Transportation

Here are some resources that our speaker, Kay Chase, referred to during her talk on Tues, Feb 1

Kalamazoo Friends of Transit
Friends of Transit for Kalamazoo County, formed in 2005, is an alliance of 49 organizations and 70 individuals that believe public transit is vital for economic growth and community well-being by providing access to jobs, medical care, education, shopping, recreation, religious and civic events.

Mission
To work for the creation of a countywide transit system that will provide accessible, affordable, safe and convenient public transit for all people of Kalamazoo County.

Vision

• Public transit that is available countywide. No one is excluded.
• Public transit that is available 7 days a week, including holidays.
• Public transit that begins and ends at times that give shift workers access to jobs.
• Bus schedules and fare rates posted at every bus stop, with user guides available in public places to make transit easy to use.
• Express routes developed and utilized to promote efficiency.
• A flexible system that responds to change and promotes innovation.
• Regular reports on performance provided to the public.

National Association of Railroad Passengers

The mission of the National Association of Railroad Passengers is to work for a modern, customer-focused national passenger train network that provides a travel choice Americans want.

NARP is the largest national membership advocacy organization for train and rail transit passengers. We have worked since 1967 to expand the quality and quantity of passenger rail in the United States. Our work is supported by around 20,000 individual members.

Membership, which is free, provides discounts on Amtrak travel.


American Public Transportation Association

Vision Statement

APTA is the leading force in advancing public transportation.

Mission Statement

To strengthen and improve public transportation, APTA serves and leads its diverse membership through advocacy, innovation and information sharing. APTA and its members and staff work to ensure that public transportation is available and accessible for all Americans in communities across the country.

APTA Profile

As a member of the American Public transportation Association (APTA), you are part of an international organization that has been representing the transit industry for over 100 years, since 1882.
APTA members serve the public interest by providing safe, efficient and economical transit services, and by improving those services to meet national energy, environmental, and financial concerns. Over ninety percent of passengers using transit in the U.S. and Canada are carried by APTA members.
APTA members are public organizations that are engaged in the areas of bus, paratransit, light rail, commuter rail, subways, waterborne passenger services, and high-speed rail. Members also include large and small companies who plan, design, construct, finance, supply, and operate bus and rail services worldwide. Government agencies, metropolitan planning organizations, state departments of transportation, academic institutions, and trade publications are also part of our membership.
APTA has six different categories of membership, and offers a "Basic option" to certain of those. See the "Membership" link for full description.
APTA members are encouraged to participate in, contribute to, and benefit from a myriad of programs, activities, and services.

In this inconsistent but provocative analysis, James Howard Kunstler, a novelist and journalist, mixes memoir, historical essay and reporting to conden the car-dependent suburbanization of America. Kunstler, who writes ably, casts a very wide net: he finds the roots of American individualism in pre-colonial property ownership, decries the abstracting influence of modernism on city architecture and slams road-builder Robert Moses to support his contention that suburbia is a social environment without soul. He offers an intriguing history of the decline of Saratoga Springs, N.Y., his hometown, describes trips to failing Detroit and well-planned Portland, Ore., and dissects "capitals of unreality" like Disney World and Atlantic City. His worthy but sketchily described solutions--a sustainable economy, better neighborhood development and preservation of the countryside--could, however, each merit a book.

Commuters, here's some food for thought: collectively, Americans spend more than 8 billion hours each year stuck in traffic. This is just one of the horrifying statistics mentioned in Jane Holtz Kay's Asphalt Nation, an eye-opening look at the relationship between Americans and their cars. Kay asserts that the automobile is destroying our communities, our environment, and our economic competitiveness, and her supporting arguments are pretty persuasive. In addition to the billions of hours wasted in gridlock, Kay notes that our daily drives are becoming longer and more frequent, and that increased mileage has nullified any advances in emission controls. Asphalt Nation is comprised of three parts: the first, "Car Glut: A Nation in Lifelock," examines the impact of the automobile culture on life in the United States today. "Car Tracks: The Machine That Made the Land" traces the history of cars from Henry Ford to the present, while "Car Free: From Dead End to Exit" imagines a happier future without automobile dependency. What makes Asphalt Nation far more interesting than the typical anti-auto diatribe is Kay's discussion of the cultural mores that helped create America's current car glut--namely, our attitudes toward land use and growth management; her comparisons between American and European practices in these areas are particularly interesting. Others have written about the American love affair with the automobile, but Holtz revisits the discussion with lively writing and a dramatic narrative.