For this posting, assume your efforts to change attitudes about alternate forms of transportation were successful. With a change in attitude came a change in behavior. Further assume for this posting that, thanks to your marketing campaign, one out of two Lubbock residents switched from driving alone in a personal car to car pooling, biking, riding a motorcycle or scooter, taking the bus, etc. What would be the effect on Lubbock’s economy? How would the city look, feel, and sound different?
Rachel H already argued that additional parking lots will be built as result of more people riding the bus. As mayor, I could designate that all retailers including malls must set aside a portion of their parking for commuter spots. This regulation would be in effect during working hours so as not to inconvience shoppers. The Wal-Mart on 4th and Frankford already performs this service.
What other changes would happen if 50% of the cars were removed from the streets? Would Lubbock boast the same business mix? The same density? What business segments would beneift? What business segments would falter?
9 responses so far ↓
glennr1 // March 19, 2007 at 9:11 am |
First of all there would be a large reduction in the traffic that seems to plague Lubbock. If people made it enough of a habit, overall the city’s citizens would have more money to spend that they weren’t buying gas or paying toward car maintenance. This in turn could lead to small specialty shops having more customers than usual. People might also be willing to go somewhere if they don’t have to drive to it. This would certainly favor smaller retailers that aren’t able to have an enormous parking lot. It’s hard to see how this would work if it were only enforced during the 9-5 working day, the people driving to and from work wouldn’t notice much of a change.
rscott2 // March 25, 2007 at 5:01 pm |
I don’t see what the big deal is. Lubbock doesn’t have a parking lot problem. It doesn’t have a traffic problem. People who think so have never driven in Dallas or Houston, where it takes an hour and a half to get five miles home at 5 o’clock. Texas Tech does, however, have a parking problem because it sells more parking permits than actual spaces it has available. In a perfect world, if everyone who bought a permit came to school on the same day, each and every one should be able to find a spot, and get what they paid for. I didn’t spend money to have to walk fifteen minutes to the rec because some sporting event is taking place and the parking lot attendents are charging $5 parking admission. I already paid for that spot.
carlym2 // March 28, 2007 at 9:19 am |
As good as it would be for the environment in Lubbock and surrounding cities, the likelihood of eliminating 50% of the cars in our town is looking very slim. However; if this phenomenon did happen, we would see a lot less pollution in the air. (The dust will always be there though.) One market segment that would benefit from this is stores that sold sporting goods. A lot of people would need to purchase bikes, tennis shoes, skates, sporting apparel…etc. People would need and want to purchase all different kinds of sports gear to get to their work or other destinations. There would also be a lot more available parking spots. This would benefit the parking situation that almost every student of Texas Tech has encountered. In my opinion, if we eliminated 50% of the cars in Lubbock, the city would see great outcomes.
carlisl1 // March 28, 2007 at 10:58 am |
i think traffic and cars all over the roads is an epidemic everywhere, not just in Lubbock! i do agree that car-pooling is a great idea and we should all participate! i think it would be a lot easier to do this if the bus system was more readily available to everyone. It only goes down certain streets and on certain routes which makes it hard to be somewhere on time or even know which bus to take. Maybe as an extra credit, professors should encourage their students to take the bus for a day and see how it goes! that right there could almost eliminate 30,000 student vehicles off the Lubbock roads! Students will do almost anything for a few extra points and i think this would be a good way to familiarize the student body with the bus system and also inform us on how to use it! my other concern is this; even though there is a lot of traffic and you are constantly waiting in a long line of cars to get almost anywhere, i do not believe that it is solely due to cars alone! Lubbock construction teams have torn up almost every road surrounding the Tech campus along with many other streets making it even more difficult to get around quickly! Lubbock is not a very big place and to have as much traffic as we do is largely due to immense amounts of contruction! while i do think it would be good for the environment to eliminate 50% of the cars off the roads, we should think about the environment when we are crowding every open space with cement trucks and dozers emitting much more polution than any one car!
kkovacic // April 9, 2007 at 7:55 pm |
If people adopted alternate forms of transportation a lot of changes could come of that. Firstly, a noticeable reduction in the traffic and more parking spots available to those who still decide to drive themselves. People could save a lot of gas money. This would also mean more business for restaurants that would be within a walking distance of the campus or on campus. It could be that more people would decide to purchase a bike.
