What's in transit for us?

Public transportation fills an immense gap in the transportation system. On one end there's the auto-dependant population which spends a large amount of money to travel in automobiles which isolate them. On the other end is the walking and cycling public which has more interaction with the neighborhood, but is limited in range and speed. In between there lies bus/train/streetcar transportation. This form of transportation benefits all users of a city in different ways.

Auto drivers benefit from transit because every person who uses transit rather than driving frees up 30,000 sq. ft. of roadway. This reduces traffic, smog, and road rage. Without the public transportation system, most major cities would end up grinding to a halt rather quickly.

For cyclists the public transportation system provides a fallback means of getting to a destination if a problem occurs or if the weather is bad. Many transit systems are able to accomodate regular bike/ped commuters with racks, and storage areas for large belongings.

The most ideal situation is that of being 'multi-modal' which means that a person uses each type of transportation where it's most efficient. For example I cycle from my home to downtown where the transit system is slower with more frequent stops. I can save about 10 minutes on each one-way trip. Then I get on the train and ride transit over the mountain which would be quite demanding on my bike. If either form of transportation is unusable for some reason, the other will take up the slack.

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