Who is right? These views may not be so divergent as they initially seem, but Walker?s book makes the strong case that the system half of the equation cannot be ignored. As befits someone who has spent decades in small, formerly smoke-filled rooms with civic officials trying to implement working transit systems, Walker is a realist, and Human Transit is a spirited guide?prescriptive but with a righteous dash of polemic?to what we get wrong about transit. ?In many urban regions,? he writes, ?support for public transit is wide but shallow.? People generally like the idea of transit (as characterized by the Onion headline, ?98 Percent of Americans Support Public Transit for Others?), but much of our society?s experience and understanding of transit, not to mention our willingness to pay for it, is limited. The very fact that most of us drive, argues Walker, casts a subtle, but powerful, influence onto transit thinking. ?In most debates about proposed rapid transit lines,? he writes, ?the speed of the proposed service gets more political attention than how frequently it runs, even though frequency, which determines waiting time, often matters more than speed in determining how long your trip will take.? Drivers don?t wonder when their cars are going to show up.
Source: http://feeds.slate.com/click.phdo?i=d1adf2c1559ace96e1d9650618ff732b
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