In a sense that there needs to be a way to show that the status quo of only maintaining/expanding car infrastructure and providing nothing else as viable alternative is a dead one. Ridiculous insurance increases is part of that.
Fixed route and Accessible buses are possible even in smaller cities like Missoula, MT, population 70k, which provides fare-free transit service to its residents. In bigger cities, mass transit, urban and interurban rail needs to be explored and expanded today, else these problems will only get worse with no end in sight.
Sure, but that doesn’t mean that those who have no other choice should be punished.
Cagers are not being punished. They’re still not paying the actual cost of car dependency. They’re still being subsidized by non-drivers who are actually continuing to be punished.
I live in the LA area. By car, 45 minutes to work. By bus, 3 buses and 4 hours one way.
In my city, if I want to arrive at my office at 8AM, I need to leave my apartment by car at 7:45. If I want to be within a block or so of my office by that same time, I need to leave my apartment at 6:15 to find a bus stop and ride on three different buses. Getting home by bus after ending my shift at 5:30 (I work 9 hour shifts and get every other Friday off), I would get home about 7:15.
Consider that I’m paid roughly $35 an hour pre-tax. If I do this every day for a month, the time this costs me would be equivalent to more than a two week paycheck.
Why would I take the bus?
I couldn’t do public transit like that. My anxiety wouldn’t let me. The amount of sick people crammed into busses and trains like that. It makes me start to panic. Like in Japan where they force you in an over packed train…I get for many people it’s NBD but I couldn’t do it.
How is it anybody else’s fault that you chose to live stupidly far from your job?