Tuesday, April 3, 2012
Can Anyone Say....Public Transportation??
I'm from New York. Not just the state but the city where there is more than enough ways to travel and get around. Last year i got my first car and now realize why some many new yorkers rely on public transportation. Texas does have its buses and trains but it only covers certain areas leaving anyone outside those, like myself, out of luck. If there was a few decent routes that covered the large populated areas surrounding Austin, it would cure some of the issues Texas has. For one it would create jobs for people who are without. There would have to be someone driving the bus, someone giving out tokens/passes, and of course someone to run the show. I know there has to be more people for this operation to work but you get the basics. Then this would generate money for the state because there is a large number of people in this bad economy who are without a car or reliable transportation. With the area growing it's only going to help the public transportation system grow with the new residents. And as stated in this article on chron.com with the more people we have moving the more we need to insure and improve the transportation system. Who knows these people could have potentially come from states with good public transportation. Taking buses or trains would take a lot of cars off the road helping with the traffic jams we all love to sit in daily. Not only does that put less cars on the road but it means less accidents and less police officers out helping with them. The police officers could be working on other needs the city/state has. While cars are at home, garages, and parking lots they aren't polluting the air and effecting the already damaged environment. The cars would not need as much gas in turn saving the owner money. There are so many advantages Texas as a whole could benefit from having a well distributed transportation system. It could open up jobs, clean the cities up and put an extra effort towards staying green, and ultimately make the state money to help tend to its other needs. Needs like education and women's health care are two other very important issues that need help.
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Transportation is something that Texas has fallen behind on. With Texas being a now more urbanized area than rural, and housing the countries third largest city in the world, it's a wonder as to why public transportation has not been a bigger issue through out the years. A good friend I have made this semester named Keturah posted in her blog some of these same questions.
ReplyDeleteComing from New York, New York, one can assume that her credibility on the topic is stronger than most in Texas. I honestly can't remember the last time I took a bus simply because I have a car, and the convenience out weighs that of public transportation, but that is simply because our public transportation system "is" in fact a train wreck. Keturah supports her argument by stating that the four most beneficial things that would result from improved public transportation, are the decrease in traffic congestion, accidents, jobs, and the economical advantages to those who participate in public transportation. Each one of her arguments appeals to logos, as one can see that these would indeed be the side effects of improved public transportation, that is, unless we hire really bad bus drivers who have accidents all the time.
I believe her intended audience is those in a position to do something about the issues at hand. Here in Austin, I must say that Public Transportation is better than I've seen anywhere else in Texas, but if you know anything about the new rail system we have here, then you know how easy bad accounting can step in and destroy a good idea.
Texas as a whole does not have a very well thought out public transportation system, and for a city like Austin we are dealing with lack of new action and we are having to build the transportation around what we have already established. But with that being said Austin still hasn’t addressed the ever growing population and size. Some of the bus routes don’t go far enough out to more people who don’t have a set of wheels. I agree with my classmate that expanding some routes or creating new ones would be a good thing. It would create revenue by creating many new and different jobs relating to the bus services, and by all the people who would be now getting to ride the bus. As well as the environment side to this equation is that less people will be on the road emitting less carbon into the air. And in theory there will be less car accidents so less time that law enforcement will have to be on the side of the road they will have more time to put towards other issues. I think that all my classmates point are very valid and I agree that something should be done to give more public transportation farther out. It all seems like it could be a positive change
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