What Elon Musk doesn’t understand about public transit hurts everyone — Quartz

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Written by Rich Sampson

Recently, Elon Musk shared his perceptions during a tech industry conference that public transit is both inconvenient and dangerous. “It’s a pain in the ass,” he said. “That’s why everyone doesn’t like it. And there’s like a bunch of random strangers, one of who might be a serial killer, OK, great. And so that’s why people like individualized transport, that goes where you want, when you want.”

Several commentators—including myself, along with transit network design expert Jarrett Walker—called out his views as an uninformed elitist, perched atop his high-tech empire:

 

 Musk presents a dilemma for many mobility advocates—as do other transportation tech sector-disruptors, such as the Transportation Network Companies (TNCs) Uber and Lyft: their ideas offer clever innovations to overcome network gaps and sluggish bureaucracy, but are rooted in profit motives that run counter to transit’s primary aim of affordable accessibility.
Musk’s dig at transit raises our industry’s dander when a billionaire (whose Boring Company is currently digging a privately-funded tunnel from his home to his corporate headquarters in Hawthorne, Calif.) scoffs at a resource that millions of less-fortunate people—as well as vast numbers of people of color, women and people with disabilities—rely on every day to get to work, healthcare, school, childcare and myriad other destinations. . .

 

via What Elon Musk doesn’t understand about public transit hurts everyone — Quartz

11 thoughts on “What Elon Musk doesn’t understand about public transit hurts everyone — Quartz”

  1. The reason public transit is bad is because of budget cuts, stupid design plans, no public rider input and arrogance on the part of those who design individual transit plans for cities.

    People in Europe often praise their network of public transit options while we here in the states groan about ours, but that doesn’t mean that a three time loser like Elon Musk should have a say in things.

    I have personally advocated for better public transit in cities that I have lived in. I’ve carried signs around. I’ve attended public meetings and was mostly met with arrogance from public transit officials. I had to threaten to go door-to-door and tell people that they were being taxed for public transit but had no public transit in their area. That is the only reason public transit got up and running in one city I lived near because city officials knew they would have some explaining to do.

    People refuse to make themselves aware of what taxes they are paying and for what because if they would only look at their bills, they would see that some taxes they pay, they shouldn’t be paying because they are not getting the service for which they are taxed. The government relies on the ignorance of people; folks not knowing what the hell is going on.

    And for someone like Elon Musk to be calling the shots on public transportation issues is ludicrous especially since he has more than likely never taken public transit in his life. So how the hell can he speak on something he knows nothing about? I don’t care if he is a billionaire. Apparently, you can be smart in some ways and dumb as hell in others.

    I admit that America’s cities are spread out and many cities have been planned by someone who, in my opinion, was drunk when the plans were being drawn up because high frequency route buses are too few and suburban buses with three people on board are far too plentiful in some areas.

    In Minnesota, you can drive to a transit parking lot, leave your vehicle and climb onboard a bus and there are multiple buses going back and forth to that transit lot while folks in the city, have long wait times because high frequency route buses are usually packed like sardines and you must wait for the next one and hope the doors open.

    Where I live now, some buses stop running at 5:45pm. While others stop at 7:00pm and the latest you can catch a bus is at 9:15pm. So, for those who work the late shift, they’ve got to either catch a taxi or drive. The U.S. has a really bad reputation for public transit, but again, the last word on public transit should not come from Elon Musk.

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    • Wow, as usual, you’ve said a mouthful, Shelby. I’d like to start by saying I feel like shaking people when they show no interest in what government does (or doesn’t do with their tactics). Your activism on improving public transport is extremely admirable.

      As for Elon Musk, that sentence starting “And there’s like a bunch of random strangers, one of who might be a serial killer” sounds lie yuppie code for black people and Muslims.

      Through I agree we need to get rid of gas guzzling cars, I find it troubling that the media focuses so heavily on electric cars – which will only serve a small minority of population – while totally ignoring the dismal state of the only transportation (other than bicycles) available to the vast majority of us. Especially when I learn that electric car manufacturers are obtaining 50% of their cobalt from illegal mining operation (employing child labor) in the Democratic Republic of Congo: http://www.aljazeera.com/programmes/countingthecost/2017/12/cobalt-mining-dark-side-electric-car-revolution-171224130356301.html

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  2. Thanks for raising this issue, Dr. Bramhall. On January 8, 2018, I will be joining other concerned citizens in my neighborhood to our City Hall meeting to hear The Boring Company’s proposal to bore a tunnel under our neighborhood. He and his fellow elites are creating a world for themselves. We the working people have no place in that world.

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  3. Now DrB, calm down. Tubularsock has found that a private helicopter taking Tubularsock to his private jet to fly and land at his private limo to take Tubularsock to Whole Foods for a snack it WAY WAY better than to take a bus with the unwashed serial killers!

    And that is NOT a dis of serial killers ……. to be completely PC!

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  4. The man is trying to sell electric cars and living in bubble but he is doing remarkable things with new battery technology and its in his best interest to have electric motors driving next generation buses

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