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Oct
12
KC has nation’s highest transportation costs
October 12, 2006 |
Our community’s leaders love to tout that we have the most freeway miles of any city in the country, often as an argument that it’s easy to get around the city. However, that supposed bragging right has a big down side when you factor in the hidden costs of all that sprawl.
A new national study shows that KC has the highest per-household transportation costs of any city in the country. In addition to relentless sprawl, our transportation costs are driven up by the highest rate of automobile commuting and the lowest rates of public transit, bicycle, and pedestrian commuting. That shiny new crackerbox in Grain Valley, Kearney, or Gardner might be cheap up front, but the long term cost of a more expensive commute ultimately makes it much costlier.
Most Kansas Citians certainly love their cars, and they pay dearly for it. In fact, the average Kansas Citian spends more of their income on transportation than all other Americans, even more than what they spend on housing. We spend 33% of our incomes on transportation vs. 23% on housing. In other words, we spend more on our cars than on our homes.
- NPR: No Affordable Housing Payoff
- Missouri Bicycle Federation: Kansas City has highest per household transportation costs
- Full report from the Center for Housing Policy
Comments
19 Comments so far
Great informational post. This study should wake some people up.
Hopefully, we are coming in to a new age of enlightenment and we will see the people of KC DEMAND a better transportation system - one that isn’t so dependent on cars.
My thoughts:
1. Less sprawl and more condensed urban areas (downtown is getting there?) with more shops in walking distance.
2. Better bus system and perhaps a light rail system?
3. Make room on the roads for bicylists and stop treating them like lepers.
My first hose was in the burbs. I commuted to work everyday in bumper-to-bumper traffic, and usually arrived at work every day with raw nerves.
I moved to Hyde Park in April 2005. In October of that year I started taking the bus to work. In the year since, I’ve saved approximately $1500 because of lower insurance, less gas, and no parking fees. I get to exercise every day, and I get forty minutes of reading that my very busy schedule normally wouldn’t allow. I’ve read more books in the last year than in the previous three.
Last week I discovered a new deli at 2801 Holmes. One morning I walked to it from my house, and had the most amazing quiche that I’ve ever had for breakfast. Afterwards, I walked three blocks west and caught my bus to work. I can’t remember the last time I entered the office in such a good mood.
Does the city have problems? Yes it does. But for sixty years now, affluent American’s have followed a pattern of moving farther out and building something new in order to get away from the problems of the city. But this ultimately fails. The post-WWII suburbs are starting to look like inner-city neighborhoods did in the seventies and eighties. This suggests to me that the problems of the city eventually follow you to the burbs.
So what choice does that leave you with? Fight or flight. Fight: get involved. Attend your neighborhood association meetings. Volunteer at a non-profit. Flight: bigger yard. Bigger house. Farther out. I chose fight. I chose community involvement over flight to a bigger McMansion. I’m hapier and healthier for it.
KC has highest transportation costs…
“Most Kansas Citians certainly love their cars, and they pay dearly for it. In fact, the average Kansas Citian spends more of their income on transportation than all other Americans, even more than what they spend on housing. We spend 33% of our …
Accept the facts; Kansas Citians are lazy, fat, & arrogant! Their so worried about making a social statement of how cool they are and better than the other person that they have lost all their common sense! Just look at the way they drive, at the people they choose to run their community, that football team that is suppose to be pro! Compared to other cities your size & larger your not cool your a joke!
I don’t know what city you are living in Mark, but in Kansas City we know that in the your last sentence, you should have spelled “your” as “you’re”.
As in the sentence:
“You’re not very proficient with grammar”
Also, please don’t paint all Kansas Citians with one big broad brush.
Pitiful, ChrisM70. If your only counter-arguement you have against Mr. Braun’s statements is to criticize his grammar you have no arguement. OTOH, I agree that Kansas Citians should not be so generally portrayed just as the fine people of Gardner dseserve better respect from BlogKC. There are crackerboxes and fine mansions in both municipalities mentioned in this thread. People have numerous reasons for living where they do and certainly, transporta\tion costs are often a priority. These types of decisions, however, are too complex to be wholey accredited towards only one variable. Unfortunately, depth of analysis has never been one of BlogKC’s strongpoints.
Lemming,
Calling all Kansas Citians, “lazy fat & arrogant” is NOT an argument.
Does complaining about “that football team that is suppose (sic) to be pro” actually add analysis of this post’s issue of transportation costs? Nope.
As a matter of fact, there is nothing to argue in his post, just insults and missspellings. Now THAT is pitiful.
ChrisM70 is right. The post he was responding to made no real point.
*sigh*
Chris…. Still want to stand by those Chiefs?
Why lower yourself to pettiness W/ regards to MR. Braun’s generalizations? is Kansas City not often listed high on national polls covering obesity rates? Can the area’s reluctance to adopt a more accepting attitude towards mass transit and less a reliance on the personal automobile not be considered a sign of community laziness? Good enough question I think. Sure they are generalizations. Prove them wrong rasther than dismissing them for what are nothing more than poor editorial practice. Such behavior rarely promotes real dialogue or debate. I, for one, find genuine discourse much more interesting then petty snarkiness.
Lemming, are you ok?
You are yelling at me for posting “petty snarkiness” when I was just responding to pointless ranting.
With that said, let me respond to your post:
1. I never said that I stood by (or against the Chiefs). It’s not really relevant.
2. I didn’t lower myself to argue his generalizations. I just said that he wasn’t really making any arguments in his rant, and that his spelling was terrible.
