From: karplus@cse.ucsc.edu (Kevin Karplus)
Newsgroups: alt.planning.urban
Subject: Re: Gasoline Tax and Cities
Date: 12 Jan 93 04:48:15 GMT
Reply-To: karplus@ce.ucsc.edu (Kevin Karplus)
Organization: University of California, Santa Cruz
NNTP-Posting-Host: ararat.ucsc.edu


stephen@acm.org explains
>	why transit systems don't work:
>
>	(1) they require cash money or tickets
>	(2) they don't run all the time
>	(3) they don't handle bulky goods

As a non-driver in California, I am also in a position to explain why
I rarely take transit:
	1) it is slow (I can commute to work in 35minutes round-trip
			by bike, but it takes an hour or more by bus)
	2) it is difficult to get where you want to go without a
	   32-page bus schedule and route map.
	3) service is infrequent, except on a couple of routes.
	4) most trips require one or more badly timed transfers.
	5) the schedule changes every three months, so that there is no
	   point trying to learn it.

(Note: most of my transit observations have to do with the Santa Cruz
Metropolitan Transit District---your mileage may vary.)

Why do I sometimes take transit anyway?
	1) The express routes, particularly the Highway 17 express, are
	   fast and a real transportation bargain.
	2) My wife doesn't ride a bicycle, and the bus is faster than
	   walking when we need to go somewhere together. (For distances
	   less than 2 miles, which includes almost all our shopping and
	   restaurant visiting, walking is faster and more comfortable than
	   taking the bus, so we rarely ride together, but we usually walk
	   downtown at least once a week.)
	3) It is free---my employer pays for a bus pass for me.  Well,
	   to be more precise, the faculty/staff parking fees on the
	   UCSC campus are used to pay for faculty/staff bus use.  The
	   SCMTD bills the University for the number of boardings counted.
	   A similar deal is worked out for students, who tax
	   themselves each year so that their student ids serve as free
	   bus passes.

Note that the bus passes solve problem (1)---they are a single item,
good for a year, that allows you to ride the bus without change.  The
student ids are also used as meal cards and general identification,
and so are routinely carried by students.  One plan I've heard
seriously discussed by SCMTD is to have a credit card reader on each
bus, so that people could just slide their card through the reader and
be sent (or have their employers sent) a monthly bill.  The capital
cost of setting this up would be high, but it would make it much
easier for smaller employers to provide bus passes, since they wouold
only be billed for actual usage, not the possible maximum usage that
most monthly passes are priced for.  The credit card would probably be
for SCMTD use only, but it would be useful to have the buses take VISA
as well.

Number (2) (not running all the time) is a decided nuisance, and not
much can be done about it without massive infusions of money.  Running
empty buses late at night is not particularly good for the environment
either, since they are more polluting per vehicle than cars, and only
reduce pollution if they are reasonably full.

Number (3) (not handling bulky goods) is a bit of a problem, though
about the only bulky item I've wanted to carry on the bus is my
bicycle (on express routes).  For shopping, I generally use a bicycle
trailer, which gives me about 200lb carrying capacity.  On the very
rare occasions I've bought larger items (average about once a year), I
pay $0-$15 for delivery.  In a flatter city, the trailer would
probably do for larger loads.

Kevin Karplus
Assistant Professor, Computer Engineering
University of California, Santa Cruz  
-- 
Kevin Karplus		karplus@ce.ucsc.edu

Due to budgetary constraints the light at the end of the tunnel is
being turned off.