This just in from Jane McGonigal (otherwise known as mPathyTest) who’s in New York for the Stories From The Near Future conference: an article in the New York Times titled “Gas Prices Send Surge of Riders To Mass Transit.” Apparently, gas prices are motivating people to take transit in record numbers, catching transit planners by surprise. “Nobody believed that people would actually give up their cars to ride public transportation,” says the executive director of the South Florida Regional Transportation Authority. “The whole NYT article reads like a KalWithoutOil report,” Jane says.
The biggest surges are occurring in metro areas in the South and West – the very strongholds of American driving culture. The article says Denver ridership is up 8%, for example, and several routes now run at capacity at rush hour.
Now this is no surprise to WWO players. Player Ararejul explicated this very situation in her video posted from Denver, titled “Is Public Transportation Ready?” Posted over a year ago, I might add. “This was the first thing our players predicted and documented when gas hit $4 a gallon,” Jane notes. “Dude, WWO seriously worked as a forecasting device.” One that looked not to the past for answers, nor to experts, but to the future and the collective imagination.
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May 13, 2008 at 9:32 am
PeakProphet
It really does feel like Deja vu. Do you remember one of my first videos, the one from the farmer’s market where I interviewed Hank Delvin who quit his regular job to work on his dad’s farm? Well last Saturday as we were talking he said something really interesting, which I will paraphrase:
“Wow, so a year ago, this guy comes up to me and interviews me for a documentary about high gas prices, fuel costs and such. Now a year later, here we are talking about it again… it’s like you knew exactly what was going to happen.” He pauses thoughtfully for a moment… “You know, there’s no way we can make up the difference with biofuels. There’s no way we can switch to electric power for everything. And… the planet really can only support a billion people.” He looks off into the distance as the words hang heavy in the air.
“I know…” I said somberly.
May 13, 2008 at 2:53 pm
cathi stegall
I’m here.
And I’m w/ you.
May 13, 2008 at 3:25 pm
Ararejul
Oh wow! I come to check out the latest posts and see that story that was even from Denver. Creepy.
I actually work downtown now and have a monthly pass but that only saves me about 10 dollars over buying a ticket every day.
The only good thing I think that is coming from this is that the city is finally noticing that they need to step up their efforts to making public transit more practical.
ps. i also have the video you linked on youtube (and it might be better quality too) :