New Yorkers
have turned the tide on obesity. And
while the aggressive approaches to trying to limit trans fats, lower consumption
of sugar filled fluids may seem obvious solutions, one of the major reasons is
that New Yorkers are walking more. Just
as European cities have increased density, so to have some US cities. Encouraging commutes by efficient public
transit or even just walking a few blocks.
The advantage of the transit, is most commuters walk to the local
transit stop to start their commute, and subsequently finish the commute with a
walk to their final destination.
A well
written and detailed paper out of New Zealand has documented this impact with
the average increase in daily walking by about 1.2 km for public transit
users. Public Transit trips offsetting
an average of two car trips daily and 45 km of vehicle travel. New Zealand analysis of public transit
While some
cities have made transit the easy solution, many still cater to the car. The greater the density, the less the
dependence on vehicles. And, as transit
riders know, the shorter the distance to commute the more comparable various
forms of transit become relative to time spent on the commute.
Youth today
are decreasingly obtaining the time honoured measure of adulthood – the driver’s
license. Seniors may have their licenses
revoked or limited. A variety of medical
conditions also push commuters to public transit including such things as
seizure disorders, recent cardiac events, not to mention the plethora of
reasons why driver’s licenses may be suspended for driving infractions. Hence at any given time, a significant
fraction of the population is being actively steered towards the public transit
system.
Canadian
data on transit ridership are dated, based predominately on the Households and
the Environment survey of 2007. The
highest proportional use of public transit being in Manitoba, BC, Ont and
Quebec, all of whom saw ridership in the 40-45% range where transit was readily
available. Ridership being highest in
youth and young adults, and in lower to low middle income brackets. Over 2/3rds of Canadian households indicated
that they lived within five minutes of public transit, with 40% using
regularly. Public Transit in Canada 2007
Perhaps the
unstated question is given that public transit is comparable in use to the car by volume of commuters,
why hasn’t transit received the same level of public infrastructure investment
that arterial roadways and bridges have.
The answer is found in the demographic profile of the transit user.
Younger, lower economic likely more ethnically diverse and a higher proportion
of new Canadians. The very antithesis
of the profile of the typical voting public.
Hence roads to service the car may become central to political
aspirations as a method of vote purchase.
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