Will COVID-19 be the death knell for public mass transit?
QWho in their right mind is going to get on public transit or ride-sharing if he can avoid it until there is a vaccine? The problem is they say that’s a year away, but the Ebola vaccine was not done for five years.
The good news: Shelter-in-place has helped ensure hospitals are not overwhelmed by COVID-19.
The bad news: We have accomplished nothing else to slow or stop this virus, nor are we likely to any time soon. Conclusion: You gotta be crazy to ride transit. — Mike Smith and others
ARidership on BART, Muni, Caltrain and light rail is down 90% or more since shelter-inplace went into effect.
The question moving forward from here is how transit can recover some of those lost riders with less service and possibly higher fares.
The revised state budget provides transit agencies $350 million less than projected in January, on top of the more than $2 billion in losses agencies already have suffered at the local level since the pandemic began.
AQThe past two decades of crippling our roads and freeways while spending billions on mass transit that crowds hundreds of people together in very small spaces is now looking like a very bad strategy.
But who could have predicted a pandemic would spread? Well, besides anyone who looks at the history of polio, smallpox that killed 10 million people in Mexico, the Great Plague of London that killed 20% of the population, the Black Death that devastated Europe, the Philadelphia yellow fever epidemic, the Spanish flu and recent close calls with Ebola, H1N1, West Nile virus and SARS.
Plus recent outbreaks of scabies on the VTA system and bedbugs on BART.
Who knew that the BART delays of several years in opening new stations would be a blessing for San Jose? — Jon Jones If the BART extension to Berryessa opens next month, it’ll be interesting to see how many are willing to risk riding the new trains.
QDo you think the Google megaproject in downtown San Jose will ever happen? Seems a lot less likely with a lot of folks preferring to live in less densely populated areas. — S. J. Guy
A
This project is moving ahead.
Q
Maybe we should eliminate carpool lanes. I am not willing to risk sharing a ride with a person who may infect me. — Darlene Bannon, Dublin
ACarpool lanes won’t be eliminated, but Fastrak lanes may get more popular if solo drivers are willing to pay a toll if traffic delays return. And if companies see merit in allowing people to continue to work at home, driving for others may remain a good option.