A consultant -- yeah yeah, I know -- has declared what really ought to be obvious: Lincoln isn't large enough for light rail and won't be anytime soon. We'll have to put up with significantly less sexy transportation options like cars, bikes, and buses for the foreseeable future.
That's not so bad though, is it? After all, we have plenty of room for improvement in each of those areas. We could settle for more of the same but we certainly don't have to. There's plenty of room for innovation with the modes of transportation we have to work with.
It still comes down to convenience, though. For all the talk about improving Lincolnites' access to "alternative" means of transport, it's still really darn easy to get around by car. That removes a huge incentive to improve, say, the bus system. And what about those who don't have access to a car? They are, to a large degree, politically invisible. Again, where's the incentive to change? Until driving becomes a true inconvenience or attitudes about the carless class change, there won't be much advancement in this area.
I wonder what the tipping point of "inconvenience" would be for Lincolnites. For all our complaining about traffic, we've still got it pretty good. Likewise, what would it take for people to care enough about the carless that we as a community would make transportation-related decisions that would truly benefit them?
Just some things to think about.
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“Until driving becomes a true inconvenience or attitudes about the carless class change, there won
I’ve lived in Lincoln since 1985. Never have used StarTran, or Lincoln Transportation System (“we give Lincoln a lift”) during that whole time. My first year here, I didn’t have a car, but I made do.
Earlier in life, I used city bus service all the time - but the routes were logical and convenient for me.
The convenience of riding the bus is relative to the convenience of using a car. So to me, “until driving becomes a true inconvenience” and “until riding the bus becomes convenient” are (roughly) two sides of the same coin.
Also, I hope they didn’t pay that consultant a ton of money. I’d have told them the same thing for a fraction of the price. I got the feeling reading the story that the guy almost laughed out loud at the thought of light rail service for Lincoln.
Light rail? Nah…that’s more of a Shelbyville idea.
Yeah…he was paid to tell Lincoln the COMPLETELY OBVIOUS. Really…yeah it would be “cute” but that is about it. Be it a really expensive cute…plus parking is actually pretty awesome downtown these days.
Ok…so a really useful thing I have always thought about to save lincoln big budget…turn off all the street lights except at corners. ...all cars come with these things call “head lights” and guess what…everyone uses them at night. So turn off some of the lights…
What about pedestrians?
well…I grew up in southwest lincoln and until about 3 years ago we never had street lights…or sidewalks for that matter…and guess what…we all survived just fine without them.
Lincoln is crazy with the street lights…Look at the new harris overpass…sure it looks cool with what is probably 100+ lights across the thing…but really the thing is lit up like a christmas tree.
Downtown is the same…they put the new fancy lights in and did not remove the older plain steel ones…and they are all on? Really…we don’t need to be wasting all that electricity.
I mean really…for a city that claims to be preaching being green…that is not conserving energy or our tax dollars in any way. We could do with corners being lit, ie, where people “should” be crossing the streets. Maybe a mid block one on also.
Speaking of Star Tran. The director was on the radio last week and he said they are currently outfitting the buses with bike racks! Hooray!
It wasn’t all that long ago that suggestions for bike racks were poo-poohed because it would cause too many problems with parking the buses overnight.
This might actually solve my problem with taking the bus. I can bike the 16-block walk to my bus stop during decent weather.
Still have some transfer issues to deal with though.
Transport is a utility. The car is essentially the only random point to random point on demand provider of this utility for most of the overland trips we make. I have seen parents even drive their children to the end of their driveway and wait in the car for the bus to pick them up. It will take a better and less expensive provision of this utility to begin to de-throne the automobile. I am working on it now. I wish I could talk to Warren Buffet about it. I would bet that he would fund my idea if he knew about it.
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