Ironically, for the first time in my adult, working life (except for during a run of lousy temp jobs back in the early nineties), I’m using Metro Transit to get to and from work – or I was, before I started biking. It’s…OK. It takes twice as long as driving, even in the congested urban core between Minneapolis and Saint Paul. But, since my company pays half the cost of my “all you can ride” card, it costs about 1/3 as much to take the bus as it would to drive and park for a month. I know a deal when I see one. And sitting on the bus isn’t that bad, when I remember something to listen to (I get motion sick if I try to read too much, damn the luck) or find a cool game to play on my cell phone, and the late-thirtysomething childless couple that sits across from me doesn’t drive me absolutely over the edge talking about their endless remodeling job.
No, the bus is just fine – and since my tax dollars are already paying for it, whether I like it or not, why not use it?
The thing I find most galling about transit advocates isn’t the zeal with which they approach the subject, with their blog posts about bus routes from Inver Grove to Minneaoplis and smug “car-free” sloganeering. No, it’s the zeal with which they expect the rest of us to order our lives around those big white buses and that one yellow train.
Tracy from Anti-Strib apparently feels the same. He reponds to a commenter who sniffed about his choice to live (in the city) far from his clients (usually in the ‘burbs):
the decision where to work is often made by things like downsizing, layoffs and new opportunities. It also takes two incomes today and most of us don’t work at the same company as our spouse. In today’s economy, it’s not possible to know where you will be working 5, 10 and 20 years from today. People know this and pick a home in an area that they like, usually with good schools. They can’t always live near where they work and often don’t want to if they could.
One of my rationales for settling in the Midway was that it was pretty central; I could get to where the work was, without having to try to guess where it was going to move.
Then there are people like me that consult. Should I move every time I get a new client? How about the people that have to leave work and visit clients? The idea that you can live near work and don’t need a car is a pure myth for many people including salesmen, consultants, tradesmen and most parents (Trying getting to school to get a sick kid on LRT!)
Great points, all of them. I’ve been a consultant for most of the last 14 years. I’ve changed jobs as many as 3-4 times a year – I’ve even worked simultaneously for companies that were miles apart (in one case, Farmington and Minneapolis. Try busing that spread!). There was no way to make transit work under any circumstances.
Only government employees have the luxury of working in the same building for 30 or 40 years. The rest of us know that we will be changing jobs at least 3 or 4 times. We make rational housing choices based on many things, not just the location of the employer du jour.
Which is hard to explain, since so many lefties work in long-term, unionized jobs where the main imperative is to never change.
It’s hard to explain.
Mitch said: “No, the bus is just fine – and since my tax dollars are already paying for it, whether I like it or not, why not use it?”
You think that’s bad? My tax dollars are being used for a losing war in Iraq and they won’t even let me blow up anything.
I commented on that post that over 10 years I worked for 5 different companies at 9 different sites and only 1 was transit friendly. They didn’t let me blow anything up either. Damn.
Mitch groaned,
“No, it’s the zeal with which they expect the rest of us to order our lives around those big white buses and that one yellow train.”
Let’s drop the “liberals want to take away your car and force you to take public transit” myth already.
What we’re saying is that it should be available for using it in exactly the way YOU”RE using it. Further, we’re saying that when you CAN commute by means other than a car, bus or a rail, you should do it.
It’s not a myth Dougie. Your Goreacle has declared the internal combustion engine the Enemy of the Planet. Try to keep up.
“means other than a car, bus or a rail…”
I presume helicopter/aircraft is off the table, which leaves only walking/bicycling (?)
“Commute” implies (to me) a distance too far for daily walking to and from work. I don’t consider bicycling workable in the rain/snow (which I imagine is a major consideration for you Minnesotans, as well as the entire rest of the USA). Plus you can’t carry any appreciable cargo (millions of Americans need their personal vehicles for daily use in their jobs, ie I always think about a carpenter who’s an independent contractor and who needs to range widely daily, let’s say around the twin cities area).
If you actually want any advice , I think your best chance is not to wag your finger (try not to use ALL CAPS in the middle of your sentences — as much as you can, that is, without making yourself ill — in order to get the point across to the troglodytes). But rather to make the national security argument as to our need to be completely energy independent, looking ahead to the next administration which presumably won’t be headed by two former oilmen.
There are some smart & practical liberals who are doing this. I think I saw one over the weekend on C-Span, giving an extremely concise and well-done presentation on the many advantages of plug-in hybrid vehicles (shirleyboschert.org, I think I’ve got the spelling correct, if I’m wrong it’s close & should be findable with a search).
She was from some organization in San Franciso, lecturing I think in Seattle area. I could tell from just looking at her that she and I weren’t going to agree about a lot of things political but she did such a good job in her presentation (admittedly, on a subject in which I was pre-disposed to agree with her) that I was enthused.
She said we could still do SUV/pickup trucks, haven’t yet looked at her web site to check it out but she said she had dozens of studies posted there. The sooner we can bring ourselves to become truly independent of foreign oil imports, the better, assuming we can ever vote in an administration that will make this a priority in the same way that we sent a man to the moon or won WWII (or, more currently, pitched in and cleaned up the WTC site and rebuilt the Pentagon ahead of schedule).
On the bases of geography, skill, and maturity… you are not qualified AC.
The comments from P&L (or is it SMUN) are not as way at as he usually goes… but he seems to want to punish folks who live anywhere farther out than Richfield. He brings up the topic of toll roads (which, I think, attracts folks on either side of the isle) and dedicated taxes for road improvement… which is such a nice idea we seem to have done it years ago but backed off.
(marginally related to the topic)
(I get motion sick if I try to read too much, damn the luck)
On Mythbusters, they proved that taking ginger pills can calm motion sickness. It might be worth a trip to GNC and 1 bottle to give it a shot, Mitch. Also, I know my wife used these little “seasickness” wristbands to quell her morning sickness when she was pregnant. They’re cloth with a plastic nub sewn into them that pushes into the lower side of your wrist. It didn’t take it away completely, but it made it tolerable.
That’s nonsense!
(Badda writes down “ginger pills” and “anti-seasickness wristbands” for future notice.)
http://www.medicmates.com/AcupressureProductDetails.html
(Notes link.)
(Just waiting till next Wednesday to blow stuff up….)