Imagine 90% Public Transit Usage?!
Imagine if almost everyone used transit in your city
If you look at most cities in North America, it’s the personal car that rules the road. Urban planning, roads, housing, shopping—everything is centered on people driving their cars places. But Hong Kong is different, 9 out of every 10 trips in Hong Kong are on public transit. Public transit from bus to rail to ferry is how people get around.
Think about what your neighborhood would look like if most people took transit and walked most everywhere. Supermarkets, schools, and services all be intermixed with housing. Building massive malls and industrial parks far from where people live wouldn’t make sense. What you’d get would probably be like the 15 minute walkable city. Which is exactly what transit oriented development delivers.
Adam Leishman has led transit operations in London, Singapore, and now Hong Kong. In conversation with Paul, Adam reflects on his experiences in those cities and what it’s like running a bus company in a city where a new bus is a big event and transit CEOs are like rock stars.
Paul and Adam also talk about how contracting works in these amazing cities and Hong Kong’s unique subsidy-free transit model.
Finally, Adam talks about some of the steps needed to encourage people to use transit more and cars less. Adam puts his money where his mouth is to promote transit over cars. He hasn’t owned a car for eight years and relies on transit for the majority of his trips. Now that’s a commitment to transit!
Coming up next week on Transit Unplugged: Lunch with Leon featuring Paul Comfort and Simon Reed
Paul doesn’t just work on Transit Unplugged, he’s a guest on other podcasts too. Next week we bring you one of those appearances—the Lunch with Leon podcast. Lunch with Leon is hosted by long-time transit thought leader Leon Daniels, and on this episode he talks about Paul’s new book The New Future of Public Transportation along with Paul and Simon Reed (one of the 30 contributors to the book).
Make sure you follow us wherever you listen to podcasts so you don’t miss this episode.
Ferries are a big part of transit around the world????
Around the world, ferries are an integral part of transit. From the Staten Island Ferry to Vancouver, Hong Kong, and London, pretty much anywhere there are people separated by water, boats get people across from place to place. Halifax’s passenger-only ferry is the oldest salt water ferry in North America and one of only two ferries tied to transit in Canada (the other being Vancouver).
There is something special about taking a ferry. Wind, salt air, the light on the waves, it all makes for a really nice commute. Halifax has open top ferries so people can enjoy their trip across the harbor. According to the head of Halifax Transit Dave Reage, they have more riders on the ferries in the summer than winter. If you’ve ever experienced winter in the Maritimes, you can understand why.
Have a favorite ferry system? Let us know! Reply to the email (or leave a comment on LinkedIn) and tell us.
