On OPEC, Technology And Transportation... 9
cybrthng asks: "With prices of gas hitting above $2.00 a gallon in many areas and projected to rise more yet, how should we look at our commuting and travel needs? With OPEC limiting the supply, people traveling more and all this technology advancement wouldn't you think we would be able to come up with alternate ways to get around? How about public transportation? Safer places to keep your bike? Smarter drivers so people on motorized and non-motorized vehicles are not at such a risk. What would be the technological or even ethical solution to today's costs and problems with transportation? Let's unite and strategize for a few minutes on what is a huge part of daily life." Interesting question. I find that too many people drive in overcongested metropolitan areas due to the fact that the public transportation system just isn't sufficient for their needs. PT systems in many areas are nice, but it just plain sucks when you have to wait 30 minutes for the next train. Quite personally, I would just prefer to telecommute.
In Building Commute (Score:1)
Stop subsidizing the American automobile (Score:1)
In 1995, this was estimated at $5,000 per family. [silcom.com]
If the true costs of the automobile was passed onto to the driving public, ie by paying for roads, parking garages, bridges and compensating for lost taxes not paid on highways and bridges, gas would probably cost $8.00 a gallon US, and public transportation would seem much more reasonable.
George
life without a car. (Score:2)
What keeps towns from accepting people on bicycles? Why arent there more bike racks to lockup? What are commuter friendly towns? It looks like the big apple is (albeit not to clean nor safe at times) and Washington DC. DC seems to have the cleanest subway system i have ever seen, which is another factor in PT, how safe, how clean and how frequent the trips are. State college has a great, clean and frequent bus system. Anyone to write to that can help?
I make a great living, money is not a factor of why i dont want another car (gas, theft, insurance, loan interest, and i have all sorts of other gadgets and things i want to spend my money on besides another piece of metal that always has problems and seems to hold up a sign saying radomly break into me and cause my owner to have a living hell). I like riding my bike, i like being able to walk out to a subway and walk a block to where i want to be, i like catching the train to NYC and cabbing/subbing around town. For one, i save money, (parking is ridiculous), 2, less worries (will my car be there, will i get any tickets for whatever reason, is my insurance still valid, where is my insurance card, keys?).
I guess there are many reasons, but i find my life better spent and exponentially simpler without a car. (although very it is harder in some ways since i can't depend on pt...).
Re:Stop subsidizing the American automobile (Score:2)
Its gotta work before we will use it! (Score:2)
I looked at using public transit one time. I was 20 minute to work, driving, or over an hour by bus. Even if the bus had gone by work more then 4 times in a day that was enough to kill the idea. I don't know when I get off work, last week I unexpectedly ended up working 2 hours latter then normal to take care of something that needed to be done now. If I had taken the bus in I would have been stuck at work all night.
Of course now I live out where I can smell fresh cut alfaha. To smell that twice a summer makes living downwind from a pig farm worth it. No bus service, but no different then when I was living in the city.
To put my complaint differently, public transportation needs to do more then go downtown. I need to give my kid a note of permission and tell him go visit grandma, and then go about my buisness, knowing the kid will be safe on the trip. (assuming grandma knows the kid is coming) But today the transit system assumes that I go home to work to the airport to work to home. And God help anyone who doesn't work downtown or wants to go anyplace else without a car.
I'd love to have good public transportation, but I've yet to hear of a plan that even in the best case would be one I'd consider using.
Re:Stop subsidizing the American automobile (Score:1)
I did a quick and dirty google searched on automobile subsidies to find those two.
George
SkyTran alternative (Score:1)
-- Jared
jegolf@yahoo.com
Re:In Building Commute (Score:1)
Re:Stop subsidizing the American automobile (Score:1)
If you look at the Coasts, it usually CAN pay, and in the cities, you CAN get a mass transit infrastructure. (New York being the extreme in the US). The west coast has NOT done as well this way (exception - San Francisco)
Suburbia is a marginal case, in that population densities just about pay for bus transit loads. These work best if there is one main hub where everyone is going. For Intrasuburb use, it doesn't pay. The general problem is that it takes something like 5-6 people (Minimum) on a bus going from point X to point Y for it to pay. Now, you try to get around this with Hub and spoke, but this has problems. A person, like it or not, is NOT going to walk much more than 1/4 mile or so, and many people can't walk that far. That means you have to have a bus route every 1/2, at worst (In bad weather/colder parts of the country, it has to be closer). Also, the ridership has to be high enough, to have a bus reach each place on the route no more than about once every 20 minutes (You'll find, looking at studies, once the average wait time gets above 10 minutes or so, your ridership drops)
So this means that you have to have 15 people per hour or more going down that route, the entire length (average), and the service HAS to run well into the night for people who get stuck at work. This requires a fairly high population density, and most suburbs don't have it.
The other problem with hub and spoke is this. Let's say we run a bus on each spoke every 20 minutes, and I want to go from spoke A to spoke B, 2 spokes over. I live 5 miles from the hub. I walk say, 5 minutes to the bus, wait 10 for the bus (remember, average wait is 1/2 the frequency - buses NEVER run on time),travel 7 minutes or so (probably longer, the bus has to make stops) to get to the hub, wait 10 minutes, travel 7 minutes to get to stop, and walk 5 minutes to the destination. That 2 mile trip took 45 minutes!
Rural is worse