Being
from New York City and not owning a car for the longest time I cannot help but
compare the public transportation infrastructure between New York City and Phoenix.
Many of you would think that comparing transportation set up in the two cities
is like comparing apples and oranges. I agree with you on that however, I would
simply like to juxtapose the two infrastructural set ups and take a note of
their similarities as well as differences.
First
of all, I’ll acknowledge the obvious that the massive, widely connected subway
system simply cannot be applied to the spread out landscape of Phoenix. Due to
widely dispersed dense population pockets it is not economically viable to set
up a light rail or subway infrastructure throughout the valley. Setting up bus
routes is not very cost effective for the same reason but cheaper compared to
building subways. The question of public transportation development in Phoenix
and Arizona continues to confound politicians and leaders alike. There is no
straight answer to this problem but continuous evaluation of options in
necessary to make progress in this area.
I took a sustainability class that covered some of the problems relating to public transportation in Phoenix. There definitely is no quick and easy solution to this issue because of how spread out the Valley is. It would be nice, though, if the light rail was expanded to go more places. I think this is in the works, but there will still be many areas of the Valley that will not be reached by light rail service.
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