Entry tags:
Vox Future of Commuting series
http://www.vox.com/2015/4/29/8513699/future-of-commuting has all the links.
Some notes:
* building more roads just induces more traffic (old news, but still.) Building transit may not reduce congestion either -- suck commuters into transit, more people drive to fill up the road. No substitute for congestion charges.
* Bike share users are whiter, wealthier.
* Drivers are less happy, less healthy (well, more obese) than other commuters. Pretty much anything else is correlated with being healthier; walking, biking, and intercity (commuter?) rail dominate in happiness.
* In the 1920s there were 27,000 km (17,000 miles) of streetcars in the US. The "GM conspiracy" doesn't explain their disappearance. Neither does simple commuter choice of driving in a vaccum. Cars caused gridlock and poor service, and legally low fares hurt the companies' ability to maintain roads that were being damaged by cars.
Some notes:
* building more roads just induces more traffic (old news, but still.) Building transit may not reduce congestion either -- suck commuters into transit, more people drive to fill up the road. No substitute for congestion charges.
* Bike share users are whiter, wealthier.
* Drivers are less happy, less healthy (well, more obese) than other commuters. Pretty much anything else is correlated with being healthier; walking, biking, and intercity (commuter?) rail dominate in happiness.
* In the 1920s there were 27,000 km (17,000 miles) of streetcars in the US. The "GM conspiracy" doesn't explain their disappearance. Neither does simple commuter choice of driving in a vaccum. Cars caused gridlock and poor service, and legally low fares hurt the companies' ability to maintain roads that were being damaged by cars.