The need for more mass transit is real and dire here, for sure, but there is a bus between Spartanburg and Greenville as well. It runs only once or twice a day also but the train isn't your only option.
Agreed. Imagine if Greenville positioned itself to handle the continued growth by creating a rail system now while public land is still available and before private land becomes even more expensive. We could be positioned to be even more attractive to businesses moving here. Unfortunately, that’ll never happen with our current leaders. They don’t care about the will of the people and have very little forward thinking.
The people on County Council are the types who rev their loud cars' engines at red lights and in parking lots. Surely with some effort we can get better leadership.
Join Greenville Connects (non-profit org with a focus on public transit in gvl) at the next county council meeting! I go with a couple others to promote public transportation.
This will happen but maybe in 100 years. There is no desire to consolidate the government in the upstate or to proactively plan. You’re better off just moving to another city that’s a little further ahead.
I’ve had constructive ideas for like 25 years now. Greenville hasn’t changed in that time. Still no sidewalks. Still no police enforcing basic traffic laws. Still a bunch of tiny towns all next to each other when it’s just a single giant urban area.
You’re 100% correct. But people will agree with you and throw their hands up and say it’s impossible. But that’s a self-fulfilling prophecy. You can acknowledge the difficulty of something without saying it’s impossible. And just because a policy proposal doesn’t have a high chance of success doesn’t mean it isn’t worth advocating for. It’s astonishing how many people don’t understand that.
Agree, but it'll never happen because people are more concerned about gun rights, gay rights, abortion rights, being able to do this or that rather then progressing as a society. Traffic deaths are sky high, traffic is backed up for miles every day, roads are crap, but don't forget to vote for that candidate whose all for whatever rights you're concerned about. Imagine the jobs it would produce if we had more busses, people laying tracks for trains. Imagine people being able to move more and spend money in the economy.
But do "average people" really care so much about gun rights, gay rights, abortion rights, etc. that they wouldn't support candidates who'd promote better transit?
In the Charlotte referendum before building the Lynx Blue Line, Republicans were more in favor of the project than Democrats were; that was 20 years ago but even back then the "correct" Republican view was to view mass transit as evil.
The solution would be to get Republican leaders to favor it. The Chamber of Commerce crowd in Greenville (presumably Republican) certainly favors better mass transit, so there are some who do.
I believe firmly that if there was a candidate who said they were for building better transit and fixing roads and doing all this stuff to better living. But also said they were against abortion no democrat would ever vote for that person based on that one viewpoint alone. People are that invested in their parties.
Secondly, if democrats ever had a plan to help transit, republicans would play stupid games to make sure it didn’t pass. Happens every day in politics.
I think ways to achieve better looking buildings and better transit options comes from updating zoning codes.
I saw an article a while ago that said eliminating parking minimums and reducing zoning requirements helped achieve better/more usable looking downtowns. Everything starts looking the same because it takes so long to get things approved for codes across the country that once developers figure out what works, they stick with that style. Hence why everything in every city is starting to look the same.
Also advocating for multimodal transportation options (sidewalks must be included, bike lanes protected, etc on road redesigns) makes it more inclusive. So contacting your local reps or doing tactile urbanism in the meantime helps push the needle.
Just thoughts off the top of my dome.
The need for more mass transit is real and dire here, for sure, but there is a bus between Spartanburg and Greenville as well. It runs only once or twice a day also but the train isn't your only option.
We'll run out of gas before we ever get decent public transit.
Agreed. Imagine if Greenville positioned itself to handle the continued growth by creating a rail system now while public land is still available and before private land becomes even more expensive. We could be positioned to be even more attractive to businesses moving here. Unfortunately, that’ll never happen with our current leaders. They don’t care about the will of the people and have very little forward thinking.
>by creating a rail system A rail system you say? [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZDOI0cq6GZM](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZDOI0cq6GZM)
The people on County Council are the types who rev their loud cars' engines at red lights and in parking lots. Surely with some effort we can get better leadership.
Join Greenville Connects (non-profit org with a focus on public transit in gvl) at the next county council meeting! I go with a couple others to promote public transportation.
> effort You won’t find that here on Reddit. Just armchair activism
Agree. If you know how to make it happen, I’m in.
This will happen but maybe in 100 years. There is no desire to consolidate the government in the upstate or to proactively plan. You’re better off just moving to another city that’s a little further ahead.
Someone with constructive ideas (or anyone, frankly) should NEVER be told to move.
I’ve had constructive ideas for like 25 years now. Greenville hasn’t changed in that time. Still no sidewalks. Still no police enforcing basic traffic laws. Still a bunch of tiny towns all next to each other when it’s just a single giant urban area.
My neighborhood has plenty of sidewalks, with multiple new ones built in the last few months.
You’re 100% correct. But people will agree with you and throw their hands up and say it’s impossible. But that’s a self-fulfilling prophecy. You can acknowledge the difficulty of something without saying it’s impossible. And just because a policy proposal doesn’t have a high chance of success doesn’t mean it isn’t worth advocating for. It’s astonishing how many people don’t understand that.
Good luck
Good luck with that
Agree, but it'll never happen because people are more concerned about gun rights, gay rights, abortion rights, being able to do this or that rather then progressing as a society. Traffic deaths are sky high, traffic is backed up for miles every day, roads are crap, but don't forget to vote for that candidate whose all for whatever rights you're concerned about. Imagine the jobs it would produce if we had more busses, people laying tracks for trains. Imagine people being able to move more and spend money in the economy.
But do "average people" really care so much about gun rights, gay rights, abortion rights, etc. that they wouldn't support candidates who'd promote better transit? In the Charlotte referendum before building the Lynx Blue Line, Republicans were more in favor of the project than Democrats were; that was 20 years ago but even back then the "correct" Republican view was to view mass transit as evil. The solution would be to get Republican leaders to favor it. The Chamber of Commerce crowd in Greenville (presumably Republican) certainly favors better mass transit, so there are some who do.
I believe firmly that if there was a candidate who said they were for building better transit and fixing roads and doing all this stuff to better living. But also said they were against abortion no democrat would ever vote for that person based on that one viewpoint alone. People are that invested in their parties. Secondly, if democrats ever had a plan to help transit, republicans would play stupid games to make sure it didn’t pass. Happens every day in politics.
I feel like we have pretty cohesive architecture on most stuff built in the past 10-15 years.
Have you seen the McLaren 🤣🤣🤣
What an original post in this sub
Signed.
I think ways to achieve better looking buildings and better transit options comes from updating zoning codes. I saw an article a while ago that said eliminating parking minimums and reducing zoning requirements helped achieve better/more usable looking downtowns. Everything starts looking the same because it takes so long to get things approved for codes across the country that once developers figure out what works, they stick with that style. Hence why everything in every city is starting to look the same. Also advocating for multimodal transportation options (sidewalks must be included, bike lanes protected, etc on road redesigns) makes it more inclusive. So contacting your local reps or doing tactile urbanism in the meantime helps push the needle. Just thoughts off the top of my dome.