We all know that Transit is in need of a fix.
However we don't all know exactly what people face, those who do not drive and aren't fortunate enough to live in any of America's big cities with old, established and world class transit systems. I thought I'd share my story and hopefully you will too.
I live in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. The region is home to about 700,000 people or so, perhaps as many as a million. There are a number of small urban hubs (York, Lancaster and the city of Harrisburg) and people commute into Harrisburg (mainly state and federal government workers) from as far away as Lewistown or Schuylkill County. It's a mix of Rust-Belt urban cores, suburban sprawl, exurbs, rural farmlands complete with Amish, and forests.
I also do not drive. Even though I grew up in a suburb near another Pennsylvania city, I just never had the urge to drive. It's not due to income, I'm solidly middle class. I've just never been interested. SEPTA was adequate enough to get me whereever I wanted, and we only lived 5 blocks from SEPTA's western suburban hub so I could go to King of Prussia directly via the Rt. 123 or right downtown to Center City via the El or even to the airport via the Rt. 108 bus without the need for multiple transfers (though if I wanted to go from King of Prussia down to Center City I'd have to make one transfer at 30th Street from the Rt. 125 Bus.) And these buses were never late, the drivers were generally not surly and the passengers didn't have that "those people" aspect that so many suburbanites fear and cite as their reason for staying in their cars and clogging US422 and the Schuylkill Expressway. SEPTA has lots of problems, but overall i'd say the system is better then most (Chicago, NYC, Boston and Portland notwithstanding, of course.)
Living near a big city with excellent public transit can spoil a man, and it was definately a shock to learn most of the nation wasn't like that. This is what I face today, and you can see why it so needs fixing everywhere.
I live in an upper middle class part of a predominately lower middle class neighborhood. From my apartment I walk 2 mintues to get the bus. This bus is super convienent. It (assuming it's on time, but I've begun to master the Zen of Bus Stop Waiting) drops me off one block from my office, although I could easily walk the 2 miles or so in under 30 mintues. At the end of the day I reverse the process. There is a farmers' market along the route that is usually ok, and the route termintates downtown.
From a commuting to work standpoint, the bus gets a A. I do complain about 5 minute tardiness, but it's really not that bad. The important thing is that I can get to and from work during business hours without a (serious) problem. Most of the city's bus routes are like this. With the exception of a few that travel out to various manufacturing or distribution warehouses in the suburbs (and one that goes to the Hershey Outlets), almost all of CAT's routes start somewhere in the suburbs and end near the Capitol, where much of the region's workforce is employed near. Park-n-Rides are plentiful.
But what if I wanted to use the bus for other things? Like the Doctor? The Dentist? Grocery Shopping? going to the movies? the Mall? the bars? visiting friends? take a night class at the community college? Well I've done these things and determined that life is tough without a car!
The Doctor
I go to a nurse practictioner. Her office is luckily located just five blocks from my place. However, my insurance doesn't consider her a real medical provider unless she is practicing at the practice of another doctor (who is located in the suburbs). As his office is not bus accessible I pay the full price and file a claim. She discounts me for paying in cash but writes it off on my recepits in a way so I get the full price back from my insurance company as we both agree that the insurance company is being kind of stupid.
If she orders tests such as an ultrasound (which I've had done) I have to use a taxi, as the one she prefers (and the one that's generally the best in the area in terms of getting an appointment) is not bus accessible.
The Dentist
My Dentist is sort of bus accessible. The apartment complex that is located next to it gets bus service twice in the morning and twice in the afternoon. Otherwise you have to walk about a quarter mile or so to the nearest bus stop to go back downtown. If my appointment is in the late afternoon this won't work as the bus that takes me home to my apartment stops running after 6 p.m. I generally just take a cab. The oral surgeon my dentist has a partnership with is not bus accessible.
Grocery Shopping
I have a farmer's market that is usually ok that is along my normal bus route. One version of my bus route terminates at a shopping center about 15 blocks from my apartment and it has a Save-a-Lot and a Dollar Tree. I do not shop at Save-a-Lots as one time, when I was a kid, we bought oatmeal there that was infested with grain moths. It took 6 months to rid the house of them. Even the cats hated the moths (they'd catch them, but they obviously did not taste good.) If I want to go to Giant or Weis it's multiple buses out to the suburbs or I find a ride. The new Wegmans that will be opening up soon is not bus accessible at this time.
