[PLUG-TALK] Re: [PLUG] PLUG meeting
Carla Schroder
pluglist at bratgrrl.com
Sat Dec 7 03:53:56 UTC 2002
On Friday 06 December 2002 16:50, David Mandel wrote:
> I find this discussion of public transportation interesting.
>
> What is especially interesting is how the discussion of
>
> public transportation compared to private transportation
>
> is very much like discussions of
>
> main frames compared to personal computing
>
>
> In both cases, it is sort of an efficient resource usage thing verse
> a personal freedom thing. Even more interestingly, people don't
> always line up on the same sides on both issues.
Well, yes and no. The state of public transportation around here makes it a
question of what is practical. There's a pretty large gap between what is
possible, and what is feasible. Sure, a person can spend half a day getting
to their destination- I doubt many will make it a habit. Even in situations
where transit is adequate for traveling from thither to yon, other problems
come up- If you need to carry a lot of stuff, public transit doesn't work.
Personal safety and travel time are major issues. Granted, car crashes are
common, but they don't hold the same terror quotient as being trapped in a
train car with a gang of thugs, or scary smelly people yelling and waving
their arms at who-knows-what. I wish I could bottle the exasperation of
having to quit carrying a backpack on the back of a wheelchair because of
thieves, and give certain naysayers a sip of reality.
I have a good laugh over the acceptance of pollution from buses and the Max.
Hey Karl, thanks for killing off the fish with your flagrant use of
electricity! Those trains run five minutes apart during peak hours- how much
juice is that, anyway? How many fish are left flopping in the shallows? Or
munched in the turbines?
Bus pollution is huge. The trucking industry has been quite effective in
staving off emission controls on big vehicles. Buses get 4- 6mpg. Diesel is a
poor choice for buses. Diesels are most efficient for long steady hauls, not
stop and start. I'll bet that pollution and fuel consumption from a bus is
more than a fleet of modern cars carrying the same number of passengers. How
many cars does a busload of riders really take off the road? If that's the
goal, I don't think public transit has that much of an impact, a lot of
transit users wouldn't own a car anyway. I'm just speculating, of course, it
would interesting to see some data.
Cars are subsidized in ways that are not immediately apparent- health problems
and environmental degradation from noise and pollution, for starters. Car
owners don't even come close to paying their own way. I'll never forget when
the I5- I90 connection was completed in Seattle several years ago, at a cost
of nearly $2 billion. They could have paid people to stay home and not
commute for quite a few years. Subsidizing transit is worthy. I'd feel like
my taxes were better spent if they actually made an effort to collect fares
on the MAX, fare enforcement is laughable.
I would love more and better public transit, good transit is in some ways
freer than driving. Just go, sightsee, relax. It's a nice dream.
--
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Carla Schroder
Bratgrrl Computing
www.bratgrrl.com
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