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Transportation
Transportation: the word
means lots of things. It can mean
walking, driving, flying, sailing, taking the train or public bus. It even has a complete other meaning when
examined in the context of Star Trek.
If you are a potential
homebuyer, what it means to you is very important. The transportation option
for the state, city, neighborhood and even street can all drastically alter the
value of any prospective property.
First we will examine car
transportation and what you should be looking for when you choose a residential
location to purchase a home. The
following is a list of the top ten best and worst driving cities in the United
States. The reasons for their ranking
should offer some insight as to what is important.
CARS AND ROADS
The 10 Most Drivable Cities
1.
Corpus Christi, TX
2.
Brownsville-Harlingen-San Benito, TX
3.
Beaumont-Port Arthur, TX
4.
Pensacola, FL
5.
Fort Myers-Cape Coral, FL
6.
Oklahoma City, OK
7.
Birmingham, AL
8.
El Paso, TX
9.
Memphis, TN
10.
Tulsa, OK
The 10 Least Drivable Cities
1. Los Angeles-Long Beach,
CA
2. San Francisco, CA
3. Chicago, IL
4. Denver, CO
5. Boston, MA
6. Oakland, CA
7. Detroit, MI
8. New York, NY
9. Seattle-Bellevue-Everett,
WA
10. Washington, D.C
The Variables that
were used to determine these rankings
Weather
Poor weather can hamper your
transportation. For instance,
areas with cold weather, snow, or lots of rain all scored poorly. Both because drive times are longer,
but also because the chance of car related injury was higher.
The wether can also effect how long your
automobile is going to last. Rainy
seattle for instance, is a city full of rusty cars, while relatively dry
Texas can sustain an old car for a long time. This also greatly effects resale value.
Drive Time
To give you an idea about the massive difference
drive times are for different Americans.
A resident of Brownsville Texas, our number 2 selection, will spend
an average of 5 hours a year stuck in traffic.
The national average is 62 hours a year.
Los Angeles, the city made the top of the
‘worst’ list almost solely due to traffic, the average person will spend
136 hours a year stuck in traffic.
So just think about how valuable your free time is. If you could be working during that
time and you were making $17 an hour, you could have made $2312 extra
dollars.
Gas Prices
Obviously the price of gas does not affect the
length of your commute or the weather.
Unless of course you drive to another state, with a different
climate, to get cheaper gas.
The most expensive prices for gas that we found
were $2.20 a gallon. This was
found most often in California, and some places in the northeast. Texas, being the gas producing center
of America, had the lowest gas prices in the country. This partly helped out Texas top three,
to reach a high ranking.
Road Quality
The quality of the road can have an affect much
more grave than the smoothness of your ride. If your car is constantly driving on poor roads, you will go
through more tires and you will need tune-ups more often.
The road quality can affect your drive time as
well. If the roads are bad than
there is a larger chance of accidents, and gridlock. Also, you cannot really drive too fast
on a road that has potholes.
Driver Safety
While you may be a safe driver, the guy in the
lane next to you might not be.
Part of the criteria for this survey was driving fatalities per
automobile, number of accidents and severity of accident.
A larger police presence can lower these stats,
but often speeding and reckless driving is more of a social
phenomenon. For instance, cities
with a younger population tend to have more diving fatalities, and the culture
of some cities simply endorses fast driving. You should really ask the locals what they think of driving
safety in the city
While this is not a
condemnation or endorsement for any of these cities, it should serve as a
reminder that transportation can vary greatly from city to city, and this will
not only affect the price of your home, it will affect the quality of your
life.
BUSES AND TRAINS
People often assume that the
interests of public transit and cars are different. This is a fallacy. Cars
need buses and trains just as much as buses and trains need cars. In the public discourse these two are often
pitted against each other and are forced to compete for attention and
funding.
City planners tend to be a
little more rational. They know that
cars need busses to keep the street free of traffic, and buses need cars to
make clean safe roads an American priority.
It is a fact that the
America is car crazy. Our dependence on
cars has risen sharply in the past two decades. This is having an affect not only on the drivers, but
everybody. Communities are shaped
differently, retail stores have been replaced by big box stores. You know what I mean.
There are good arguments
that endorse both systems, but it is a fact that the car is here to stay for at
least the next century. This means that
public transit will face a massive crunch.
A crunch that is already being felt.
Here are some stats:
47% of locations in America are not accessible
by public transit.
91.7% of American households have access to at
least one automobile.
8.3% of households have access to the subway.
50% of households are not within a quarter mile
of a public transit stop.
99% of Americans have access to paved roads.
52% of all public transit trips are trips to
work.
20% of all car trips are trips to work.
The U.S. Population has increased by 65 million
workers since 1965
The total number of transit commuters has
decreased from 7.8 million to 6.5 million in that time.
This may seem like a gloomy
forecast for public transit. But there
is hope. There are some encouraging
numbers that have come out recently that show that when competitive, people
favor public transit 3 to 1 over the automobile.
Also, Americas population is
growing older. Many seniors are not
permitted to drive, or they simply prefer not to. Their need could spur growth in public transit. Tomorrow’s seniors will generally be more
active, and more willing to leave their homes, and the chances are they will do
so using public transit.
Another fact is that buses account
for 62% of all public transit trips.
Therefore, quality road and decongested traffic are just as important
for bus drivers as it is for car owners.
When you are evaluating the
transportation in the city make sure you use these entire variable in to
consideration. You don’t want to be a
homeowner stuck in a city you can’t get out of, due to a traffic jam.
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