The few times I have used mass transit in New Orleans I was sitting there on the bus or trolly wondering if I could have just walked to my destination faster. Certainly I could run there faster. And we all know, soon as we hit the Downtown Grid on our bikes there is no competition to be had.

So, last week I had jury duty and had to get myself to the courthouse a bunch of times. I wondered about mass transit again, so I did a Google query from my house to the courthouse. This is what I found:



Of course, I rode my bike. And the Google bike routes (they offered 3 of them) were right on. I was surprised at how good their suggested routes were! In fact, one of them was the route I intended to use TURN FOR TURN! Amazing.

Wondering about time? From the time I twisted my key in my front door to lock it to the time I touched the door handle at the courthouse...15 minutes. I rode a leisurely "no sweat" pace and locked up just feet from the jury pool entrance. I used my "sacrificial" bike just in case as the courthouse is not in a rich neighborhood. No one touched it for five days. Success! I am now jury-free for two years.

questionare for jury pool, they asked what assistance you may need to get there, I said A Taxi both ways..

never was asked to be impanelled its small town , it would not have surpassed $10 a day ..



In the US it's where a Class Analysis comes in handy.. cars are the Privatized capitalist solution .

more dreadful the mass transit the better the car sales..

and being slow and unreliable , less people use transit, so the budgets get slashed , making it worse.

a Negative Feed Back Loop.

After WW2 Europe's Mass transit was demolished by the war , US was Un touched.

They rebuilt theirs 1st National Transit collusion (GM Standard Oil and Firestone )
destroyed what was working in the USA..

[ Illegal, tried and convicted, but a slap on the wrist after the fact was the court decision]

I have trouble using words to describe my disdain for mass transit and the developmentally disabled politicians who champion things like light rail. It usually comes out as an animal sound.

I'm going to remember the Google bike routes function. Thanks.

Two groups of people use mass transit in New Orleans for the most part. The "Haves" who live near a direct route to work Downtown and the "Have Nots" who must walk, transfer, transfer again to get anywhere including their jobs.

Since Hurricane Katrina wrecked the city we find our communities injected with a large Hispanic population of hard working laborers. They don't ride the bus for the most part. They find bikes in the trash and make them function, ride them to their job directly or to some general meeting place like Home Depot parking lots. Sometimes they just buy a bike from The Mart and ride it to death. These folks (the ones I am actually seeing) are in some kind of physical shape and are smart enough to live close to work - perhaps with lots of housemates - maybe share a car or share a pool of bikes. I really admire that lifestyle as it shows great problem solving skills and common sense. If I had to immigrate to some country with wealth beyond my means, I would do the same (actually, I have done exactly that in the past).

Then we have another group of citizens who are too out of shape to hardly walk to the bus stop from their home. They are "stuck" with mass transit and taxi cabs. THIS is the true downward spiral! Getting somewhere to make money costs either too much money (taxi) or too much time (mass transit). So some number of these folks who certainly want to pull themselves up, get to school or a job, make some decent money, find themselves excluded by transportation hurdles.

I don't want to start a raging political discussion here. This is just wishing. I would like to see mass transit and basic health care provided free to people who can't do better on their own. I am happy to pay more taxes to accomplish this. I feel (I have no facts) that the entire community is held down by the fact that certain human beings are shackled to the ground by basic human needs that are (sometimes purposefully) denied to them. Not everyone is blessed with the mental and physical capability to bike to work. Sometimes this is because our car culture cripples them, sometimes it's their own fault, and sometimes it is nobodies fault. I see those migrant workers doing what I wish were possible for more people.

"Wish into one hand, spit into the other, and see which one fills up first" - Unknown Author

Yea Probably a P&R topic... the closure of the Commons.. its why a lot of people crossed the Atlantic ..

I used to take a boat to the East side of Manhattan on 34th St and tried the bus to get cross town. It was always faster just to walk. The only time I took the bus after a while was if it was monsoon rain.

The bus system is the last hope of the handicapped and with the busses kneeling at every other stop, you can forget about them as meaningful transit.

I explained this story to co-workers who were insisting we take a bus to a client meeting and they said I was crazy...a half hour later we moved about six blocks on the bus before they gave in and we just walked.

This happened to me last year. It's an 11 mile bike ride one way for me to get to the courthouse. Public transit in my city is pretty good but I chose to ride my bike. I don't like this whole idea of jury duty so I made an excuse, made myself look bad and the judge excused me. I was very lucky, it's not easy to get off.

I discovered the walking thing when I was just out of college (and dinosaurs roamed the earth). I had a job for a short time where a relative would drop me off on their way to work and I would catch a trolly, then transfer to an express bus, then 10 blocks of walking to get home (I could avoid the walking if I waited for a "non-express" bus). If I got to the trolly stop early I would just start hiking towards the stop where I would make my transfer. NOT ONCE did the trolly ever catch up to me - and it was a long freaking walk too - about half an hour depending on how I caught the crosswalk signals. I think this is when the light bulb in my head lit up. I had a bike sitting home doing nothing!

Joey:

Actually, you only saved 16 minutes because the combination of walking and trolley was 31 minutes. You didn't really save much time at all and it's the price one pays for public transit. Again, I don't consider 16 minutes to be a great savings in time. Furthermore, those 16 minutes don't have to be wasted but used to take a brief nap, read the paper, listen to music or just watch the city. Why does everyone think someone who is taking public transit is not enjoying themselves?

