They Are Transit

I spoke with two of my neighbors last night at a party, whom I've never met before and who both are RT drivers. We had a great exchange about transit and of course I offered all my viewpoints that I broadcast here on my monologues about urban design, how low density sprawl makes it virtually impossible for any viable transit scheme, and how subsidization of transit is perceived by everyone else as something to be eliminated.

One interesting thing is that they have to drive their cars to their buses as they can't take transit (they are transit!).

They didn't have any disagreement with my observations, and indeed, they told me they really didn't even think about such things, anyway. "Why aren't there other people walking around in our neighborhoods?" Perhaps it's because there are no viable destinations, that things are so spread out to buy a pack of gum requires a heroic 4.5 mile round trip, that streets are curvilinear offering nothing of interest to the eye, only a curving strip of the same housal unit after housal unit.

And, after eleven years of living on adjacent streets together, why did it take me so long to meet them?

Because I have no reason to be walking down their street, and vice versa. We both have front porches, but both are rarely used and rarer still would there be neighbors walking on the sidewalks willing to stop and chat.

Our suburban conditions in our nation, while on the surface appear safe, clean, and wholesome, offer a social pathology underneath their exteriors that aren't often exposed, but they are there. Extreme auto dependency and perpetual motoring and the inability to meet other neighbors due to isolation and lack of a common good, a civic/public realm.

I should hope it won't take another 11 years to meet other good neighbors...