Wednesday, December 7, 2016
Austin should extend metro system
In the last post I commented on how it is better for Austin's residents to expand the transit system. In this post I'm going to talk about a specific transportation system and "Why exactly does Austin's traffic suck so much?" The metro system is one of the greatest ways of transportation. Austin's metro system is divided into several parts such as MetroBus, MetroExpress, MetroRapid, MetroRail, Night Owls, E-Bus, University of Texas Shuttles, MetroAccess, RideShare, and Freight Rail. There are 82 bus routes and 364 buses in the Austin area. Although these numbers are pretty outstanding, you have to picture that Austin is the fastest growing of the 50 largest U.S. cities. The metro system is barely catching up to the population and city growth. There are apartment complexes added to the outskirts of Austin area in the past couple of years that still don't have connection to the network of bus or metro routes. Considering that a vast majority of the Austin population are students of colleges or universities, I can strongly suggest that if they had any option outside of owning or leasing a vehicle, they would take it. The convenience of having public transport to get them from their home to campus to work and back would knock out the necessity to pay extra for car, gas, insurance etc. Not to mention, that by reducing these number of young drivers on the roads would also prevent a lot of the horrible traffic and accidents. Imagine the number of lives that could saved by allowing ambulances to get to their destination in a timely manner and without the dangers of heavy traffic. The list goes on and on. To reiterate, the options for public transportation are numerous but the limitation comes from the lack of access to these routes and stations. How can anyone comfortably utilize this form of transportation when the closest station is miles of walking distance away from their starting point? A change needs to be made. Its up to all of us to come together and come up with a solution. Reach out to your community leaders!
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2 comments:
I'm replying to my colleague Siavash aka texnnews work on Austin's Metro System. First things first, great job explaining the frustrations of having to commute around Austin on the Metro. I've been there. When I first moved to Austin 2 years ago and let me tell you..it was a mess. I would run to the bus stop which was like a 7 minute RUN right after class only to be on the metro for TWO HOURS and then run for another 10 minutes so I can stumble into work on time. It's no surprise to me that Austin is considered to be the 4th congested city and rated 10th worst traffic in the U.S.
I'm commenting on Siavash blog about Austin extending the metro system. I do like the way he list out the reasons why extending it would benefit more of the Austin city residents especially the ones living in the outskirts of the city. I also like how he gives the reason that using the metro options beat out buying or leasing a car. When my family still lived in Austin my mom used to take buses everywhere because we couldn't afford a car, i believe that their are families out there like my family that would benefit from a extended metro system. I do The metro system is a great transportation solution for a city like a Austin so i do agree with my classmates standing on this. The only thing i would like my classmate to include is how much would it cost to improve the metro system to the outskirts of the city.
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