According to the New York Times, public transit ridership is up five to eight percent in metropolitan areas, due the cost of gas (of course, that’s in cities that HAVE extensive transit systems). Nothing like economics to spark a culture change.
Are you taking the bus more? Is your city considering expanding services? Comment here.
This is terrible. As a former mass transit commuter, I got rid of my car so I could ride the rails daily. I ditched the car because there was no economic benefit to having both an automobile and a monthly rail pass because New Jersey Transit train tickets are so damn expensive. It’s very depressing that the price of gas is so high now that it’s actually economically beneficial to take the train — it’s depressing because no matter the cost of gas, it should ALWAYS be more economically sustainable to take mass transit. Now, NJTransit is being rewarded from not their own initiative, but from other market forces. As a result, I would bet my monthly pass (if I still had one) that NJT will try to capitalize off this surge in ridership, and continue to raise commuter costs. It’s a vicious cycle.
The moral of the story: If you can, live where you work. Support local economies