Public Transport

[AmtrakWPK]

I think she meant until it gets prohibitively expense to drive a private vehicle. Probably something between $5.00 and $15.00 per gallon of gas would do it. Personally I think pricing gas inversely to the fuel economy of the vehicle using it would be appropriate. Have a car or scooter that gets 100 mpg? Buy gas at $1.00 per gallon. Have a hybrid that gets 60 mpg? pay $1.67 per gallon. Have a compact car that gets 30 mpg? Pay $3.33 per gallon. Have a Hummer that gets 5 mpg? pay $20.00 per gallon. You could set gas prices at say $100, divided by the mpg of the vehicle buying it. That way the gas guzzlers most responsible for the the scarcity of supply would pay the majority of the cost for everybody.

Three things would happen. Consumption by gas guzzlers would rapidly decrease, people would stop buying them, and there would be an immediate and earthshaking scream at the American vehicle manufacturers, demanding that they fix the obscenely poor fuel efficiency of their vehicles . The oil companies could be allowed to keep a particular number of pennies per gallon beyond their cost, and the balance would be collected as a tax which would then be rebated to buyers of fuel-efficient vehicles, solar water-heaters, solar power systems (or it could be used to lower the price to the consumer of all those things), and also to provide a trust fund to build up the infrastructure of fuel-efficient public transit modes, like PASSENGER TRAINS. And absolutely none of this will happen as long as W is in office.

 

[caravanman]

Nice to see so much interest in this topic!

When I was a teenager the idea of buying a greyhound bus ticket and seeing America was a distant dream (distant from the UK!)...now it seems that long distance bus is not a particularly savoury way to travel. The train service is sparse, avoiding whole areas, so how should you explore America without a car? I believe hitch-hiking is not too safe thesedays either?

I don't really expect things to change too much, but it would be nice if there was one organisation in each area that could provide "joined up" public transport info. I was at Los Angeles Union station some months ago and the Amtrak employees and the local transit operators were taking it in turns to refuse any trains info to the public on each others operations. Not everyone knows who runs which trains where!

I wanted to use public transport to get from LAX to union station, but I couldn't find out about it so gave up and took a taxi....

Ed. B)

 

[saxman]

Alot of people think everyone owns a car these days. Ok, maybe everyone in cookie-cutter suburbia, where dad drives his truck 50 miles to works and soccer mom drives the suburban all over town, taking kids places, owns a car or 2 or 3. Of course GW out here on his big ranch in Crawford, TX thinks that too. (Not that there's anything wrong with that) Our ranch is not more than a 45 min drive from his, and we own about 5 vehicles, 4 tractors, 2 four-wheelers, a bulldozer, and several push mowers.

Well anyways, my point is, its all perspective. My grand-parents are getting old and they will not want to drive or fly. I'm in college and can't afford to fly, and I really can't afford to drive either. But many times its the only choice I have. Don't get me wrong, I love driving my smooth Lincoln Continental, but I don't mind leaving it in the garage to take the train. There's just that point when driving gets so redundant. Plus its really not safe.

Thats another thing, no one thinks about. Safety. I have a friend who won't ride the buses because the "low-lifes" ride it, and she might get robbed or shot. Much safer to take the car, she says. A little flawed, you might ask? Oh well, we might have our differences, but thats what makes the world interesting.

I think I've just been rambling. Chris

 

[MrFSS]

I have a friend who won't ride the buses because the "low-lifes" ride it

I haven't ridden a long distance bus in probably 35 years. Have they really gotton so bad that one would fear for their life or of being robbed? Or, is it just certain parts of the country?

 

[Midland Valley]

When the bus still stopped here, I put a lot of people on it. Mostly trasients wanting to get somewhere. It would stop at the red cross building across from the church. Everyone would get off and have smoke. It didn't look any different than any other crowd on any other form of transportation. I know you have to be careful, but these busses go through towns where the bus driver can stop at local law if there are serious problems.

What is worse, to me, is being on a bus filled with angry Amtrak passengers who have been kicked off the train at, oh say Galesburg as I have. The CZ was so late that anyone making connections at Chicago was forced off the train at GB, put on busses that had no working air or toilets and driven, in our case to Inianapolis.