[sustran] Re: More on public transport does NOT exclude people

[Wendell Cox]

STPP came up with similar numbers in the US. Dont argue that transport costs
are higher in auto based and less dense communities. But my article in
Environment and Climate News shows, from the same data, that overall costs
(housing and food added) are higher in the transit oriented cities. What is
important is not the cost of transport, but rather the overall cost of
living. As regards the KL numbers, havent reviewed them closely.

But, beyond that, it is important to note that the costs of transport in
auto based cities are largely private, voluntary costs. As I noted in an
earlier posting, there are alternatives in virtually every large US city for
people to rely more on transit, and coincidentally, reduce their transport
costs. They are not forced to live in the suburbs, though seem to prefer to.
At the same time, there is an encouraging trend toward revitatlization of US
cores, with childless households moving in. Continued dismal performance of
city schools, however, precludes households with kids. And, despite this
trend being a very important reversal, the bulk of urban growth in US (and
other developed nation) urban areas is outside the core areas (as the KL
data also shows).


DEMOGRAPHIA & THE PUBLIC PURPOSE (Wendell Cox Consultancy)
http://www.demographia.com (Demographics & Land Use)
http://www.publicpurpose.com (Public Policy & Transport))
Telephone: +1.618.632.8507 - Facsimile: +1.810.821.8134
PO Box 841 - Belleville, IL 62222 USA
----- Original Message -----
From: <BruunB at aol.com>
To: <sustran-discuss at jca.ax.apc.org>
Sent: Friday, 06 July, 2001 08:07
Subject: [sustran] More on public transport does NOT exclude people


> Wendell,
>
> According to Newman, Kenworthy, Laube, et. al, the cities with the lowest
> total cost of transportation are the ones that have these "expensive"
public
> transport systems. The ones with the highest costs are places like Houston
> and Atlanta that are severely sprawled, and have very limited public
> transport. A car based community is the most expensive, of all. Speaking
of
> biases, there seems to be some kind of bias against public spending, even
if
> it reduces private spending.
>
> Eric Bruun