GUESS WHY SOME PEOPLE ARE SWITCHING TO AMTRAK.
A couple of interesting transportation-related items have cropped up over the past few days.
First, some recent research indicates there’s yet another reason why there is a growing trend away from air travel to both rail and buses: people want constant access to their smart phones and other electronic devices.
Of course, that does raise the question, if only in my elderly mind, why those folks will put up with having to travel to and from the airports, the security hassles, the 90-minute check-in, the cramped seating, and the high cost of short-haul air travel … but finally opt out and switch to Amtrak or Greyhound so they can be constantly exchanging text messages with their friends. Go figure!
And here’s an interesting point of view that gets to the question of how best to provide this and future generations with reasonable mobility through transportation alternatives. Essentially, the contention put forth in the Better! Cities &Towns newsletter is that we – that is, the U.S. – simply cannot afford to build and properly maintain enough highways to accommodate the inevitable increase in population.
Gee! That’s what us passenger rail advocates have been saying for some time now! What’s that old saying? “We get too soon old, and too late smart.”
