Pros and Cons of Public Transportation

PROS

Environmentally friendly!

Using public transportation can: improve air quality, reduce greenhouse gas emissions, save energy and minimize impacts.

Spend The Commute Doing Other Things

You can be more productive on public transportation. Instead of focusing on the road, you can relax, read a book, catch up on news, complete some assignments, make a call, etc.

Price

You can save a lot of money that you would spend on gas, especially if your commute is long.

No traffic

There's no need to worry about being stuck in traffic, or finding a parking spot in a crowded parking lot.

It’s Maintained By Other People

Your only responsibility is to pay and not to be late on the drive. There is no burden of fixing the broken car. This also brings your personal cost down since you’re not paying a garage hundreds of dollars to fix something wrong with your car when you use the public transportation system.

CONS

Wait time

When it comes to public transportation, you’re stuck on the system’s scheduling, and scheduling not always works out well with your plans.

Sharing Space

With public transit comes sharing a ride with the public. On the one hand, you can meet some really interesting people within your community and have more real world interactions on a daily basis. However, you can also see the ugly side of your community. It can be very germy and gross on there sometimes. Some bus stops, or areas can be unsafe, so always be aware of surroundings.

Sometimes Difficult to Navigate/Can be Frustrating

You have to stay alert or else you’ll go down the wrong path. Reading the signs and navigating the system can be complicated.

The Four Pillars of Sustainable Urban Transportation

Visit this link [www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/01441640500115835?src=recsys ] for a very intersting research: Christopher Kennedy, Eric Miller, Amer Shalaby, Heather Maclean & Jesse Coleman (2005) The Four Pillars of Sustainable Urban Transportation, Transport Reviews, 25:4, 393-414, DOI: 10.1080/01441640500115835

Abstract:

"The unsustainable nature of current urban transportation and land use is well recognized. What is less clear is the prescription for how to move towards a more sustainable future, especially given the many interest groups involved, the complexity of urban systems and the fragmented nature of decision‐making in most urban regions. It is argued that the process of achieving more sustainable transportation requires suitable establishment of four pillars: effective governance of land use and transportation; fair, efficient, stable funding; strategic infrastructure investments; and attention to neighbourhood design. A review of each pillar identifies key issues. The characteristics of an ideal body for governance of land use and transportation are considered. Trade‐offs are identified with: spatial representation; organizational structure; democracy; and market philosophy. Effective financing and pricing of urban transportation may be distorted because responsibility for infrastructure is separated from service provision. Financing mechanisms are categorized depending on vehicle use and location. Investment in infrastructure for alternative fuel vehicles and intermediate semi‐rapid transit may be required in many cities. Major investment in public transit infrastructure will likely not suffice if macro land use and micro neighbourhood designs are not supportive of these investments. "

Freiburg uses five pillar strategy for their traffic policy, which is slighly different from what we see above. It focuses more on the part of the infrastructure and neighbourhoods of the city:

  1. Expantion of public transport

  2. Promotion of cycling

  3. Neighbourhoods with calm traffic

  4. Concentrating traffic in commercial zones; limiting in residential zones

  5. Parking Space Management