AccountingQueen
$16/per page/Negotiable
This is a there different articles Iam trying to write a good comment for each of this articles by answering the discussion questions foe each one anyone can help with that
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Stop Asking Whether Uber is Transit’s Enemy
Summary:
The article begins discussing the known struggles associated with taking public transportation, which include the reliability of the transit systems, as well as the inconvenience of traveling to and from the stations. This has led people to use new forms of transportation such as bike-share and ride-share. However, even though there was a historic decrease in subway ridership in New York City, it is shown that transportation network companies (TNCs) such as Uber and Lyft may not be as directly connected to the decrease in public transit use, as people may believe. The relationship between transit systems and TNCs is more complicated than one stealing the other’s ridership. The main issue is that there are more riders overall, which is leading to more vehicle-miles traveled, and thus more congestion and higher emissions.
The article goes on to discuss how instead of talking about how these companies steal ridership from public transportation, it’s more important to discuss how they can help with the overall goal of creating successful transportation systems. Although it may be true that TNCs take away some transit ridership, the research shows that the highest growth in TNC usage was in areas with less access to the subway and bus system, where people typically used taxis. They are also used more at night and on weekends, so although they are adding more VMTs to the system, they are not necessarily adding to the congestion. The best thing the city can do is to use TNCs to improve their crumbling systems, which have been losing customers for years, and they could incentivize riders to use their systems.
Critical Analysis:
The article discusses ways that could incentivize travelers to use public transit more or use the road less. This may include adding bus and bike lanes, fixing signal timing to give priority to buses, or making the payment options quicker and easier when it comes to the bus systems, all to reduce traffic and increase reliability. Another thing that could be down is congestion pricing or simply road pricing, which could help people to cut down on their TNC usage (since it would increase the pricing) as well as their personal driving time, while encouraging them to use transit.
The graphs in this article present a lot of information, but the most important, in my opinion, is that between 2009-2015, although TNCs began booming in 2014, subway ridership continued to increase relatively linearly. The last year, 2016, subway ridership has slowly evened out, while TNC use has skyrocketed. As discussed in class, reliability is a key component in public transit usage, which appears to be the main reason people in New York City would choose to take an Uber instead of a bus or the subway.
Questions:
How do you think the city could further incentivize people to use public transit over an Uber ride?
What can the city do to possibly use transportation network companies (TNCs) to benefit their public transit systems, as opposed to harming them?
How could you encourage TNC use for solely the first/last mile, as opposed to the entire trip?
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Summary
The article “Why growing up with public transportation matters” by Leah Binkovitz discusses how new research shows that transit habits people grow up with shape their transit habits as adults. Researchers say local governments can use this to help recruit and prepare their next generation of riders. Michael Smart, an urban planning professor at Rutgers University, and Nicholas Klein, a visiting professor at Columbia University, analyzed how exposure to transit as children and young adults can contribute to an increased transit usage later in life, and less of a reliance on personal automobiles. The researchers conducted their study using data from a long-running household survey to recreate individual transit histories, following people as they move from place to place. They found "that when urbanites move to the suburbs, they have fewer vehicles than would be expected and, conversely, when suburbanites and rural residents move to the central cities, they own more vehicles than their urban peers." The researchers were also able to link a person’s exposure to public transit from their early 20s to the late 30s has the strongest effect on their later travel behavior. Based on their study, the researchers made suggestions as to how local agencies can use this link to sustain and increase their passenger base. They suggest the need for more policies appealing to someone in their late 20s and early 30s, as well as targeted transit policies and incentives for someone who has just moved to a new city or location. There are still some unknowns such as what levels of transit service are necessary early in life to lead a lifelong habit of transit use, but Smart and Klein argue with so many young people moving to cities, there is a potential to expand public transit.
