Quote of the day: great cities have great transit

At a public hearing a number of years ago about proposed transit system cuts in Washington, DC, a bus driver testified how his job "makes people money" in that he facilitates how people get to work.  

But he also drives people motivated by other reasons to take transit.  

David Engwicht's Reclaiming Our Cities and Towns argues in part that cities are about exchange and therefore so is transit--and exchange isn't limited to transactions, be they work or shopping, but to facilitate all forms of "doing."  

The more efficient is mobility, the more that can be exchanged.  If a city devotes itself to roads and parking, rather than transit, there is less area in which to conduct exchange.  

(Another illustration is by David Appleyard, who found that the wider the road and greater the traffic, the less interaction of residents between each side of the street, and even along their side of the street.)

WRT Philadelphia's transit cuts, I just wrote about it,"Tr ansit death spiral starts with Philadelphia."

Photo: Alejandro A. Alvarez, Philadelphia Inquirer.

From "The arts season is about to begin. Will cuts to SEPTA mean a loss of audiences?":

“You can’t be a great city or a major city without meaningful public transport, and we know when we look at systems around the world, public transport requires a subsidy.”

SEPTA “makes it possible for everyone to participate in the city’s cultural life — it is an essential infrastructure for the continued vitality of Philadelphia,” said Ryan Fleur, president and CEO of the Philadelphia Orchestra and Ensemble Arts.

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Note that Peter Dobrin, the author of the piece, is the Inquirer's arts reporter, and his coverage about arts issues aren't just about performance, but include important writings on the urban design quality of buildings, real estate issues, etc.  For example, "Will a revitalized ‘cleaner, greener, safer’ South Broad Street rescue the arts?."