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public transport is horrible...
- Thread starter acidfast7
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The point being made was that quite a few of the Tube lines have fully automatic protections that the driver cannot override to prevent this. The trains essentially drive themselves (fully automatic mode is possible). Even the documentary mentioned above, which has essentially been pro-Tube propaganda without a single mention of strikes, drivers watching DVDs and all the other bad things they've been caught doing over the past few years, pointed out that the drivers job was little more than pushing the open and close buttons for the doors.
LOL
I said that unions make things less transparent.
That's very hard to disagree with.
I NEVER stated that they were worthless.
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It's absolutely less transparent with a union as the ability to terminate an employee is significantly weakened.
Think about what it takes to get a public teacher fired in the US.
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The problem is NOT the driver.
It's the ridiculous need for a feeling "safety" as stated above. People would rather have someone in the train because they feel more secure.
Personally, I'd rather pay 20p less and have driverless cars. Actually, I'd pay 20p MORE to have driverless cars. No strikes and everything would be on perfect time.
The chances of a driver stopping an accident is minimal (especially if a signal/sensor failure occurs.)
MOD NOTE: Just a brief reminder that we are not (currently) in PRSI. If the thread is going to go off on the pros and cons of unions or other PRSI topics I'll gladly move the thread.
B
no PRSI please. that place is like a wasteland.
i like the discussion here better and promise to only complain about the inconvenience caused by union to me, rather than the unions themselves.
We've got two forms of public transit here.
A bus system that runs more less hourly.... has recently expanded to Sundays and holidays, and runs to about 8pm. But is quite affordable.
And a system that runs 24 hours a day, is free, and works quite well.... hitch-hiking. Still the unofficial official way of getting around the island if you are car-less.
A bus system that runs more less hourly.... has recently expanded to Sundays and holidays, and runs to about 8pm. But is quite affordable.
And a system that runs 24 hours a day, is free, and works quite well.... hitch-hiking. Still the unofficial official way of getting around the island if you are car-less.
Sigh. It seems like a lot of people in my city are vehemently against public transportation, especially trains. When you ask them what we should do to help with our clogged roads..."Build more and bigger roads!" And when those are clogged? "Then you build more and bigger roads!" My further opinion would stray into PRSI territory, so I'll stop there.
The same does happen with public transport too. The Tube is basically completely full during rush hours with stations getting closed due to overcrowding. The solution currently seems to be to build bigger stations and Crossrail. No doubt by the time Crossrail is actually running in 2018 it will already by too small to cope with demand...
I remember the RMT striked because a driver was sacked for gross misconduct after he opened the wrong side in a station, you know, putting hundreds of people at risk...
Public transit is awesome! It's so nice to be able to nap or read on the way to and from work and not have to worry about driving. Plus, you can flirt with people too. I don't know why people in Atlanta are against it.
The downside is that you'd spend most of your day in permanent darkness, I'm not surprised they get such excellent holidays, it'd be about the only thing that'd stop me stringing myself up in the driver's cab.
It's a well documented phenomenon. People like to be within a certain number of minutes of their work ( I forget the number, but it's something like 40 minutes on average ). When a city builds more roads, people move out to that "circle" of from downtown. Except that so many people move to that new circle it becomes a much longer commute than they had anticipated...so they agitate for more roads to get that time to work back down. Roads get built, but now new people move to the new circle - which is further out, and cycle repeats.
Metro Vancouver decided to build a series of "town-centres". Basically multiple "downtowns" all across the region. Now people are a) closer to their particular town-centre, and b) the rush-hours are (in theory) multi-directional, and not bi-directional ("in" in the morning, and "out" in the afternoon).
In practice, traffic is just bad all the time now it seems - though now that we live in a rural community, maybe it's just our perceptions that changed.
The other thing Vancouver City has done is densify the core with people. It is one of the more densely populated areas in North America ... not necessarily with workers, but with people who live there. The result is that public transit is not needed by most downtowners, since they walk everywhere.
Four other notes:
-Metro Vancouver has lightrail system called the Skytrain. Driverless trains that run above or underground. Strikes still happen at the control centre. Just working from memory, there has only been one accident where a driver would have made a difference. A crane boom had encroached into the space above the rail-bed on an elevated section. The sensors had no way of picking this up, but a driver would have seen the encroachment and at least started applying the brakes. As it was, the Skytrain ran into the boom at full-speed. No one was seriously hurt, though there was a lot of cuts from flying glass.
-Most of Vancouver's busses are electric, using overhead trolley wires. This gives them the flexibility that a true trolley doesn't have to navigate traffic obstructions, but they are clean and quiet like a trolley.
-Vancouver is adding bike lanes like crazy. I'm would love to drag my bike over to the city to explore the lanes.
