6 responses so far ↓

• 1 Casey // Nov 29, 2007 at 3:01 am

  I would definitely use the transit system. I lived in Portland for a couple of years, and their tri-met system is fantastic. I bought a monthly pass every month and never used my car. When it works, it is far superior to driving your own car [those people putting on make-up while driving can now do so safely] .. I’m just not convinced yet that it could work in greater b’ham. I do think set of city-center buses and shuttles, confined to a small area, would be wonderful in downtown and in the UAB / Southside area. Also, It would be nice to have extremely frequent buses from Inverness/119 area into downtown during the morning areas, and opposite in the evening.. with some park’n'ride parking lots in the Inverness/119 area.

  But, we Birmingham folk are pretty resistant to change. Or maybe it is that to upper-middle class Birmingham citizens, riding on the bus is the great separator between those with money and those with less money.

• 2 Jeremy // Nov 29, 2007 at 4:56 am

  Transit wouldn’t help me getting to and from work since i live in Bluff Park and take my son to school each morning.

  I have ridden transit before. When the DART was free (is it still free?), I would regularly take it from my office on Morris up to 5 points for lunch or down to the BJCC to buy tickets for events.

• 3 Patrick // Nov 29, 2007 at 4:15 pm

  Since I moved to Five Points in May, I’ve ridden the bus occasionally. I work on 1st Ave N, so I don’t have to transfer, and the bus picks me up two blocks from my house. In the afternoons, I can ride the DART home for a quarter. The bus is more convenient for me than almost anyone else.

  But it still can’t beat my car. Riding the bus requires me to wake up 30 minutes earlier and makes me arrive home a little later. Furthermore, since I only live 2 miles from work, driving costs me $0.25 in gas, while the bus would cost $1.50 roundtrip.

  I want mass transit to work, and I want it to shape development in Birmingham, but it simply isn’t convenient enough to attract anyone with an alternative. Perhaps better funding will help.

  Anyway, there are plans for improving the “spoke” system. Wilbur Smith Associates finished a plan for the BJCTA in July which calls for six or so “superstops” in the Galleria, Five Points West, etc. which could serve as little hubs for transfers. You can read it at http://www.bjcta.org/fileadmin/user_upload/bjcta.org/images/Planning/Comprehensive_Development_Plan_Part1-of_2.pdf.

• 4 steph // Dec 1, 2007 at 3:08 pm

  I would ride the bus, if it went where I was going in a timely manner. I was about to try it once, to pick up my car at the shop, but taking the bus to where I needed to go would have meant waiting for an hour for a transfer, and getting to the shop half an hour after it closed. Oh well.

  Still, if I knew it were dependable and timely, I’d be willing to try.

• 5 Julie // Dec 4, 2007 at 4:21 am

  I would like to be able to ride mass transit. But it would have to be done right. It would have to be time and cost effective. And it would have to include the ENTIRE Birmingham metro area. And it would have to be safe. Not like the bus that I saw last week in Homewood that was caught on fire. I wanted to snap a picture but I was too afraid that the bus was going to explode to stick around.

• 6 Beth Floyd // Jan 4, 2008 at 4:00 pm

  Doubtful

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