Tuesday, June 27, 2017

Free public transit trial drew 98 employees from Medical Campus

The Buffalo News: "A program to get more people to take public transit to the Buffalo Niagara Medical Campus drew 98 campus workers from member institutions that took advantage of a one-week free trial in May, the Buffalo Niagara Medical Campus Inc. said.

The campus organization and public transportation officials partnered to offer the free trial to entice people to consider alternative forms of transportation to the growing Medical Campus."

Monday, April 10, 2017

In US, #publictransit sucks, while billions are spent fighting for oil to waste on cars

The New York Times: "Commuters from the East End of Long Island to the western edge of New Jersey suffered a transportation meltdown and four days of upheaval last week — all because of the faulty maintenance of a federal railroad they may never ride."

Thursday, March 30, 2017

Auto-Free New York!

Auto-Free New York!: "Traffic jams in both directions crowd the East River Drive in this view looking north from the Manhattan Bridge (Sept 2016). Hundreds of millions of dollars of public money have been spent adding lanes and ramps to this waterfront-killing highway. This new space for cars was sold to us as a way to eliminate traffic bottlenecks, but of course only invited even more motorists. The vast majority of the cars in this picture carry only one person - the driver; most of the cabs and for-hire cars carry only one passenger. Photo: Wayne Fields."

Cohoes City School District considers free public transportation for some students

WNYT.com: "Mayor Shawn Morse said the Cohoes City School District is considering a proposal to give about 960 eligible students swipe cards to take CDTA buses.

“It's just about time that our kids have this opportunity so I applaud the school district,” Morse said. “I'm fully supportive of it as is the rest of the city officials I believe,” he said.

The proposal follows the death of 16-year-old Brittany Knight who was killed along 787 by a driver last June.

Knight’s death sparked outrage over the dangerous intersections on 787.

It was the third pedestrian death in 15 years at that stretch of road where the highway becomes an urban street."

Why #publictransit should be fare-free

Next City : "The more people who use public transit, the more people who benefit, whether they are riders or not, due to reduced congestion and pollution and increased potential for productivity. Eliminating fees to use public transit (rail and bus) would entice more riders to use the system and would reduce cost burdens on low-income families. How would transit budgets be covered? By paying for it out of the city budget, the same way we do with roads and public education, thereby sharing the cost across all taxpayers. This is the fairest solution since non-riders also are gaining benefit from the transit system."

Monday, March 27, 2017

Transit riders air grievances in Lackawanna march to bus stop

The Buffalo News : "Passengers who frequently use public transportation marched Sunday afternoon along Ridge Road in Lackawanna, calling for "transit justice" and urging the Niagara Frontier Transit Authority to improve service and offer more bus routes.

About 60 marchers traced the steps walked by residents of Lackawanna's First Ward, who on Saturdays must hike at least a mile by foot to catch a bus on South Park Avenue heading south toward McKinley Mall. Depending on where you live in the First Ward, that walk could be much longer, and on Sundays there are no buses. If you want to head east, toward the Southgate Plaza, you're out of luck entirely on weekends for bus service."

Sunday, March 5, 2017

Cuomo urged to provide extra funding for ROC public transportation

WHAM: "Rochester, N.Y. - Leaders and businesses in Rochester are calling on Governor Andrew Cuomo to provide additional funding for public transportation in town."

Friday, February 3, 2017

Why does #publictransit suck? Ask yourself "who benefits"

Public transit in the US is just a minimum to keep the system from collapsing. It's frustrating to get to work. Those who profit from autos, oil, and sprawl, keep it in bad shape to keep cars rolling.

27east: "“They are talking about the first step—restoring some of the funding,” Ms. Fleming said. “Cutting [the bus routes] really left people without a way of getting to important appointments, and to and from work. We need to restore the service.”"

Sunday, January 29, 2017

Autosprawl meltdown, people can't get to work

Public transportation highlight of Beacon town hall session: "Mayor Casale said with the new improvements to public transit, and having seen a number empty county buses running through Beacon from time to time, the main effort is to get people to utilize public transit.

“We need people to start riding public transit to sustain public transit,” said Casale. “The more we promote it, and the more the businesses promote it, and the more people get used to it- we talk about parking problems, we talk about, ‘It’s hard to walk here to there,’- use the public transit. So, that’s what we plan on moving forward and hopefully we can promote it, we can get people to ride it and the more people that ride it, the better the service will get I believe.”"
The US has $Trillions in autosprawl infrastructure, but buses go begging. We can't afford buses because they are empty, but they are empty because they are too few and unreliable. Make them fare-free. You will get your money back ten times in better health, lower congestion, less parking headaches, fewer collisions, etc etc.