-Vancouver City does not believe in highways. Within the city borders there is one highway, the TransCanada, that cuts through the NE corner. That's it. If you want to cross the city, you are on city streets the whole way. And it works - Vancouver is a very liveable city.
I like using public transportation, specifically NJ transit/Amtrak/MTA etc ... all work nicely together here in the states.
Nice bike btw.
Nice bike btw.
I like the Subway and LIRR, whenever I've used Amtrak, it's been nice. I do have a penchant for the Express Bus, because I don't have to transfer to a bus to get home from the subway station, it just drops me 4 blocks from home and is 5 avenue blocks from work.
I do kind of hate MTA buses though, and unfortunately, on weekends the express buses don't run and the regular buses run on a really sparse schedule. Living in a suburb really necessitates car ownership...
I grabbed once next to the Main (the river in Frankfurt) on the way to work as well
happy trails!
Nice pic!
I'm generally pretty pro public transport, but really looking forwards to getting out my bike once all the snow's gone. (Yup, that's Norway...
) Biking to work is such a great way of integrating physical activity with everyday life!
Nice pic!
I'm generally pretty pro public transport, but really looking forwards to getting out my bike once all the snow's gone. (Yup, that's Norway...
I love Scandinavia public transport because the quality is high (as is the expense.) Germany is a little more like US in terms of quality, but much more efficient and reliable.
I do miss the "tunnelbana" immensely, especially the artwork in the stations and the total absence of graffiti.
Lots of NIMBYism and "I wouldn't use that so I shouldn't have to pay for it" type arguments.
Even better once the 5000 Series cars are back in service come May.
I hate on the CTA a lot, but I'm likely moving to Syracuse for grad school this summer and have no doubt I'll wind up missing it like crazy.
Maybe! I used it going to Floral Park (for the Flyers game, free tickets) and going to Jamaica on Friday, lol
I love public transit, when it's effective. The freedom to get onto a train, not have to drive or park, and the small perks like meeting more people, walking more, etc make it really worthwhile. I honestly wish more American cities were built with public transit rather than cars in mind, but I guess that ship sailed 70 years ago.
Now it takes 15 years for San Francisco to approve (let's not even talk about how long it'll take to build) a new subway tunnel and 20 years for BART to get to San Jose.
Now it takes 15 years for San Francisco to approve (let's not even talk about how long it'll take to build) a new subway tunnel and 20 years for BART to get to San Jose.
Public transport here in Oslo, Norway is pretty good.
I live 2 miles from the city center and have 18 tram departure, 12 subway departures and 6 bus departures per hour to get there, and the same back home. Lots of tram, subway, bus, train and boat lines in every direction, so its easy to move around. Most of the lines run on a 10 minute schedule, although the most popular lines run on a 5 minute schedule. Some run 24/7, although most run from 05 am until 01 am, with nightly departures until 04 am in the weekend.
With 285 million passenger rides last year, in a city with 600.000 inhabitant it sure get crowded. That is one of the major downfalls, although a lot of people complain about the high ticket prices as well.
I pay USD 1070 (NOK 6200) for unlimited number of rides within 365 days, and find that reasonable. That's what I make in 3 working days.
I live 2 miles from the city center and have 18 tram departure, 12 subway departures and 6 bus departures per hour to get there, and the same back home. Lots of tram, subway, bus, train and boat lines in every direction, so its easy to move around. Most of the lines run on a 10 minute schedule, although the most popular lines run on a 5 minute schedule. Some run 24/7, although most run from 05 am until 01 am, with nightly departures until 04 am in the weekend.
With 285 million passenger rides last year, in a city with 600.000 inhabitant it sure get crowded. That is one of the major downfalls, although a lot of people complain about the high ticket prices as well.
I pay USD 1070 (NOK 6200) for unlimited number of rides within 365 days, and find that reasonable. That's what I make in 3 working days.
I don't care much either way about the new CTA train cars, but you certainly will if you'll need a car in Syracuse and don't have one.
The CTA is pretty great, although Chicagoans and transplants are the biggest whiners there is. I lived in Rome for 5 months and now that is a public transit system that was hard to understand. Almost no busses have anything on them outlining where you are, what's the next stop, etc. Some bus routes are just plain loopy. You either just have to know where you are "oh, we passed that piazza, so two more stops" or peek outside and look at the sign at the bus stop for your line to read where you are (tough on a crowded bus). Then throw in no consideration of personal space (to be honest CTA riders are equally bad with the opposite - never moving in/down and having huge personal bubbles) and you're set.
I eventually mastered and sort of appreciated the Rome transit system, but I very openly welcomed the CTA when I returned. Nothing better than hearing "Michigan and Washington" or whatever on the bus/el.