The US is a big country.
Why is it so hard for the U.S. to build quality transit?
51–60 of 142 posts
Re: Why is it so hard for the U.S. to build quality transit?
#52The new York metro has pretty much become a prop location for tiktokers. They might as well make it an official partnership at this point and get some of their fare revenue back
Re: Why is it so hard for the U.S. to build quality transit?
#53This seems to come up once a month or so on HN. Here is a non-ideological take, which I suppose means everyone will hate it because it doesn't echo their pet theory: The US's basic problem with large building projects nowadays is federalism. There are so many different jurisdictions that opponents can always find some court or legislative body that they can exploit to slow down or stop the project. Everything else fl…
Too many fingers in the pot. I like it
Re: Why is it so hard for the U.S. to build quality transit?
#54The US is a big country.
Big and empty in a lot of places
Re: Why is it so hard for the U.S. to build quality transit?
#55Earlier quoted context omitted.
It's for a few reasons, let's see if I remember them all from the run-up to the Sound Transit 2 vote in 2008: Mercer Island exists and has political clout (even though they tried to use that clout to force Sound Transit to not use the express lanes on I-90) and would demand a station no matter what. Running across a floating bridge is hard enough and the Governor Albert Rosellini Bridge (SR 520 Floating Bridge to the…
Wow I didn’t know the old bridge was such a nightmare. This also makes me wonder why this line only opened now, if it was voted on all the way back in 2008. I do usually take the 542 now, and it works well-enough, but it only comes every 30 minutes which is annoying.
I completely agree that the 542 needs more frequency. Sound Transit likely saw the dip from Microsoft wholeheartedly embracing work-from-home and figured they could reuse the service hours. Remember that Metro has been suffering from a bad shortage of workers (drivers, maintenance, and operations) that they've only just started to recover from. This is important because Sound Transit contracts out operation of most of its transit service to the local agencies so Metro operates the 542, 545, 550, and others.
Hopefully now that Metro hiring and training is on the upswing Sound Transit will be able to get more bus service hours.
Re: Why is it so hard for the U.S. to build quality transit?
#56The US is a big country.
Australia around the same size, but has excellent public transportation (relative to the US).
Re: Why is it so hard for the U.S. to build quality transit?
#57The article mentions how global cities outside the US are building out urban rail systems.
Here's some more detail about China, which has the two largest transit systems in the world: Shanghai and Beijing.
In 1993, Shanghai had one line running 2.7 miles with 4 stations. Less than 30 years later, the system had 15 lines, 500 miles of track, and 500 stations. [1]
And in that same time frame, the Beijing subway system was expanded, from 2 lines in 2002 to 27 lines and 500 miles of track, with 13 million riders per day in 2022. [2]
Also in that time, 30 other cities in China got subway systems as well.[3]
In 1993, China's per-capita GDP was $537. By comparison, per-capita GDP in the US was 50 times larger (about $23k). Since then, the gap has narrowed. US per-capita GDP is now 5x of China (66k vs 12k).
China demonstrates that, even with small GDP, if you prioritize the needs of the people over entrenched commercial interests, it can be done.
[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Timeline_of_Shanghai_Metro [2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beijing_Subway [3] https://qz.com/1010911/a-beautiful-data-animation-shows-the-...
Re: Why is it so hard for the U.S. to build quality transit?
#58Earlier quoted context omitted.
Seattle-area commuter here. I have to agree, transit seems mostly designed for people who don't value their time. Which don't tend to be the highly paid tech workers with families. I tried so many times to give transit "one more try". The straw that broke my back was when they silently canceled 2 buses in a row for my route, on the coldest day of the year, for a route that has 20 minutes between buses. And my suburb…
Seattle making the Link a chore to take to and from the airport is a perennial disappointment — painfully slow.
Vancouver, BC's airport Skytrain does this really well, Amsterdam is ok too. Having a train straight to/from international/domestic long distance travel is such a huge deal. I wish Van and Seattle had a fast and more accommodating rail link; as it stands I have to rent a car to get down there for a long winters show. Not really have to I guess, but otherwise I'd have to spend the night in a hotel or hostel. Your new elevated strain that extends 40 miles into the northern suburbs (if I have that right) is pretty wild though. We're lacking om that front for now.
Re: Why is it so hard for the U.S. to build quality transit?
#59I think the biggest problem is attitude; in the US, transit is largely viewed as a welfare program for poor people who are not (yet) able to afford cars. To put it in HN terms, Americans see it like a deprecated API; something you're obligated to support somewhat, but only until your users migrate off of it. If you look at the Honolulu transit project (Formerly HART, now called Skyline), I think it shows everything w…
While attitude plays a part I can’t help but feel like ineptitude and broad corruption play a huge role as well. In NYC transit isn’t viewed the way you’re describing it, pretty much everyone takes it. And yet NYC’s system expands at a glacial pace. A good part of the reason is because everything costs so damn much. Part of that is everyone wanting a piece of the pie so the simplest, cheapest option is very rarely th…
NYC used to have Robert Moses backstopping builds. Like him or hate him, he got things built on a scale nobody has managed to achieve since. In fact a lot of the infrastructure and parks people take for granted today were Moses’ handiwork.
I’m not suggesting that we need another Bob Moses, but he does prove there is some way to cut through the glacial movement of politics and bureaucracy
Re: Why is it so hard for the U.S. to build quality transit?
#60Earlier quoted context omitted.
It's not just market forces though; most municipalities in the US legally mandate a focus on cars. For example, most downtown areas in the US are pre-existing, as they're largely illegal to build today due to mandatory off-street parking minimums among other onerous requirements.
Those mandates are due to the market forces. Go ahead and build a building without parking. Tenants or customers are going to bring their cars anyways and try to find street parking, or they'll go somewhere else. If you make it inconvenient for car and the other option is inconvenient public transit, then people will just look for alternative housing or stores that are more convenient.
Market forces would be nice, but actually the minimums are completely overestimated. Climate Town had a good video about it https://youtu.be/OUNXFHpUhu8 Tl;dr old low quality research, bad stats, lead to numbers that don't make sense, but in many places are still enforced; overbuiling led to larger distances incentivising more driving and acting against small commerce areas.