Originally Posted by
no1mad
Or they aren't equipped to make changes in a timely manner.
Tulsa Transit used to have one of their routes extend out to a major industrial park on the north side, but ridership fell off on that route and they cut it back. I had to turn down a job assignment with Whirlpool simply because there is no way I could ride my bike from the nearest point in their transit system to the plant in 5 minutes, nor could I count on the buses to be on time all of the time.
There are a couple of major employers in that park- Whirlpool and Nordam, and then the Bus Plant out at the airport that simply don't have bus service. Though the main station is downtown, I think their primary goal is to get the lower income people from their apartments and neighborhoods to retail establishments. Woodland Hills Mall has no less than 4 different routes converge on it, while all of the major hospitals are lucky to be served by 2 lines.
This issue has been discussed with much emotion several times based on how things should be verses how they are. Your observation about mass transit serving malls more than industrial parks has proven itself here as well as where you are. When the economy suffers so does mass transit and compitition for the available jobs spreads out to people more able to get to the available jobs. In an area with a healthy mass transit this may not be a big problem but if you are not interested in retail, finance or education the transit lines often don't get you to where you want to be when you need to be there.
When I had 22 people working for me many of them lived up to 30 miles from the job site. Why did I hire them over people living locally? I could get better educated and more experienced people for the job because of the economy and I could narrow the field of applicants to reflect that ability. In a better economy I might have to settle for a high school graduate and be willing to train the new employee. In a bad economy I could ask for college and experiance. Remember from a business perspective getting more educated and experianced people gives you a pool of employees to advance and promote into better positions leaving entry level positions open or allowing you to save money during a down turn by lowering your employee costs with attrition.
I am not making a social judgment on how things are only an observation based on experience.