Sustainability Through Transportation and Urbanism: Saving the Planet, One Fewer Car Trip at a Time

A lot of people I have had conversations with note that they would love to ride transit more often, but the time difference between riding the bus and driving is simply not acceptable to them. This is completely understandable. Take the following as an example. A GCRTA bus in Public Square. Lisa DeJong, The Plain Dealer A couple of weekends ago, I was visiting a friend in West Park, on the west side of Cleveland. Since I do not have a car with me, I rode the bus. According to Google Maps, the bus ride to that side of town takes 49 minutes. The drive? 17 minutes. Now I know I am probably not like most.  Personally, I am largely not discouraged by this long travel time. It allows me to relax, read some articles on my phone, think, etc. The 49 minutes, to me, is not a huge barrier to travel. What else do I have to do anyway? However, when it comes to a commute to work, I understand that this would discourage most people from riding transit. I think it stands to reason that more people...

It's been a while since I've written anything on here- life has been pretty busy lately. Between the Amtrak trip, starting a new job, and moving into a new apartment in Downtown Cleveland, there hasn't been a whole lot of downtime. Now that I am all settled into the routine of being an urban dweller, I hope to post more frequently. "Gas pump entertainment" by MarkinDetroit is licensed under CC BY-NC-SA 2.0. Here, I want to discuss something that has been on my mind for some time now- multimodal transportation- or more specifically, the lack thereof. To me, a multimodal transportation system means that you are able to easily and safely utilize multiple transportation methods to carry out the needs of life. This includes transit, walking, biking, scooters, inter-city rail travel, air travel, and anything else. Yes, this includes driving as well. As it stands currently, our transportation system is extraordinarily unimodal. We drive everywhere.  Indeed, 76% of commut...

Over the past few months of doing this blogging thing, it has become abundantly clear to me that most people with whom I associate, at least verbally, are committed to having rapid transit options in their city, or would like to live in a city that has such infrastructure.   Typically, when we think of rapid transit, we immediately think trains. We love trains. They provide a novelty that transports us back to our childhood days of watching Thomas the Train. In an increasingly globalized world, many people have traveled to Europe, Chicago, and New York City, and few (if any) are not amazed by their extensive rail network and long for such a thing to exist all across the United States. Something about being able to walk 5 minutes, hop on a train, and go anywhere they could possibly imagine, quickly, is something I think most of us can stand behind. Driving sucks. So why are trains so awesome and fast? For starters, they are grade separated. This means that trains have their own...