Public Transportation ( live-blogging )

This hour I'm at a workshop titled "Public Transportation". Peter Javsicas of the group Pennsylavanians for Transportation Solutions (PENTRANS), and David O'dell of the group Green Party Philadelphia Transit Working Group (G-PTWG) will discuss how the Green Party is spearheading efforts to encourage public transportation.

This session runs from 01:00 PM - 02:15 PM.

If you have questions while I'm in this workshop, ask them in the comments section of this post and I will ask Javsicas and O'dell in real-time and answer them.

13:00 EST - Javsicas is going though a PowerPoint presentation. He says driving a car is under-priced. For example - if gas were priced without government subsidies, gas would cost about 5 - 6 dollars a gallon. He also points out most air pollution in urban areas does not does not come from cities, it comes from the cars in the suburbs.

13:25 EST - Javsicas points out cities such as London have high tolls, and the money is used to fund efficient public transit.

There was an objection from the audience that such high tolls would be regressive, since the workers would be the onces who would have to pay the most often. Javcics disagreed saying if public transit was in place, then workers would have an alternative to high tolls.

13:35 EST - Odell is now up. He says Philadelphia is the 5th largest transportation system in the country, based on size and infrastructure. (7th in ridership)

13:42 EST - Odell says the Green Party of Philadelphia is working hard to make the city more pedestrian friendly and pushing for trolleys.

13:50 EST - Odell says although Philadelphia transit is one of the largest in the country, the busses are loud and unattractive, police do not enforce bike and bus lanes - car drivers treat them as extra lanes, there are no traffic restrictions for air quality alerts, slow transit beurocracy. Odell says Greens are pushing to fix these problems.

13:55 EST - Discussion. People are asking questions.

15:00 EST - There is a back-and-forth going on between audience. It is pointed out that buses are good, but the public perceives buses as "low-class".

One Green member from Oahu, Hawaii says the developers want heavy-rail for 5 billion, although the bus system is very good. for one billion, the bus system can be expanded so that it will not be so slow. She says rail may work well for the mainland - but on a small island heavy-rail can be disruptive.

15:10 EST - Javscics says all transportation issues should be solved locally, but in the case of the Oahu, Hawaii, he wonders if the buses would be cost-effective since by the time such a system is set-up - it may cost the same as rail. He says trains have a longer life-span, can carry more people, and are cleaner.

The delegate of Hawaii says that in the case of Oahu, Hawaii there is one thing buses do that trains can't: In case of an earth-quake, it would be easier to get the buses running again faster.

15:15 EST - An interesting discussion about car-shares. People are swapping info. Workshop is ending.

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