Another Argument for Better Mass Transit
The Courant today ran a front-page story about high gas prices affecting workers in the inner city, many of whom commute to jobs in the suburbs. What caught my eye was this:
The spike in fuel costs has, for many, become the difference between a road trip and a weekend at home. For Powell, who cleans hotel rooms in Windsor Locks to support a husband and daughter, it is the difference between driving to work and taking an hourlong bus ride to save money for food.She is the face of an inner-city workforce struggling to live in the affordable pockets of Hartford and other cities and traveling 40 miles or farther for jobs barely more than minimum wage. If the middle class is feeling the squeeze of gas prices, this group is in a chokehold. (Doan)
Yes, that’s right. Commuting from Hartford to Windsor Locks on a bus takes an hour. That shouldn’t be. Windsor Locks is the airport. Travel by bus from Hartford to the airport should be quick. It isn’t. This is why, when people can, they buy cars and drive those to wherever they need to go. It’s easier!
Now, faced with rising gas prices, people are starting to turn to a neglected, confusing and outdated bus system in order to get them where they need to be. I’ve heard some proposals to make the system better, such as eliminating some stops to decrease travel times, and make routes more consistent. I’ve also come around to the idea that the state has been sitting on, the Hartford-New Britain busway, which may or may not get built by the middle of the next decade.
The bus system isn’t entirely bad. The express buses are a good deal, and have seen ridership increase. However, there’s still no good way to get from one suburb to another, and there are towns that don’t really have any service at all beyond expresses to Hartford. If I, for instance, want to get across the river to Suffield from Enfield without a car, I’d have to either walk, take a cab, or bike it.
That’s a major problem. The transit system is focused, and perhaps rightly, on getting people to Hartford from the suburbs, or on moving people around within the city itself. It isn’t focused on getting people from Hartford to the suburbs, or moving around from suburb to suburb, or moving around within a suburb. This is not always consistent with reality. Wethersfield, Windsor Locks, Newington and West Hartford are not just bedroom communities. They’re places with jobs and economies of their own, and they attract employees from all over the region (see this town profile for Newington as an example).
The Courant article highlights the fact that there is a need for better transit to the suburbs, and commuting figures suggest that better inter-suburb transit is needed as well. Maybe the pressure of high gas prices and increased demand will light a fire under the DOT.
Update: Heath over at the Everyday Republican has more thoughts on this, including a link to what Rhode Island is doing. Come on, folks. We can do better than Rhode Island!
Source
Doan, Lynn. “Inner-City Workforce Struggles With High Gas Prices.” Hartford Courant 29 June, 2008.