[PLUG-TALK] Re: [PLUG] False advertising?

[Jeme A Brelin]

On Fri, 6 Dec 2002, Russ Johnson wrote:
> Brent Rieck wrote:
> >The brush off I repeatedly got (as well as other factors) has led
> >me to believe that they don't actually care to make public
> >transportation anything other than a transportation method of last
> >resort for most people.
>
> Why should they do otherwise? They get paid, regardless. Congress
> mandated public transportation.

Well, the metro council is full of elected officials.  And if you think
that they don't care about the input of the people in the region, you
should go to the open hearings sometime.  I've testified at several and it
was clear that my opinions and data were persuasive to some of the members
of the board.  In fact, in a couple of cases, some longshot projects were
funded due to good testimony at public hearing.

Now, a private, profit-driven organization benefits not at all from public
hearings.  Market research isn't the same thing.

Also, public services have a democratizing effect by which people get
involved in their communities.  Private services foster competition and
encourage "brand loyalty" and other devices destructive to community and
harmony.

> They don't want everyone riding it, because then the roads would be
> cluttered with big huge busses instead of big busses and small cars.

Huh?  A comfortably-filled bus (that is to say, full without being
cramped) carries about 40 people.  That's (being rather generous and
assuming far more shared vehicles than I see on the weekdays) about 30
cars.  30 cars are two lanes wide and 225 feet long (at a stand-still...
MUCH longer at speed).  A bus is one lane wide and 25 feet long.  I see a
great reduction in "clutter".

And if everyone was using busses, we'd get rid of busses and put in
trains.

I highly recommend y'all read The Geography of Nowhere by John Howard
Kunstler.  He wrote a really nice history of the automobile and how it
generated the suburbs, destroyed public transit, and replaced streetcars
with ugly, belching busses.  Fascinating read.

J.
-- 
   -----------------
     Jeme A Brelin
    jeme at brelin.net
   -----------------
 [cc] counter-copyright
 http://www.openlaw.org