Public Transit That Works
Posted November 21, 2014 at 12:32 am by Tim Dustrude
Freeway Traffic – Tim Dustrude photo
Kind of a departure from local San Juan Island stuff today – I was recently shown the video below and just had to share it (warning – it’s about 9 minutes long).
Shannon and I were in Switzerland 6 years ago, and we saw Zurich (and a lot of the Swiss transit/rail system). It was very impressive. We had the Suisse Pass, a ticket that took us anywhere the entire transit system went, anytime within our 2-weeks. We saw a LOT of Switzerland. We were never once frustrated with trying to find a parking place.
We were in New York City 2 years ago and had a similar pass there for the transit system which was not nearly as clean or pretty as the Swiss, but we were very impressed with how efficient it was. And with that MTA pass, we felt like we had the key to the city – we could go anywhere, anytime on any MTA transit vehicle (subway, bus, cable tram) – it was freedom.
Last week we were coming home from Eastern Washington and after a brief stop in Kirkland, we got caught in rush-hour traffic on I-405. And once again, we were really impressed. Only this time, the impression was all about how many people drive one-person-per-car, and get stuck in that traffic mess day after day after day.
We went whizzing past them on the on-ramp, because of the car pool lane, and then we whizzed past them on the freeway itself as they sat, bumper to bumper in their 3 and 4 lanes of gridlock. How do they do it? Day after day. And why? There must be a better way…
Anyway, no I’m not getting on a soap box or anything. I just thought this video was really cool and I wanted to share it with you. So here it is…
Zurich: Where People Are Welcome and Cars Are Not from STREETFILMS on Vimeo.
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Categories: Around Here
2 comments:
2 comments...
Really great! Zurich is now on my bucket list.
LOVE THIS Tim! Thank you for posting! It is amazing that for as advanced as the U.S. claims to be… it falls way short on some things; including transportation. Thanks for posting this. I wont say ANYTHING about AFFORDABLE Internet and speeds abroad. I have a friend in town whom calls that: A First World Problem.
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