tell people with driving privileges about: how underfunded public transportation, inadequate facilities, and ableist street design endangers lives. Only, because I'm a guilty of being a non-driving adult, few people pay any attention to me

Comments

[strange_selkie]

This is unbearable to me. I had this issue when I lived in Birmingham, AL; where buses are still the resort of the underserved and disenfranchised, and me, the only caucasian person I ever saw riding the bus in the suburbs-- in the blazing heat, in the monsoon humidity, coping with the huge highways they build down south. I was constantly being written up for lateness at work because the bus fleet was dangerous, poorly staffed, and just kind of half-ass. Because no white people (except me, and I am being literal -- I was the only consumer of two bus routes who was white) used the system, it was a nonpriority.

So. Yes. Empathy from another post-twenties non-driver.

[sabotabby]

This. So much this. Okay if I steal and repost?

[maladaptive]

I saw this, and I think what infuriated me most was the response I saw from some people. "Well, that's why you shouldn't jaywalk!" or "We can't put up a bunch of red lights, that would inconvenience traffic for the sake of a few people." I grew up next to a pedestrian light in a pedestrian heavy area, I think I've stopped at it... twice. In 12 years. So very, very inconvenient, lemme tell ya.

What amazes me is, even in "pedestrian friendly" places, these things happen. Miami was just ranked 8th most walkable city in the US, and I want to know what these people are smoking when Brickell doesn't even have crossings because of construction (they expect us to walk a half mile to get to a crossing! In flipping downtown Miami!) THAT'S what a walkable city looks like. And we're serious about increasing walkability/bikability, at least in government positions (but FDOT likes to sit with their thumbs up the agency's collective butt). I've been paying a lot more attention to these conversation since starting my job, and they make me want to

[blpurdom]

All you ever hear is people bellyaching about traffic congestion and high gas prices when something that would both alleviate traffic as well as lower gas prices (because of reduced demand, since increased demand drives prices up) is greater government support of public transit. Not to mention it's a hell of a lot kinder to the environment than getting into a hybrid car and doing just as much driving as with a standard vehicle. But what's hyped as a great way to help the environment? Driving hybrid cars. (Geez, you don't even hear anyone recommending carpooling anymore

[jean_roberta]

Amen! The public transit system where I live is better than the nightmare you describe, but new suburbs, including new stores, keep appearing where NO city buses ever go. Then politicians ask why more citizens don't "go green" by giving up their cars. Duh!