However, bottom line is Lubbock is not really struggling with a traffic problem, compared to some other cities. And to think that students could be persuaded to use a bike instead is quite unrealistic. I think a lot of people are willing to pay the high price of gas and bad parking situation for the comfort of driving their own car.
rossc1 // April 11, 2007 at 5:01 pm |
In all honesty, I think that taking away 50% of personal vehicle travel and using more group based travel around Lubbock would ultimately hurt the city financially. In many instances, I make unplanned stops and purchases that I happened to remember as I was passing by. For example f in a carpool, you cannot just ask the driver to pull over to a supermarket while you go inside and they wait. Many retailers that sell multiple consumer goods such as Wal-mart would be hurt by this effort. Sure, the city would feel and sound different with fewer cars on the road. While there would be fewer cars, buses tend to make more noise than the average car, and would in essence probably create a more noisy roadway. On the other hand, I do think that this is a good initiative overall as it would decrease pollution and not make the roadways so crowded at times. It would definitely be an adaptation that many would have to make.
codyj002 // April 18, 2007 at 6:53 pm |
If 50% of the traffic were removed from Lubbock, the economy would suffer horribly. Fast food establishments like Wendy’s and McDonalds would suffer from the lack of traffic around their restaurant. Convenience stores like 7-Eleven make most of their profits from the items they sell inside not by their gas. If people were carpooling, the impulse items would fall greatly. People cannot just tell the people in their car pool to pull over and wait while they order a coffee at Starbucks. The environment would benefit from the fewer cars but the inconvenience made by the busses would discourage me from ever wanting to adapt to it. I think that automakers should be held more responsible and forced to raise the miles per gallon on their vehicles. The economy of Lubbock would not benefit in any way from fewer people driving. How inconvenient would it be to carry items that you recently purchased on a bus? Some people may not purchase certain items due to embarrassment they may feel on the bus. Examples may include condoms diapers or other novelty items.
erich1 // April 19, 2007 at 10:43 pm |
I agree with the above posting that Lubbock of all places does not have a traffic problem. We may lack better drivers, but I would rather wait five extra minutes at a Lubbock stoplight than set aside five minutes before I went anywhere to determine the best way to get from point A to point B. But to the matter at hand, the pump would suffer the most. With everyone piling into one car, that would leave multiple other tanks to not be filled (which at $50 a tank, that adds up quickly). While this could lead to benefits from business such as the fast food restaurants in Lubbock. Instead of getting one person ordering food per car, you would have up to as many as say seven people ordering per car. That also adds up after each car passes through. This could lead to a higher mix of group related industries while cutting down on the amount of gas stations on the corners of Lubbock’s streets. It goes without saying that it would cut down on the amount of cars driving through these ever-lasting construction sites on our streets therefore reducing whatever traffic there may be. It may also make the current construction pointless seeing as we would not need the extra room for more cars.
risam1 // April 20, 2007 at 5:47 pm |
If 50% of the cars were removed from the streets, the environment will be better. US is the largest producer of greenhouse gas emission in the world. People should be more aware of global warming. President Bush denied to join Kyoto. He said that global warming prevention will hurt US economy. I personally do not agree that Kyoto will hurt economy at all. Solar cars, Magnetic levitation trains, and other eco transportation is already available in other countries like Japan, Germany, and Canada. Many people use solar energy to use hot water and heat up houses in Japan and European countries. It does not mean we cannot drive when we don’t have gasoline cars. What is technology for? We have so many options without feeling so incovenient. However, it is true that the government sometimes does not give us the options. I agree that petroleum industory will be hurt when people no longer drive with gasoline. If people do not drive and ride bycicles instead, we will be able to solve obesity problem as well.
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