Quote:
Originally Posted by KeepSanAntonioLame
Why I think commuter rail isn't feasible until SA gets light rail is because once you get from Austin to San Antonio, how do you get around? I'm not saying the logistics and details aren't possible, because they are.
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My friend Beth in NYC would get up at 5 AM, walk 10 blocks (in all weather) to the train from her apartment in Staten Island. Wait 5 minutes for the train, get on and ride it 25 minutes to the terminus at the Staten Island ferry. She'd wait another 10-15 minutes for the ferry, board and ride the half-hour trip to battery park. From there, she'd walk 15 minutes to the World Trade Center metro station, get on a train there and ride uptown to Penn Station terminal, change trains, and ride uptown further to around central park east, get out and walk 12 blocks or so to the office she worked at near the CitiGroup building. In all it took about two and a half hours to commute a route that is approximately 18 miles as the crow flies; each way. Every day. For years. Why? Cause a commute by vehicle would have cost her about $2000 a month between tolls, gas and parking. So if the economic incentive is there, people would make it work. But to hell with hypothetical, use my example- I can read CapMetro's schedule and map a route- and if in a time pinch, even take a cab the short distance to my client. With gas at $4.00 a gallon, I aint above a transfer.
At the end of the day, transit doesn't have to be easy; it just has to be cheaper, cause we're all motivated by the wallet.
(sidenote, I was at a boring-a$$ baby shower this afternoon. One of my collegiate fraternity brothers was there and told me he and his wife ride VIA daily to their jobs as attorneys in the DA's office. If white collar peeps are regulars on the VIA, and it's no longer 'poor people's' transportation, things are changin. I dont think people will be holding their nose up at the lack of light rail if the commuter rail project is completed.