Gonna try a new feature and blog about conversations I’m having on twitter (I’m @farhanlalji).
Yesterday Aziz mentioned that it was going to take him an hour and fifteen minutes to take public transport to get to work in Toronto. He tweeted repeatedly about how crazy his journey, suggested improvements (like mobile phone coverage) and you could tell he was annoyed. I responded with the tweet:
@azizkara one of the major reasons why I won’t move back. Unless it get’s TO’s transport gets to a world class level fahgeddaboutit
This really got me thinking about Public Transport in North America. I’ve lived in Europe for the last 10 years (seriously, 10 years? How the heck did that happen?) and I’ve always been impressed by the quality of public transport you have in Europe. Paris, Rome, Milan, Munich, Barcelona and yes even Geneva and Zurich, all have great public transport. What’s my definition of quality public transport? My definition is being able to get to and from work or school, the airport and public services, like the Hospital or any social services you might need, fairly easily – and by fairly easily I mean comparable to the time spent taking a car.
I also commented about how the lack of really good public transport in Toronto keeps me from moving back, it’s not the only reason but definitely a major one. I know I could live downtown and get to work probably okay, but the problem is a lot of the people I want to see are spread out and going to the “burbs” in Toronto without a car is difficult. Not to mention the fact that if you’re planning on getting to or from the airport to downtown Toronto without a car you should have a good book that you’ll probably be able to finish over the length of the journey– my friend told me they wanted to open a direct line from the airport to downtown, but I’ll believe it when I see it.
I haven’t been to many places in North America but wherever I’ve been I’ve needed to rent or have a friend with a car. I think that’s one of the worst things about the continent. Although the twitterati did respond with many comments with good stuff to say about Portland, Boston and Washington all having good public transport, I’m not sure any city could compete with the scale and spread of public transport in Europe.
The problem is North America was built with the car in mind and as a result a lot of people are fine to rely on the car to get around and now, sadly, it would cost way too much and take too much time to change user behaviour. Dubai, Qatar, Saudi and Kuwait are spending billions, yes BILLIONS on their public transport infrastructure, because good public transport can be a competitive advantage and is worth the investment and time. Unfortunately the US and Canada don’t have the appetite or the time to make the change they need to have world class public transport and as a result it will continue to keep people, okay maybe just me, away.
