Does Your Commute Suck? Tell Us About It.

Picture_2.png

This morning our friends over at Transportation for America are launching a new site called My Commute Sucks,
designed to give people around the country a place to vent their
frustration over the nation’s overburdened and inefficient
transportation systems. Commuters can share their tales of commuting
woe, upload photos and videos, and also take action by contacting
members of Congress to ask for a more sane and sustainable approach to
transportation policy.

Already the stories are starting to pile up. Here’s one from a New Jersey commuter named Betty:

The Garden State Parkway in New Jersey is a nightmare, just like Jersey’s other main arteries.

I
would love to bike to the train, but the town of Little Silver doesn’t
have safe cycling roads. Pedestrians are also at risk on some of the
very busy, sidewalk-free and shoulderless roads. 

Finally, the trains are a mess with many discontinuous lines, requiring bus/taxi/light rail connections between stations. ugh 

Build bikeways and we will come! Fix the trains and we will ride!

Brian Fellows asks:

Why
should we tolerate 1- and 2-hour commutes?  Think how much time we
spend away from our families, burning fossil fuels, and getting
stressed out — every day, every month, every year.  The quantity is
staggering.  Even now, just 5 months after the start of our metro
area’s light rail system (which people are flocking to!) it still takes
me an hour to get to work.  Building more lane-miles simply induces
more people to drive — and there you have it: even more traffic.  I
would like Congress to attach requirements to highway money that
mandate recipients/states to design higher-density and mixed-use
development along the highway corridors. 

Go
ahead and add your own story. The site has lots of interactive
features, including a Twitter feed for micro-rants (tag with
#mycommutesucks). You can also follow them on Twitter, they’re
@mycommutesucks.

ALSO ON STREETSBLOG

House Bill Makes Connection Between Transit Funding and Gas Price Relief

|
Here’s an alternative to the "Drill Now!" mantra that doesn’t involve ethanol subsidies or depleting the Strategic Petroleum Reserve. Earlier this month, Congressman Earl Blumenauer introduced the Transportation and Housing Choices for Gas Price Relief Act [PDF]. Blumenauer’s hometown paper, The Oregonian, calls the measure a "smart bill": The key word in that title is […]
STREETSBLOG USA

Wooing the Hesitant Cyclist

|
There’s an old debate in the bicycling community. Do bike lanes marginalize cyclists and de-legitimize them as road users, as the vehicular cycling camp claims? Or, as advocates of separate bike infrastructure argue, are they essential for mainstreaming cycling as transportation? As more places install dedicated bike infrastructure and see big increases in cycling, the […]

We’re Number 1…In Auto Congestion

|
Photo provided by: da90027/Flickr News website The Daily Beast crunches the numbers from the most congested areas in America and finds, to nobody’s surprise, that the worst driving commute in America is right here in Los Angeles.    The Hollywood Freeway ranks as the worst place to commute in the entire country based on rush hour […]