Public Transportation in Austin - By Christopher Pelletier

I completely agree with Christopher Pelletier’s thoughts in his article, Public Transportation in Austin - Austin really does need to come up with a new plan. Just as Christopher said, when I look at a map with all the colorful lines showing bus routes and more, it looks like a painting that has no connection to a map. I therefore try to avoid using Austin’s public transportation, such as the buses, and in fact, have only ridden on the city bus once in my life. Although people who are not as fortunate as me to have a car may look at me as a snobby girl who does not have to rely on public transportation, however, even if I did not own a car, I would always be looking to carpool with friends rather than taking the bus – that is how much I do not like public transportation in Austin. Furthermore, even though I agree with Christopher a lot, and would like Austin to someday have an underground rail system, I do not think that will happen in Austin anytime in the near future. Putting in an underground rail system will be very expensive, and as the majority of us Texans know, Texas is currently under a lot of debt that is causing them to cut expenditures. As a result, Texas does not have the money right now to be putting in an underground railroad in Austin. Therefore, the question still remains… if Texas does not have the money to be helping Austin’s public transportation, but yet the transportation system is awful, what should the city do? I believe the city should have certain lanes on the road that the buses are only allowed to drive it. This will allow cars to not be stuck in traffic due to a bus occupying every lane on the road. For example, if a bus were limited to the right lane only, cars would be able to pass the buses in the left lanes. Austin might even consider making more roads for buses only – not for cars to drive on, but solely for city buses to get around. This would make it easier for both the buses and cars. I realize this would obviously take money to build also, however it would not be as expensive as building a huge underground railway system in all of Austin – after all, Austin is a very big city.