cross-posted from: https://lemmy.world/post/13611200
You've got to do more than just forego that expensive avocado toast!
this post was submitted on 28 Mar 2024
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A Boring Dystopia
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Here's some long winded bullshit. I have a lot of feelings and I'm taking this opportunity to let them out. This can be safely ignored. TL;DR: public transportation in the southern US is a fucking hellscape.
There's a lot of buses in my county. If I worked downtown I'd have to take an Uber a few miles to the bus stop or spend about an hour walking, spend a couple of hours on buses and hope I make all my transfers, then spend up to 20 more minutes walking to wherever I work. Then do it the opposite way coming home.
That's the worst case scenario from my door. Best case still has me ubering or walking an hour to sit on a bus for an hour and a half.
The alternative is that if I go in early by car I can spend 25-30 minutes on the road headed in and an hour home in traffic.
If we had rail from the burbs to any downtown location it would be much more feasible and much quicker than driving. If they would reimagine the bus system it could be about the same as taking a car but with less stress and fewer people on the road. But they won't. Too much oil money in this town to ever do that.
On to the next long-winded story!
Where I grew up it was all rural. I love being out in the country (not so much the people, but out in the country they're easy to avoid). However, there aren't enough people to have a public infrastructure. Hell, where I grew up there was no city government and I don't remember the county doing anything except collecting trash (we were on well water). There's no Uber, no buses, no taxis and the nearest real grocery store is half an hour away by car. If they sold their cars they would have no way to get to work or to get any groceries that aren't provided by the local unaffiliated grocery store that's twice the price of the stores in town, mostly dry and canned goods with very little fresh food, and half the food is out of date. Hell, even to get to that shitty store would be a four hour round trip walk from the hovel I grew up in. It was a half hour walk down a two lane highway with no sidewalks through tick and snake infested ditches for a little kid in either direction to get to a school bus stop where I grew up. Guess how I know that.
CEOs wonder why people hate back to work initiatives. Journalists wonder why we can't just sell our cars and eat less avocado toast (at less than a dollar per serving, avocados are cheap as hell) to get by. Because rural communities with the working poor and middle class exist. Because even living in the fifth largest metro area in the US has a nightmare of public transportation that turns my workday into literally half of my life if I'm dependent on it.
I guess if I want zero quality of life I can sell my vehicles. That's not how it should be but that's definitely how it is currently.
As a person who grew up in the southern United States, I know exactly what you're talking about with the rural areas. I lived in Minneapolis for about seven years and the transportation there was actually pretty good. However, that means you have to be in places like Minneapolis, Chicago, New York, San Francisco, and other places similar in size.
Not only that size, it also has to be not in the South. The Houston Metro is hot garbage. DART makes Dallas quite a bit better, but if you miss a bus transfer you're screwed. That's the fourth and fifth largest metro areas in the country.
Edit: Houston does have light rail but it's so bad that I forget it exists. There's a plan to make it better which is great, but it won't be ready until I'm ready to retire to the country.
I was not aware of that. I wonder what makes the South so bad with transportation compared to the North?
If I had to guess, part of it is sprawl. Chicago packs a lot more people in 7197 square miles than either Houston or Dallas do in 8827 and 8928 square miles respectively.
Another piece is likely original city design and the way the city itself grew up. I'd have to do some digging to prove that one way or another.
One last piece (well, two tied together) is political will and political capital. Houston is a LOT of oil money so you can spend your time trying to make sure people have access to city services or you can fight against the people who make money on keeping more cars on the road. Even the blue folks are employed by O&G, adjacent services (manufacturing), or service industries that are fed by the folks in O&G (food). It's an uphill battle. Dallas is more tech dependent so they had an easier time with DART but missing a bus transfer can still be over an hour ordeal.