Blog Stage 8: Comment on a Colleague's Work # 2

In response to Cinthia's "Texas and Shared Transportation" post.

Interesting article about something I don't see a lot about: public transportation in Texas. I would have to agree completely with Cinthia's arguments here. I've heard many times of how terrible the traffic is in Austin, so considering the enhancement of public transportation may definitely improve things.

Cinthia points out that Austin's growing population will only worsen the traffic situation here. This in my opinion is a crucial point in her post. There is no denying that Austin and Texas as a state has been growing rapidly, so there will need to be changes implemented in order to adapt. More people would mean more cars on the street.

There are some issues with the public transportation system however. I myself ride the bus often to get from place to place. Sometimes, riding the bus takes me an hour to get to a destination because I would have to transfer buses and wait at the stop. The time difference is drastic compared to a car ride, which would otherwise get me to the same place in 10 minutes. The reason this is so is because there aren't a lot of buses for each route, which means the frequency of a bus arriving at a stop is pretty low. This is most likely because of the lack of riders, so there isn't a need for a lot of buses. The examples that are stated in the post, about Europe and Asia is a great way to explain this. A lot of people in these areas of the world use the public transportation a lot more than in Texas, which is why countries there invested more into improving their trains and other public forms of transportation. What I'm saying is, if we want local and state authorities to improve public transportation, there needs to be more demand for it. If more and more people are coming into Austin, will they bring this demand necessary for change? Or will they bring their own cars and nothing really changes other than congesting the highway even more?

One thing mentioned briefly in the post was that this could reduce carbon emissions. I think this is a pretty important point to touch on. I personally believe in issues like global warming, so I support anything that could potentially help make the environment cleaner and safer. If people choose to ride these forms of transportation, we would see fewer cars in the street, which would reduce the emission of green house gases, and that's a great thing.

I am still a little skeptical because the question from earlier still remains. Will more people use these public transportation systems should they be implemented? The answer really depends on how efficient these things turn out to be. If they could match the efficiency of owning a personal car, or even better, then there will be the right demand for it, which would mean things like trains and buses would see a lot more success.

Ultimately, I think Cinthia did a great job in conveying her argument of the need for greater public transportation in Texas. If this turns out to be a success, then like she said, we would "improve commuting, reduce carbon emissions, and alleviate traffic". This would be a wonderful thing, so I agree with her, and would really like to see some more emphasis from policy makers in Texas towards this field.