3. Yes, KC is an overweight city. Did I say I condone this? Did I say I disputed it? I did neither.
4. Is lack of mass transit a sign of the city’s laziness? Perhaps. But again, this question wasn’t raised until YOU just raised it. I never said that this wasn’t a possibility. You are jumping to conclusions.
5. “Prove them wrong rasther (sic) than dismissing them…”
I’ll say this one more time: These questions weren’t raised, so I didn’t need to prove them wrong. Also, if you are going to make a point, how about backing them up with statistics or facts?
6. Does YOUR post add to this discourse, or are you just being petty and snarky? Why don’t YOU prove these generalizations RIGHT?
Way to go, Chris! In trying to take me down you have proven much of what Mr. Braun so crudely expressed.
If only your concern for my well being was sincere. Nonetheless, I am on the mend from a severely broken wrist and the subsequent surgery. So please excuse any typos due to my left-handed condition plus a percocet addled mind. ;-p
Pouint-by-point…
1. Exactly! The Chiefs are fairly irrellevant. Certainly explains why you bothered at all with responding to that parfticular missive. But when you do respond you respond with some irrellevant point about grammar. Pot meet kettle. Kettle meet pot.
2. Picking on his spelling *is* lowering yourself to Mr. Braun’s level,IMNSHO. (I’ll get to the generalizations next.)
3. Generalized, you agree that Kansas Citians are fat.
4. Generalized, you concede that KC’s lack of supp[ort for better mass transit can be seen as laziness. To be quite clear, I did not bring up this concept. It was introduced by Mr. Braun and was part of your direct response to his statements before I discussed the issue.
3 + 4 = Fat and lazy. How is Mr. Braun’s statement innaccurate. It was not intended as an arguement but rather a decleration. Plus, why should I prove a point that you have accepted as fact?
5. Again, Mr. Braun raised these issues. I merely took the ball and ran.
6. I was seeking to promote civil discourse. That should have been obvious enough. What did *your* post have to offer to the discussion? I need to prove nothing.
Despite all that… Did you see the recent report that people, on average, are undertaking longer and longer commutes? Also mentioned in the study was a dramatic increase in tele-commuters.
Let me state this one more time:
Calling all Kansas Citians fat,lazy and arrogant is not making a point. It’s name calling.
Is it true SOME Kansas Citians are fat? Yes. Lazy? Probably. Arrogant? I’m sure there are some of those too.
However, I didn’t say that Kansas Citians were fat. I said that KC is an overweight city - I am not calling ALL Kansas Citians fat. You may not see the distinction, but I do.
For example: If he could link to a study that a study stated that fat Kansas Citians are more likely to vote against light rail - THAT would be making a point.
On the other hand, if I wrote a comment and said “all bloggers are stupid” is that making a point? No. IT’S NAME CALLING.
Perhaps you shouldn’t type until the drugs wear off and you can type properly with BOTH hands. Or, you could let “Mr. Braun” defend himself.
Get over it Chris. I was obviously being facetious re: excusung my typos. My brain is sharp enough. Yopu lower yourself even lower by denigrating my opinions and positions in such a way. As for a study about Kansas City’s reluctance to embrace light-rail I need to look no further than the multi;ple ballot initiatives that have failed. That *is* a fact. You can pose as many theoretical questions you want. I’ll defend who and what I want.
*Why dop I bother*
(Please do not “yell” at me. It is bad form and despite your statement to the contrary I have *not* been “yelling” at you.)
Again, my appreciation for your concerns about my welfare. *frikkin’ jerk* (That *is* name-calling.) So much for serious discourse.
You got owned Chris
One of the reasons for the high costs is the preference for certain automobiles in this area. My auto cost is way below the stastics given. I love my automobile and as another person raised in Los Angeles– “You gonna have to pry my dead rigamortized hands from the steering wheel.”
I also ride the Max to City Hall and back and it is great but too often it is only half or less full. Real transportation takes millions of people not hundreds of thousands which is what we have in KCMO.
We should be looking at the most expensive but best long term transportation form which would be underground fixed rail. If we would start digging the tunnels now we would have the routes ready by the time that we have enough people to justify a fixed rail (light rail) form of transportation. Of course what we also have in Kansas City are a lot of sentimental people who just want to ride in a street car of above ground light rail like the old days. Read Clay Chastain with gondolas and ferris wheels and what ever clicks in his carnival brain next.
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I was recently in Portland for the first time in 8 years and was blown away.
The light rail system was good in 2000, but it has been vastly augmented with a street car system and buses that go everywhere.
I was going to rent a car and my friends told me not to. Parking would just be a hassle. They were right, I went everywhere without a car.. and without WAITING for a bus!
Their gondola is amazing as well. There are no cars around the hospital, you park below and take a gondola to Oregon Health Sciences… Amazing. It felt futuristic, and the panorama of the city was breathtaking.
Chastain’s plan was pathetic, and more based on tourism than reality.., but a well placed gondola system would solve the parking and traffic issues on the plaza. Put a large parking structure around where the closed bar ‘The Drink’ was on top the hill of the West Plaza, have light rail station right beneath the Bernstein and Rein building going down southwest trafficway to Westport and on to the Crossroads… You effectively combine the Plaza and Westport in to one area and its 1000 times better than the Power and White district.
If Kansas City doesn’t collectively focus itself I think you are going to see a migration of more educated types away from this city. It’s sad, but when you see the series of bad choices made in this city… the emphasis placed on sports teams and stadiums over real urban planning, the crumbling bridges and infrastructure… This city screams Detroit louder every day.