When I arrived in Amsterdam this summer for the second half of a study abroad program, I quickly realized I’d have to find an alternative to cycling, the Dutch’s preferred mode of transportation. Even though my accommodation provided free bikes, since I stand towering at 4’10” (and the Dutch are known for being tall), the only bikes available were unfortunately too tall for me.
My humorous, vertically-challenged study abroad situation came at the end of my internship with Health Outreach Partners, where my main project consisted of researching the role of transportation access and healthcare equity.
In November of 2021, President Biden signed the Bipartisan Infrastructure Bill, which contained the largest ever investment in public transportation, totaling 1.2 trillion dollars. With all of the issues facing our nation, it might seem surprising to allocate such a towering sum to public transportation. Yet, if you stop and reflect about how you travel to work, school, or doctor’s appointments, it becomes clear that any effort to empower access to education or healthcare, must start, to some extent, with transportation.
When I moved to the northeast for college, I was in awe of how easily accessible going to one state from another. Before moving into college, my dad took me on a short trip to explore New York City. We navigated our way around The Big Apple through Google maps. When it was time to move into college, we took the Metro North from Grand Central Station in New York City to New Haven, Connecticut. Within a little over 2 hours on the train, we were in New Haven. Coming from Alaska, the biggest state in America, it was so amazing to think that in just a short amount of time, I could already be in a different state through land travel—public transportation at that too!
Growing up, access to transportation was something I overlooked. I was born and raised in a province in the northern part of the Philippines. My mom and I often used public transportation to get to places, I never really thought anything past it. At the age of 12, my family migrated to Anchorage, Alaska. I never really experienced using public transportation in Anchorage, I just thought that since we had the luxury of owning a car, we did not have the need to use public transportation. However, during my teenage years, before I was able to drive by myself, my siblings and I were forced to take the school bus every day because neither of our parents were able to drive us to and from school due to their job schedules. A lot of kids had to do this too, so I didn’t think too much about it again. I remember how a little bit complicated scheduling doctors’ appointments were—it had to be during a parent’s day off so they could drive us. Again, I thought this was normal.
However, the longer I spent in New Haven, the more I realized that this mode of public transportation is only limited to certain areas. I’d say that the Metro North is not the best, but it is an affordable and good way to get from New York to Connecticut. My sophomore year of college in New Haven, my friend and I booked all our accommodations for the annual Harvard v Yale football game that happens the Saturday before Thanksgiving, two months in advance. This year, it was in Cambridge. We booked an Amtrak from New Haven to Cambridge for about $21 each way. Two weeks before The Game, a few of my friends looked into taking the Amtrak as well, the same trip my friend and I booked about two months prior—but this time, the prices were up to about $115 each way. This made me grateful that I booked my train tickets way in advance, but also made me realize that this is very inaccessible to many individuals who might need to book this trip for some kind of emergency reasons.
Studying abroad in London and Amsterdam gave me a new perspective on transportation in the United States. In London, we were put in dorms 40 minutes away from our class which made traveling not only very difficult, but also costly. I love London, but if there is one thing that I wish I could change about it is its affordability, or the lack thereof. Using the metro system, or the tube as the Brits would say, made getting from one place to another easier with the severe London traffic, but it was also not the cheapest. In fact, it might just be the most expensive metro ride I’ve ever experienced, and having to travel to and from class four times a week made the study abroad experience very costly. And one thing I noticed is that only certain stations were disabled accessible which gives individuals with disabilities very limited options for public transportation.
In the Netherlands, there are more bikes than people. It was just a very interesting experience to live in a city where everyone bikes—I can’t count how many times I almost got run over by a bike because I forget to look both ways before crossing a bike lane. The public transportation system in Amsterdam however, was still very accessible and easy to navigate. Being in Amsterdam also made me realize how accessible it was to travel from The Netherlands to other neighboring European countries. During my time in Amsterdam, I was able to take the train to visit Switzerland, Germany, and France during the weekends when there was no class.
Comparing my transportation experiences in all of the cities I have lived in reinforces how crucial transportation is to an individual’s social, economic, and educational opportunities. As much as I overlooked the lack of transportation accessibility when I was younger, it made me reflect on how fortunate I was despite whatever challenges I faced in accessing transportation. My project with Health Outreach Partners this summer showed how safe, affordable, and accessible transportation is a central part of the mission of achieving healthcare equity.
By Charmaine Bayalan, Associate Project Manager Intern, for HOP’s series of monthly staff blogs