First I need to correct a statement in my previous post. It should read:

Am I a good transit planner? There some who would tell me to go to hell. However, many others in the community have been positive including some who wish that I would buy a home in their neighborhood. Other local agencies and some community organizations seek my involvement in their planning efforts.

George Andrews Wrote:
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> I believe it should be mandatory for ALL urban
> planners to ride public transit to & from their
> jobs. Maybe then they would understand how their
> decisions affect so many people.

So urban planners who are primarily involved with roads and parking systems should be required to use public transit?? What about urban planners who have no direct on-going involvement in transportation like community and historic preservation planners???

As for myself, I did not have my first car until I was 29, so I was a transit dependent. Even after getting a car, I frequently rode a bus or walked to my job with the state transportation department.

When I moved to another city to begin work as a transit planner, I continued to be a regular transit rider. I haven't been using transit just to get to and from work. I've also used it to get to and from the airport, Amtrak and Greyhound stations as well as to the hobby shop, medical appointments, to social events, for eating and drinking, dancing, and even on a couple of dates. Whenever, I travel to other cities for business or pleasure, I usually try to use the local transit system to get around. Once in Chicago, I even boarded a bus without knowing where it was going just to ride a GM New Look (or Fishbowl) bus because this type of bus was no longer being used in my city.

Like transit operators everywhere, the transit agency for which I work had to make service reductions. While my work duties do not involve determining which services to cuts, others in my office have been assigned this unpleasant task. Despite what many people choose to believe, all of them are regular users of transit service. They had to make the service cuts, because the politicians who refuse to establish sufficient and dedicated funding for public transportation to maintain existing services - despite reductions in administrative staff, benefits for employees and operational cost savings.