One of my possible Junior Theme topics would be to investigate why humans depend on public transportation. I initially thought that humans depended on cars way too much; however, after I read an article from the Washington Post entitled "Public Transit Ridership Rises To Highest Level in 52 Years", and I was proven wrong.
According to the American Public Transportation Association President William Millar, "Now, more than ever, the value of public transportation is evident, and the public has clearly demonstrated that they want and need more public transit services". As of March 2009 (when this article was written), the amount of people using public transportation services was at its highest in 52 years. According to the above quote, it would behoove the lives of many people to increase the amount of public transportation available. Undoubtedly, less people are using cars - the opposite of what I had initially thought.
I am still amazed that public transportation is at its peak. Why is this? Is it possibly because cars are increasingly expensive? Is it possibly because the quality of many automobiles is declining and many car companies are going out of business? Could it be that people don't want to spend money on gas?
What do you think?
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A while back I wrote a blog post on the future of transportation in the U.S, it was based on a Daily Show episode that featured the Secretary of Transportation, Ray LaHood. He talked about how the future of transportation in the U.S is very bright, that a lot of money is going into improving and expanding it. This is one of the main reasons that public transportatoin is still on the rise. Another is undoubtedely the rising cost of maintaining cars, finding a good value vehicle, and the outrageous price of petrol.
ReplyDeleteI imagine that people rely on public transit more often now because they either can't afford to drive cars, or they can, but don't want to. It's difficult to live in this economy, and people have to make allotments for that; using public transit is definitely one of them. That is what I believe.
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