Why Car Enthusiasts Should Support Public Transportation

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I don’t ride the bus. I only rarely take a train, and that is after a 45 minutes drive to the train station. I do walk some places, but I don’t even own a bicycle. The fact of the matter is that 99% of the time, when I have to go somewhere, I drive there. And I love driving. Most of the time.

See, I live in Northeastern America, specifically, the state of Connecticut. Connecticut is among the wealthiest and most densely-populated areas of the United States, and you would think that would mean we’d have access to some of the best public transportation offerings not just in the country, but in the world.

But we don’t.

To say that our public transportation system is paltry is an understatement nearly as huge as the gaping hole in our public transportation options. I live in New Britain, about ten miles from the state capital, Hartford. The main route for getting between Hartford and New Britain is the I-84 corridor…which is regularly voted one of the most congested sections of highway in the USA.

During rush hour, morning and night, it becomes a virtual parking lot for the 175,000+ automobiles that make the daily commute. For a state with an entire popular of just 3 million people, that is a significant chunk of the population on a highway that is functionally obsolete, and is already a decade beyond its intended lifespan. It is also a veritable case study of “don’ts” when it comes to highway construction, with narrow choke points (from six lanes to two in the space of a mile), lots of left hand exits, lots of steep elevation changes, and nary a straight corridor to be found. That is to say, we’re driving on a roller coaster of an old, decrepit highway that was intended to only carry about half as many cars as it currently does. It’s not exactly conducive to an enjoyable drive.

By now you’re probably wondering what any of this has to do with European Mobility Week. As somebody who loves cars (particularly classic American muscle) and loves driving (it calms me down and helps me sort out my life from time to time) I’m not exactly in the best position to speak on public transportation, especially on a continent I have only experienced through literature and textbooks.

What I can attest to, however, is my longing for a better public transportation system here in America. For my own selfish reasons, of course.

You see, for every person who takes the bus, or walks, or rides a bike to work, it means one less car on the road. And traffic congestion is a universal problem, not relegated to America (though we’ve certainly perfected the art of rubbernecking and poor driving habits.)

So this piece probably isn’t for you. It’s for your family member, or your friend, or a colleague at work who absolutely abhors public transportation. This is for the people who actively go out of their way to block public transportation initiatives, like a small but very vocal group of anti-advocates who are trying to block a proposed rapid busway transit system between Hartford and New Britain.

This busway will carry an estimated 16,000 riders a day, and remove approximately 5,000 cars from I-84 during rush hour, if the projections are to be believed. This busway comes with a hefty cost; nearly $600 million. But the trip between Hartford and New Britain would take only 20 minutes even during rush our, and a dedicated roadway would allow buses to completely bypass I-84…while providing a psychological ribbing to those suckers still stuck in their cars.

I say suckers because, as much as I love driving, I hate traffic. It really ruins the whole freedom of the open road that I find so appealing. And I am absolutely, 100% in favor of (nearly) any project that gets people who don’t love driving out of their cars, off of the roads and out of my way. 

So because of our lack of options, most of us Americans are locked into our cars as our primary mode of transportation. And that sucks for the people for whom congested commuting has ruined the driving experience. I don’t have a commute, so I am still able to enjoy getting into my car. I feel for these people though, and I know if I can just get them off the road, they will be happier, and I won’t have to deal with their awful driving.

Because at the end of the day, the fewer people there are driving, the more open road is left to us true believers in the driving experience. That is a goal we should all agree on. 

Chris DeMorro is a freelance writer and gearhead who loves all cars, from hybrids to HEMI's, and Managing Editor of Gas2.org, an alternative fuels blog where he explores a future without oil.

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