Whether you are moving to New Orleans for the first time or moving back to the city, chances are you will have to make a few adjustments in lifestyle. For me, after living in Washington, DC, the hardest part of reintegrating into NOLA culture was the transportation. In DC, I had a love affair with the public transit systems, an area where NOLA has always severely slacked. Shifting from a no-car-necessary city back to the drive-at-your-own-risk New Orleans streets left me longing for New Orleans to have a metro of its own and over two years later I still resent having to use a car to get around the city.
In New Orleans, the streetcars serve only to add to the ambiance of the antiquated city, the bus system is less than accessible and/or navigatable and the system as a whole is entirely inefficient. Chances are, if you aren’t a tourist heading to and from the French Quarter, you don’t use the streetcar (well unless you are heading to French Quarter Fest that is). I would also be willing to wager that you don’t ride the bus much either-do you even know where the bus lines take you? Me either.
As a native New Orleanian public transportation always seemed so foreign. None of the bus stops nor streetcar stops were convenient to where I lived nor did they take me anywhere I wanted or needed to go. Even now, after having used public transit as a primary form of transportation elsewhere, I cannot reason why it would be better for me to take the streetcar to work. I can either drive 10 minutes down Carrollton Avenue or ride the streetcar for over an hour and a half transferring somewhere downtown. Taking the bus would be a bit quicker, but only be if the two bus transfers were on time. Of course no one is going to use RTA’s systems unless the absolutely have to, especially if it turns a ten minute car ride into an hour plus commute.
On the East Coast, public transit functions quite differently. The subway systems primarily function as a means to bring the residents between the major city centers-downtown offices, suburban homes (with the exception of Georgetown of course, but I can tell you they are kicking themselves now for banning the metro in their swanky neighborhood), trendy restaurants, shopping centers and sports arenas. Tourist transportation is an afterthought and a bonus feature to many of these mass transit systems. It’s a novel idea that a public transportation system would actually serve the public whose tax dollars pay for it.
These systems work very well in old cities like the ones on the East Coast, where most places of importance are in fairly close proximity to one another. Metro stops provide a quick link between important neighborhoods where parking is scarce. A fifteen-minute car ride plus fifteen minutes spent hunting for parking can easily become a quick and painless metro hop. Public transportation is simply more convenient for the city lifestyle.
Let’s face it, parking in New Orleans is not a dream scenario either and as an older city like New York, Chicago and DC, NOLA is also spatially equipped to create an effective form of mass transit. Old American cities were originally built in very tight grids so that individuals may walk or ride horses between destinations. Evidence of a horseback version of NOLA is still seen across the city in hitching posts and water troughs. Since these areas were originally accessible via horse, a subway system can now step in place of the old saddle, bringing NOLA into the 21st century.
Okay, okay. A subway system may be far from reasonable in a city that is as far below sea level as Atlantis. However, a subway is not the only efficient form of public transit used in great American cities. Chicago utilizes an above ground light rail system that functions in a similar manner to a subway and I can foresee something of this nature, a light rail system with cars designed to look like the old streetcar, working in a city like New Orleans, especially with the ample neutral ground space on many of the cities major thoroughfares.
Aside from the convenience factor of it all, mass transit would serve to alleviate a number of social problems the city has battled for years: obesity, drinking and driving, high car insurance rates, increasingly limited parking and not to mention in today’s world would address the growing costs of gas and be an effort towards the current trend in green initiatives. Can New Orleans realistically address many of these issues without a more efficient form of public transportation?
All rational thinking aside, functioning public transit systems add energy and life to an urban landscape. They breathe life into the quite streets by putting people on foot. They connect the citizens under one common experience. With the influx of young professionals in the Crescent City in these post-Katrina times, many people living in NOLA today are not only comfortable using public transportation, but would prefer use it. With the energy and momentum from the younger generation, now is the time for the city to revolutionize the mass transit system, putting NOLA on the map of the United States most youthful and vibrant cities while addressing many of the issues that directly face the cities residents.
Patricia Alexander
4 comments
Cate says:
Dec 14, 2011
I agree that public transit can be inconvenient in NOLA, but it isn’t nonexistent. Part of the reason why the RTA is inconvenient for your lifestyle is that it is organized around the Central Business District (CBD), which is why the majority of bus and streetcar transfers happen in that area. I take the streetcar every day to work, and let me tell you, there are a lot of people on it that are not tourists. Same with the Claiborne bus, the Jackson-Esplanade bus, the Freret bus, etc.. I’ll concede that the system can be confusing and that the infrastructure does not keep pace with other cities–but I’ve never had a rude or uninformed RTA driver. I spent a week in Seattle this year, and while their bus system was widespread and had adequate signage (buses ran every 10 or 20 minutes, with timetables and routes posted at every stop), it was STILL confusing.
Public transportation takes longer, except in extremely congested cities. It might take me 30 minutes on the streetcar (as long as it would take me to walk to work, and about double the time it would take me to drive and park), but I can also read, write, or daydream during that time. I don’t have to assume liability for any traffic accidents, I don’t have to pay attention to traffic, and I don’t have to watch my step.
Finally, we have one of the least expensive public transportation systems around. Again, the single bus fare in Seattle was more than double our current fare. While public transportation is useful to help drivers save money on gas (and protect the environment) or to be able to drink without driving, it also has to serve the one-third of NOLA’s population who don’t have cars. Certainly, we shouldn’t pass increased costs on to the most vulnerable members of our society solely for others’ convenience. A light-rail system, or greatly improved infrastructure for our current RTA, would necessitate a steep fare hike.
I agree that the RTA could certainly be improved, but a light rail system won’t change the fact that it will certainly always be faster or more convenient for some people to drive. If people are unwilling to even try to learn the currently existing transit system (which, while not perfect, is actually functional and used to the tune of 12 million rides per year), then why spend millions of dollars creating a new system? You can’t bring the mountain to Mohammed.
Brooke says:
Dec 15, 2011
Agree. Public transit in this city is less than perfect, but it works great for me! In the long run I save money and live with considerably less stress because of the RTA.
Rene says:
Dec 14, 2011
I 100% agree.
George says:
Dec 15, 2011
If they can just connect s.carrolton to n.carrolton, that will help alot.