A warm start to the winter season has left the Great Lakes virtually ice-free and with their lowest ice cover to kick off a new year in at least 50 years.
On New Year’s Day, only 0.35% of the Great Lakes were covered in ice, the lowest on record for the date, and well below the historical average of nearly 10% for this point in winter, according to data from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s Great Lakes Environmental Research Laboratory (GLERL).
This year’s missing ice in the Great Lakes adds to a growing trend of winter ailments plaguing the US, from dwindling snowpacks in the West to an ongoing snow drought in the Northeast, all becoming more common due to warming temperatures from the climate crisis.
The reality is that even when it is available, most people don’t use it, because it isn’t actually available in a way that would make it fast, comfortable, and in a way that doesn’t require much thinking. It’s strategically available while remaining useless and that must change before anyone will be able to rely on it.
It’s not even remotely useless where I live. The bus comes every 10 or so minutes during the day, and I just looked at the train schedule and there averages a train about every 40 minutes throughout the day (obviously more clustered around rush hours).
You can always find a reason it’s not convenient enough to use. I know, I’ve done it myself. It doesn’t quite get close to where we’re going, so we would have to walk a bunch or transfer on the other end. It’s faster to drive. It’s cheaper to drive (when there are 4 of us) if I think I can find parking. It’s cold. It’s too hot.
The reality is that it’s almost always going to be more convenient to drive, unless something drastically changes. It’s blame shifting, just like corporations are trying to do.
Lmao I guess sucks to be you if you’re on opening shift.
Don’t worry, I’m not actually taking this personally, but please remember that there is a very wide range of requirements for transport. I would absolutely LOVE to be able to bus to get to my job, but the city buses that I need don’t even start running until my shift starts. Biking would be wildly dangerous, as there is no way to get there while avoiding passing by poorly lit ramps for major highways. Fuck me for that, I guess.
My city also recently made the (dumb imo) decision to cut back on public transit. Now we have a bunch of seniors that have to walk a long ways if they want to take the bus. In some areas, good luck to you if it’s winter. Sometimes the buses will miss those stops altogether, usually without warning. Not great.
My region also completely axed public transportation between cities, without providing a replacement.
If we finally got decent public transportation, you can bet your arse that I would use it again. I do need a job to eat though, and staying alive sounds nice sometimes.
We should point more of this focus and ire at the yackadoodles who insist on removing the option of public transport. I certainly didn’t vote for this shit. It used to be good, and I used to use it daily.
I don’t think I’m being clear. I understand for some people it’s not viable. I am absolutely 100% with you that they should extend public transportation. I’m lucky to have it now, although having it available was a major factor when choosing where to settle down. I have no idea about your situation and am not judging you. I can see how it comes off that way.
I’m just pointing to what the top level poster said: most people would use it if it were available. And I disagree as my experience screams the opposite. Driving has to be inconvenient or stupidly expensive for people to really start making the shift.
The other poster just kept implying that there really is no reasonable public transportation anywhere. In the past (dear god I’m old) almost 30 years, I’ve only lived in a non-walkable, public-transportation free place for 3 years. I know this to be untrue, and I also know it to be untrue that people will all of a sudden give up unnecessarily driving places because they have public transportation. I’ve seen people make the choice countless times to unnecessarily drive.