Transportation Miniseries

Overview

The future of commuting - Vox
How suburban sprawl hurts the poor - Vox
Suburban sprawl and bad transit can crush opportunity for the poor - Vox

Twofold problem: jobs are moving away from city centers, and poor people can’t afford to commute out there because cars are expensive and buses take too long
Public transit is often a poor choice for commuting because reliability is paramount
Some cities have high housing costs, but very cheap public transit systems that work well; NYC, DC, San Fran.
Long commutes (and sprawling metro areas) are correlated with lower economic mobility.
Designing public transit that works well becomes very difficult as sprawl increases.
The typical US metro resident can only reach 30% of jobs in their metro area.
Interesting statistic: median income of rail riders is higher for most metro areas than the median income of bus riders. Conjecture: rail systems are built on routes that serve wealthier riders?
Transit lines that connect high- and low-income neighborhoods can have positive impacts by reducing isolation of communities.

Cul-de-sacs are also bad for transit
As suburbs expanded, they did not initially invest in strong transit lines, so it is hard to change that after the fact
The suburbs were expanding at about the same time that the streetcar lines were all dying, so there wasn’t much opportunity for expansion
The attitude that public transit is a welfare makes it a politically charged issue
National politics is skewed towards rural interests
We all have to transfer downtown!

Everything you need to know about the streetcar craze - Vox
The real story behind the demise of America's once-mighty streetcars - Vox

Streetcars run on rails, share the road with cars, make frequent stops, and largely serve downtown areas (as opposed to light rails that are separate from the road, have less frequent stops, and connect suburban areas to city cores.)
Phased out in favor of busses. This is popularly attributed to meddling by car companies, but it was probably just helped along by them.

Streetcar companies, in order to operate as a monopoly, had to agree to things like keeping fares 5 cents and maintaining the pavement around their tracks.
This was fine until WW1. Once 10% of the population had cars, the street cars no longer operated as a monopoly. They had to maintain the pavement around their tracks, which served cars, and they couldn't raise fares to reflect actual costs. Gridlock meant that they couldn't run on time.
Oh, and inflation meant that 5 cents was worthless at that point.
Only in cities where they maintained right-of-way did they survive.

Problem: they cost way more than busses, but aren’t nearly as fast as light rails. In the long term they can be cheaper than busses.
Pros

These startups want to do for buses what Uber did for taxi rides - Vox
How the Microtransit Movement Is Changing Urban Mobility - CityLab

Microtransit: like Uber, but specifically for work commutes
Routes are partially predetermined, but alter themselves on the fly based on demand
It’s kind of the dream of overall efficiency: using data on overall demand to only send vehicles where they are needed, and reducing travel time when compared to rigid transit routes
Private companies running these companies will likely encounter legal hurdles like Uber has
Problem: in the short term, they could be bad for public transit, because they attract higher-income passengers
“The fear is that by creating a segregated, two-tiered transport system, we'd be allowing for fast, comfortable service for those who can afford it — and slower, less frequent service for those who can't.” Okay, but right now we essentially have that situation; it’s just that the higher tier is owning your own car
The best end-game scenario is that municipal transit systems will provide these, possibly as last-mile services

Use of Public Transit in U.S. Reaches Highest Level Since 1956, Advocates Report - The New York Times
Train to Nowhere | The Verge
Twin Cities - Google Maps
Pittsburgh - Google Maps
Green Line on University - Google Maps Street View