I guess part of the problem is that Joey lives and works in a poor state that does not invest in public transit. (Althought I do want to ride those trollys badly!) If you come to New York City, I'll take you on MetroNorth and we'll board a limited to White Plains and you'll see first hand what public transportation is like for those who live in a richer state.

I just want to make one more point. You are paying a price for bicycling in traffic and that's the possibiltiy of serious or fatal injury. Those riding the trolly will gladly lose those 16 minutes to avoid taking this risk.

Too often on this forum, we tend to see "bike" as the solution. However, I can tell you first hand that you can often subsitude bike for roller skates/blades, skate board or kick scooter. During the weekend, the bus companies reduce the number of trips by 50% so I'll take my kick scooter along. Once at the station, I'll boad the first bus headed in my direction and kick scooter (Xootr) the rest of the way. Using this multi-mode transit is almost as fast as cycling. (Unless your Joey of couse!)

I don't see the problem with public transport. In Germany, it was cheap and on time. In Denmark, most forms have free 4G WiFi on the bus/subway/commuter rail/long-distance train/InterCity Express and EuroNight line.

my commute to work on bike is 7.5 miles of bike-laned roads, a bike path, and a stretch of generous sidewalk. I can take an alternate route of dirt path if I am feeling adventurous. it takes me 30-40 minutes and I can take a shower when I get there, but a clean t-shirt and a few minutes to cool down is usually all I need.

riding the bus takes 1.5-2 hours and usually requires standing around in the sun for 20 minutes waiting for a transfer bus and then several blocks of walking in the sun. I get just as sweaty walking as I do on that bike ride. the bus is a last resort!

that was my experience with public transport in the UK. it was fast and efficient. the US has a car-dominated culture. not just the roads, but the whole urban structure revolves around each traveller being in this own car. buses and trains, in many cities, are an afterthought provided mostly for poor and desperate people who have no other way to get around. Some bigger cities on the east coast have better systems, but in the south, it's a joke.

16 minutes walking through The Hood, both ways.....to put it bluntly, I am not going to be on foot on that route dressed for jury duty especially after leaving the courthouse. We were instructed to never wear our jury badges outside the courthouse as well - every day, several times a day. Actual jurors are driven to their cars in an NOPD police van (one block away) at the end of the day.

More sweaty! More time in the sun and less breeze.

Jury duty has a dress code? Glad I never got called for it, then; a dress code for WORK is bad enough.

I imagine, though, if I DID have to do that, transport would be a pretty small thing; our local bus service is pretty good, and all the buses have bike racks, so the half-mile or so from the main station to the courthouse would be a quick pedal....

When I got called last year I wore my cargo shorts, merrino wool jersey and a short sleeve t-shirt plus my cycling cap.

What ???.. This is a cycling forum..Are we all supposed to give up cycling because of the risk involved when sharing roads with cars ??

And you are also happy to use the government to force others to pay more as well. That's nice, dear. So break out your checkbook and write a check. No one is stopping you.

Is my tax money already paying for infrastructure, streets, buses, and people who stay at home because that infrastructure is half-assed making it nearly impossible to get a decent job without a car in my city?

I am also already paying for public schools with my property tax even though I never had children. I am paying for roads that heavy trucks break to pieces even though I don't even own a motor vehicle of any kind. Since I am already paying, I don't mind paying a bit more for GOOD transportation and GOOD schools. It is hard to argue that a knowledgeable work force with means to physically get themselves to a job would benefit even the shortest sighted among us.

Taxation WITH representation is sort of the cornerstone to the beginnings of this nation, where, by the way, no one forces us to live. Since I am staying I would like it to be functioning better for everyone. Nothing of high quality comes cheap in a democracy. And I look at transportation as an investment in our future that pays dividends to me (indirectly) later.

actually, the uk is terrible compared to the continent

I am always nauseated at the speed with which these Redneck rants gather momentum. This is a Commuting forum. Jury duty doesn't count as a valid commute unless one is a Judge. Maybe. And the o.p. is not. So... the point? The point was just to trash talk against those less well off. Be ashamed, all of you. Except the few posters who observed the undercover racist agenda implicit in the tone of most of the messages.

H

kingsqueak, hi! Remember me? I didn't have the mustache when we were cow-orkers.

Yeah, crosstown traffic in Manhattan is mind-bogglingly slow, and the bus rides across town are even slower.

But generally, subway is the fastest way to get around Manhattan. Unless you're taking a very short trip, it's even faster than a bicycle. That's because subway traffic is managed and metered by a government agency. But of course, government never does anything right, so I must be wrong. OK, OK, no more political talk. I was teasing kingsqueak.

I know this is a cycling forum but I was giving Joey the reason why there are far more people using public transit than bicycle commuting. Heck, I'm a cyclist and you'll find me on one each weekend. I'm not a commuter although.

I can argue that point.

Jury pool starts at 8:30 AM. I gotta be at work for 10 generally but Noon is fine. If I don't get picked the pool kicks me out at 11:30 AM and I then go to work.

Then I got picked to be on a jury. They PAID me and fed me. Showed up at 8AM and went home at 6PM four days straight and home at 9PM after deliberation on Friday. If that's not considered a commute by your standards, I'm glad you're not the boss around here.

There are 12 judges in the building and at least a hundred support staff. There is a cafe inside fully staffed, at least three sheriffs per court, assistants to the judge, stenographers, jury managers, and custodians. Not to mention prosecuting and defense attorneys all over the place. None of these folks other than the judges...MAYBE...could call riding a bike to the courthouse commuting? Insanity.

What on earth are you talking about? I re-read the thread and couldn't find one thing that could remotely be contrived into trash talking about anyone but ME by YOU.