In a Big Shocker, Bus and Rail Use Is Up in L.A.

As everyone knows, I'm a big fan of public transportation, and I remember the huge spike in rail use after the 1994 earthquake—how it was about to permanently transform life in Southern California. Since then our rail lines have expanded drastically—in smart ways, and some that weren't so smart.

But largely we've gone back to our old ways, for the obvious reasons that (1) at the time it was easier to listen to the radio in one's own car [this was in the pre-iPod era]; (2) it's a lot easier to go grocery shopping on the way home if you have a car to drop by the supermarket in; (3) without a car, how does one get to the dry cleaners on the way to work, or take a late lunch to go to the dentist's office?

So most of us will still need cars, even if we use them less—just on errand-days, or appointment-days.

And here it is again: a huge increase in the use of SoCal public transportation, propelled by insane prices that commuters are able to sidestep to some degree (though only in some ways related to the direct prices of gasoline—not in the rising commodity prices that are driven [pun intended] by higher fuel costs).

And hidden deep inside the Los Ageles Times article lies is the tale o f a restaurant worker who spends an hour and a half getting to his job in Koreatown, versus the 30 minutes it took him to get there by car.

I'm one of the lucky ones: I can read in trains and buses. But I hope that others learn to do it, too. And if this is part of our solution to Energy Crisis 2.0, I hope we get cooking on mobile web access: that'll be key to putting the time to good use.

And, please: can we make 'em faster? Please?

It isn't just in SoCal, either: it's the entire country that's re-thinking transportation. Definitely something to think about as we drill off the coasts, drill in ANWR, build more nuclear power plants, expand our refining capacity, increase the use of natural gas, and improve battery technology and biofuel efficiency.

Link for the L.A. Times article via the California Energy Blog; second link (FuturePundit) via Insty.