Analysis
This article brings up key points public transportation planners need to consider about the demographics of their passenger base. There is often a stigma that public transportation is for the poor, elderly, or disabled, and is unappealing to those who do not fall within one of those groups. With the surge of young people moving to cites and using the public transportation, there is an opportunity to improve the image of public transportation to help encourage and expand the overall use of public transit. As the research in this article describes, the transit use of those in their 20s and 30s and the overall quality of experience defines their lifelong transit habits. Transit providers should gear their service to appeal to those in the 20s and 30s to provide a positive experience that will turn into an investment for the future of public transportation.
While trying to expand the passenger base to more young people, the needs of the current base cannot be compromised. This brings up an important challenge of how to balance the needs of all the passengers while also promoting a more contemporary image that will appeal to a larger passenger base. The question is how a transit service can invest in themselves to improve their quality of service while also keeping the fares low. If big improvements want to be made to city public transportation, it may be time to raise fares to allow for a total transformation. Another hurdle is how to appeal to a younger crowd to promote their use of public transportation who wouldn’t typically use it.
Before I moved to Amherst and used the PVTA, my impression of the public transportation system outside of Boston (MBTA) was that it was dirty and unsafe. I never once took the bus around town. Everyone drove cars, which caused a lot congestion around town. There is a lot of room for improvement in the service itself but also investments should be made in improving the overall image. It may be worth it to invest in an advertising campaign that helps change the way “suburbanites” feel about public transportation. Taking the bus instead of driving could be the next “cool” or “trendy” thing among young people. However, public transportation in the outer metro area of Boston is far from ready to be the next big thing among young people.
Discussion
1. How can public transportation planners balance the needs of the passengers who rely on public transportation while also promoting a more contemporary image that will appeal to a larger more wealthy passenger base?
2. As a member of the 20s-30s age range, how can public transit improve to better appeal to you, as well as those in the same age range who wouldn’t typically use public transportation?
3. If the MBTA were to launch a campaign to help promote the use of public transportation among young people, what do you think should be the campaign platform? Don’t be afraid to get creative!
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Second Avenue Subway Relieves Crowding on Neighboring Lines
Summary:
This article covers the opening of a new subway line in New York City along Second
Avenue. This Subway line is nearly 100 years in the making, having been first proposed in the 1920's. Since the elevated trains on Second Avenue and Lexington Avenue were dismantled in the 1940's, the only train service to the east side of Manhattan was the Lexington Avenue subway which has long since been overcrowded. Construction on the new subway line started in 2007, and it officially opened to the public on January 1, 2017. The Lexington line was previously the busiest line in the New York City subway system with an estimated 1.6 million passengers per day. Since the opening of the new line which parallels a portion of the Lexington line before heading to Times Square, ridership along the parallel segment has fallen by as much as 24% at one station, or 28,000 rides per day. Ridership on the new line has reached 150,000 people per day, and is expected to continue to rise to nearly 200,000. The new segment of track, a small expansion of the subway system, reaches from 63rd Street to 96th Street. However, this is only phase one of a four part plan to extend the subway from 125th Street to Houston Street in Lower Manhattan. Unfortunately, construction on phase two is not expected to start until 2019. In the meantime, residents have been very excited that this long-awaited subway line has finally become a reality.
Analysis:
This situation demonstrates how little investment is made into public transportation systems. This article, and several others on the same topic, talk about how the Lexington line is constantly overcrowded. The fact that they had the same problem on the same subway line nearly 100 years ago shows how desperately the new subway line was needed. It is also interesting to note that the same solution to the overcrowding problem and lack of access on the east side of Manhattan was agreed upon over a century. While the details such as station location and spacing have no doubt varied over the many times this project has been reintroduced, the basic implementation has remained the same. The fact that there was an almost immediate reallocation of ridership between the two lines further proves that this was an improvement to the subway system. It will be interesting to see how ridership changes when the rest of the project phases are completed.
Questions:
Is there a public transit line near you that is overcrowded, and might benefit from having alternate routes nearby?
What should engineers consider when choosing the new route and stop locations?
Would adding even more route options alleviate overcrowding even more, or would new lines go unused? At what point does adding lines stop being worthwhile?