The Movies
The main multiplexes are not bus accessible. There's an independent movie theater near the farmers market, but as the bus doesn't run at night, I'd have to walk about a mile and a half. This really isn't a big deal for me, but for someone who is not city-saavy it's really not a good idea especially in the warmer months. The upside is the neighborhood the indy theater is improving by leaps and bounds and this will probably change. However there are rumors that the theater may be closing. At the end of my bus route downtown is the IMAX. The same applies for night time, except there's more beggars and they do accost people from time to time.
The Mall
I'm not really a mall shopper but if I were there are multiple malls all of which have bus service of various adequacy. I shop online almost exclusively if I want something, and if there was something unique I wanted, it's much more likely I'll get on the train to Philadelphia and walk the 5 or so blocks to the Art Museum district from 30th Street, or the 10 or so blocks to Rittenhouse Square....or get the 125 bus to King of Prussia for a day trip.
Places like WalMart and Target are to my knowledge not exactly bus accessible from my neighborhood and would require multiple transfers and a lot of headaches.
The Bars
Harrisburg's bar scene for straights is concentrated on a 6 block stretch of 2nd St. downtown and the corner of 3rd and North for gay men predominately, the lesbian bar is located in a different part of town. While all accessible by bus, the system starts shutting down after 930pm Monday through Friday and much earlier on Saturday. Most people drive unless they live in town, then they take cabs or walk. I once was visiting an acquaintence outside of town and couldn't get a cab at 1130pm because they were all out delivering people down to the bars. I do not know the statistics on how many of the people driving have designated drivers. The police presence is good downtown though. I'm a shutin homebody so I really don't go out but I could walk the 2 miles or so if I wanted to. I wouldn't recommend it for someone to do alone if they are not city-saavy.
Friends
I don't have many in the area, but most of my local acquaintences live outside the city, and my (ex)SO lives near York. I can get Greyhound to York on weekends or take the commuter rapid transit on Fridays but he lives nowhere near York's transit stops so he has to burn gas to pick me up. I generally feel bad about asking people to cart me around, so I generally stay home.
Furthering Education
HACC is bus accessible, but all the problems of nighttime travel via transit apply. To my knowledge the HACC bus doesn't run on weekends. I'm only about 2 miles from HACC but due to the city's fragmented geography (rail lines slice the city in half from north to south and there are limited bridges) to get to HACC quickly from my neighborhood (or the farm show complex, they're in the same area) one has to go through a very nasty, blighted neighborhood. I'm city-saavy enough to know not to go through there after dark. Penn State Harrisburg is, to my knoweldge, not bus accessible. Temple Harrisburg's campus is downtown but my bus stops running after 6 p.m. I can walk it though if I so choose to take a class at Temple Harrisburg.
Luckily, there's a HACC campus opening up near the farmers market. I am hoping that they offer more then what the rumors say which is that it will be all Vo-Tech classes there. If they offer a GIS class or even more then a few of the non-credit fun type classes I'm so there. A woman I ride the bus with in the mornings sometimes is hoping for an art class to be offered there. What's stopped me from doing so now is the lack of safe transportation. HACC is in biking distance, but you don't want to go over the MacClay St. Bridge at night, trust me on this one. The (ex)SO and I came through there at night one evening coming back from Burger King across from the Farm Show and saw a driveby (they missed their target, though.) The next bridge across the tracks is 4 miles up at Linglestown Road or 2 miles down at Herr Street, which is out of the way.
Conclusion
So it is great that I and tens of thousands of commuters in the area can get to and from work without clogging the city with cars. But if we want to do the other things in life utilizing transit we find that we really can't. Harrisburg can't be the only metropolitan area like this
How do we fix this?
Well I do know one thing and that is I need to get my driver's license even though I really don't want to. And then ZipCar or one or more of the other car sharing companies need to get over their density issues and open up a franchise in Harrisburg. The city and immediate suburbs are dense enough and pretty much everything I would need is within 10 miles of my apartment. And I bet if I drew a circle of 10 miles I'd find that 300,000 people or more lived within that 10 mile circle.
We need to stop thinking of transit as getting to work and from work. These are extremely important, but millions of Americans also need to use this service to bascially do the things they do to survive. I suppose one could get used to it, but if I were a New Yorker who never drove and suddenly found my job relocated to one of these cities like the Harrisburg area I'd find myself in deep shock and in need of a car, badly. This would mean we need to rethink development as well. Because even if we have ten or twenty or even thirty or forty years left of relatively cheap oil, it won't last forever. Starting planning now would ease a lot of pain later.
Share your transit story below. No poll though, I hate them. :)