I'll ride with you Cynthia! (I'm commenting on my colleague's blog post on bus route expansion.)

As the driver of a gas-guzzler, I completely support Cynthia Oviedo’s post advocating the expansion of the Austin MetroRail route to urban areas. Cynthia mentions the buses encountering less traffic, having comfortable seating, along with cool and clean air conditioning with free wireless internet. Although I ultimately support the expansion of the bus route because of the benefits to the environment and saving money on gas, these accommodations definitely caught my attention and are a wonderful benefit to an already advantageous system of transportation.

Cynthia then goes on to mention that getting off at the Howard Station leaves you in a “deserted” area. Her defense to this situation is that people without a vehicle have no transportation from this station. Although this is a good point, I find that the fact that people have to “cross under MoPac” to get to a more populated area poses much danger to these pedestrians since Austin has a tremendous amount of traffic. This traffic is in turn filled with people, who in all honesty, are not paying close attention to the road.

Even though it is evident that Austin is growing by the increased amount of traffic, I really appreciate that Cynthia provided a link to the 2010 Census. This illustrates that she has taken the time to provide credibility to her statement which in turn reflects, to a small degree, her support for the expansion of the bus route. Anyhow, with a growing population, the city will respond by opening new schools and services to accommodate the public. The expansion of the bus route will be of great convenience to Austinites as well as to the city itself by decreasing highway congestion and minimizing our carbon footprints.

I appreciate that before closing her argument, Cynthia provided information about where the expansion of the bus route currently stands by informing us that ten miles have already been added to the bus route. I look forward to the continued expansion of the bus route to, as I have already mentioned in agreement with Cynthia, decrease traffic and pollution as well as to be of great convenience to Austin’s growing population.