Wow! Really? That's not good, but you have to read carefully. As Amanda notes, and to the headline writer's credit, they get right, the study is of a "metro area" including Guilford, Randolph and Rockingham counties. Asheboro, in Randolph has some bus services and Rockingham county has no public transportation at all and thus, once again, the good of Greensboro is misrepresented because of a regional measurement.
Fortunatley, the Brookings Institute makes available a really nice interactive map that allows a better perspective on how Greensboro is doing. It looks to me like there is room for improvement, but we are certainly not as deficient as the area as a whole.
See for yourself.
Asheville is in Buncombe County.
ReplyDeleteD'oh! Of course. I have corrected it to the "Asheboro" I meant. Thanks for the gentle correction.
ReplyDeleteRoch, I think you overplay this particular complaint, i.e. apply it when it's really not a problem. But in this case it makes sense. For good or ill, public transportation is very much an urban phenomenon in this country. So it's a bit silly to factor in the "hinterlands."
ReplyDeleteHaving said that, it's not clear whether focusing only on the core cities or the core counties would change Greensboro's ranking. The "hinterlands" no doubt "dilute" an absolute assessment of Greensboro's access to public transportation, but do they actually alter its relative assessment? As I've noted for other such rankings that have pissed you off, other MSAs' stats are diluted by their ring counties as well.
Thanks for commenting, Andy. Because of your previous scoldings, I was careful this time not to say that our relative assessment was diluted. By avoiding that, I'd hoped this would be understood to be a commentary on the absolute assessment ("we are not as deficient as the area as a whole.")
ReplyDeleteYou are right. Interesting how the buses recently added that reflective tint to their windows so taxpayers can't see what a waste of money the system is. Catch them at dusk or night however and you can still clearly see a huge machine carting 2 or 3 people around polluting up the ozone in the name of environmentalism.
ReplyDeleteOur bus system has to be the most costly system in NC.."smoke and mirrors"..literally.