On Public Transit

Someone decided to poke me. So the poked guy comes in. Joraumirc knows me as the guy who is an ardent supporter of public transit.

Public transit done right is very difficult. The first issue is whether we put public transit before the people use it or we wait for people to use it and then we add more public transit. Well, it's actually fairly simple and easy : to make a public transit system work, you need to have it available before it is used; this will always lead to an investment that will cause some sort of temporary deficit; but when done a step at a time, and slowly, it is highly profitable. (Tokyo did it...)

Yet, the Shinkansen is NOT a good example of public transit. While it is a good replacement for planes in highly populated megalopolises (like the whole Tokyo-Nagoya-Osaka-Hiroshima-Fukuoka line), it's pretty much useless as public transit (though it might turn out useful in the future for growing Tokyo, but for other reasons).

Public Transit Done Right also involves another detail. And, in the world, I believe we only have Tokyo as a good example. Downtown Montreal is not the result of highways or congestion; it is the result of how Public Transit is planned in the city. There is the saying that all Roads lead to Rome. Well, in Montreal, all buses lead to the subway, and all subways (except the lonely blue line) leads to Berri-UQAM. There is no other center in the city, with public transit. So the further you are from Berri-UQAM, the further you are from Montreal's urbanistic center.

Concentration like this is not a bad thing; only in great concentrations can you have specialized shops like Yodobashi Camera. But, at one point, this leads to people concentrating ever further, if you cannot create other centers. Tokyo is probably the only example in the world where you actually have more than one downtown. And the reason why is because All Paths lead to All Centers. There is almost no difference between going to Tokyo or Shinjuku. Except between the two stations, all other lines eventually lead to both places, even if they are seperated by 5km of more-or-less downtown. And using those two centers, and creating further secondary centers, they created the Yamanote, which leads to having a huge line that works like a whole downtown.

But while Tokyo is an example, I cannot say it is perfect : they stoped at the Yamanote, and they are now going through the same issues as downtown Montreal, except on 10 times the scale. They would have to further develop this grid that leads everywhere you wish, and let it grow even further. (But Tokyo, however, is not an example of economic efficiency; despite have three times the population of London or New York, Tokyo is behind both of them economically; they are doing something wrong, and I have come to witness the things they are doing wrong.)

So, Joraumirc, it is not as simple as "let's create a secondary center in X place", you need paths (notice the plural, it cannot only be coming from downtown) that lead there. Secondary centers will mostly attract less-specialized services, leaving downtown to more specialized services. So if you want a new downtown like Shinjuku, you need to create a new center where all paths (including the current ones) lead there. In Montreal (agglomeration, or city-region), the easiest is Lionel-Groulx. Have the yellow line lead all the way to Lionel-Groulx, and you have your second center.

I could say more, but I am currently at work, so I will leave it to this :)