― White Paper
Can Transit and Rideshare Collaborate to Get People Back to Work?
Conclusion: Looking Beyond the Pandemic Mass transit is an engine that makes our cities, communities, and economies work; it’s as essential to a prosperous metropolitan region as water, sewer, gas, or electrical systems. As such, adequate funding for mass transit is essential. We should no more expect transit to “pay its own way” or remain underfunded than we do our other life-sustaining utilities. As the adage goes, you get what you pay for. We now face a crisis of immense proportions. But crises can be opportunities to change in meaningful ways. For example, in the wake of the 1970s “Car-Free Sunday” program in the Netherlands—a necessary response to the 1973 oil embargo—the Dutch soon came to realize that they in fact preferred the reduced traffic and increased pedestrian safety that came along with fewer cars. Today, the Netherlands boasts 22,000 miles of bike paths. More than a quarter of all trips there are made by bicycle, and reaches heights of 38 percent in Amsterdam and 59 percent in Groningen, compared with a mere 2 percent in the UK. All major Dutch cities have designated “bicycle civil servants” who are tasked with maintaining and improving the network of bike paths10. The popularity of the bike continues to grow.
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