Our city is in the middle of a project to construct/expand our light rail system to extend the routes to go from downtown St. Paul to downtown Minneapolis. In the spirit of the planet’s well-being and the best interest of public transit, I signed up man-go-round and I to complete a “walkability” survey for the transit commission to be able to troubleshoot potential problems in the light rail corridor’s surrounding areas (i.e. unsafe intersections, sidewalks that aren’t kept up, sidewalks lacking ramps, unsafe or not well lit areas). We took off on a walk this evening in order to capture the “hazards” in the area. Here are the hazards we came across:

Public enemy number 1:

Public enemy number 2:

and the worst of them all… Public enemy number 3:

In all seriousness and allergy complaints aside, I’m extremely psyched for the completion of the light rail. I’ve gone through periods of my life commuting by car, times commuting by underground train, short periods of bike commute, and over three years now of walking commutes. I am a firm believer in using public transit when possible. However, when the system isn’t well run, no one wants to use it, and therefore they don’t have the funding they need to make it great, which just continues the hideous cycle. Some of the best train systems I’ve seen are the London and Madrid underground systems. Chicago and San Francisco have decent under/above ground trains state side. Other parts of the world I’ve been less than impressed (have I shared my story of when I was in a bus accident in the south of Spain? or the time we tried to make Manhattan’s subway system actually be convenient instead of a pain in the ass? And don’t even get me started on Minneapolis’ bus system or Los Angeles’ crappy buses).

In my perfect world, every single urban area would be outfitted with bullet trains to all surrounding communities and there would be well greened walkways and skyway systems to make all urban areas immensely walkable. Until that day comes, I will continue to support public transit in any way I can.

How do you feel about using trains/ buses/ subways or commuting by foot or bicycle? Do you use the system in your city regularly? Do you tend to be more adventurous with public transit when you are traveling?

Meri