“I feel very comfortable commuting
with TransJakarta,” said . . . a recruiter
in Jakarta’s main business district.
"There's no need to own a private vehicle."
From The Guardian,
Thu 30 Nov 2023 01.00 EST,
---by Ardila Syakriah
‘A bus is open to everyone regardless of class':
riding the world’s biggest network.
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A big decision on everyone's mind these days concerns moving away from gas-powered vehicles: What should we do? Should we go all in with EVs? or think about Public Transport again? People in Jakarta & in many other regions have already weighed in. But what are we in Middletown--and in Connecticut, going to choose?
______________In an attractive neighborhood near Wesleyan University, we often see 4 or 5 vehicles parked, crammed into a driveway, front to back or side-by-side. All around Middletown, we see overparked driveways and occupied street parking spaces everywhere. Everyone knows that parking is a problem in Middletown, especially in downtown neighborhoods. And near Wesleyan University.
How did this happen? How did two cars in every garage become 5 or 6 cars in every other driveway? How did every student and both their parents buy into the necessity of a car for every student? (I'm not talking about my generation. Or maybe I am.)
Are we at all awake to the impossibility of sustaining our smug, outdated car- ownership habits linked to generations of easy access to roadways, petrol, parking, and cars? Our habits that were encouraged after World War II when oil and gas were cheap and easy, when prices were ridiculously low. Do you remember gas at 25¢ per gallon!? Maybe you do. Do you remember free gifts given by service stations to draw you to their business instead leaving you to another gas station--the free cutlery, place settings, green stamps, & more? Rewards (and attitudes) made car ownership go down easy, made us feel important and successful.
After a time living in two different large cities, Washington, DC, and Seattle in the other Washington, one on the East Coast, the other on the West, I finally committed in both cities to public transport because of the ease of use, the predictability of schedules, and the comparative safety of the company of other riders: there'd be no more sitting alone, vulnerable, on a road jammed with traffic at a standstill.
Going for a ride in your own car in our increasingly overpopulated world (what happened to ZPG?) is almost obscene, considering the real-world inconvenience of it--paying for repairs, insurance, & parking; and the destructiveness of it. .....Aren't we just hooked on the habit? and all of us just about running on empty, running around and around and around? When was the last time you enjoyed driving to work? Riding and reading a newspaper or a book enroute to or from the workplace? Letting someone else handle the driving? I did make that change and I actually enjoyed getting used to it. Climate change notwithstanding, is it foolishness? or laziness, or stodgy unwillingness even to think about changing our habits?
Why is it that we seem to be stuck in traffic driving every day?
Is it a question of class?
If you're ready to consider switching to an EV, try thinking again. They're not really ready for us, are they.
Electric busses are already in use in many large cities. And people in those cities have adjusted to their use and convenience. No more clogged neighborhood driveways and side streets, no more dangerous expressions of road rage, no irritation with other drivers or traffic jams or students randomly crossing the street in front of you, no more worry--coming home late at night or early in the morning--about being wiped out by a DUI, of which Connecticut has more than its share.
Consider the comfort, consider the freedom, consider the safety of public transportation. Consider Connecticut committing to fleets of nicely planned busses interconnecting every day in a timely manner; and clean, comfortable, & safe enough for all, in conveniently devised routes; with an abundance of printed schedules, easily accessible, for all bus routes throughout the state. All being conditions that make it easy to walk to your bus stop and get to where ever it is on on time, or even to choose to walk a couple more stops to catch the bus and get a little exercise on the way to work! Easy to leave behind your car repair & upkeep bills & insurance payments, easy to feel safe with the comfort & predictability of a cleaner, hassle-free ride home.
Public transportation could be a lot easier for all of us.
So why don't we try thinking again?
Don't knock it until you've tried it with
a public transportation system
that works.
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