The truth, New York..Speculators...Oil.

[Wagner]

http://money.cnn.com/2008/07/07/news...ion=2008070709

[Eric5273]

Always nice when you can blame your problems on a faceless enemy.

[Quicksilver]

The truth is if public transportation was made available in areas where it's practical none of this would be an issue. I just ran 2 errands that took me down a major thoroughfare. I could have taken public transportation but down the street from the house but the bus only runs every hour. Down the other Major thoroughfare there is no bus at all.

Instead of providing a reasonable answer for local transportation all people do is complain about oil. Somehow it seems very shortsighted.

[motordavid]

OT...wierd: every CNN link pasted here, locks up when I go to it.
Even when going to CNN Money via the web, I can't get to page
to open fully/"respond" to my mouse.

My eyeball/privacy report thing loads up with a long laundry list
of crap that the site is trying to shove through...maybe "it" knows
I don't watch CNN, lol!

(EDIT: I was able to open and read the sumbitch using Opera...my
IE and my popup/cookie/crap limiters don't "like" CNN, lol!

Pretty good article, imo...if oil was $100, I guess we'd all "feel better"
for a week or a month or, until the next blip on the world scene...but,
happy days are not coming back soon, I suspect.)

Speculators? probably adding to the fiasco...but demand remains huge
world-wide, and that nearly 15 million barrels of oil per day, that we
consume here in the US, for "transportation", ain't helping the "price".

[Quicksilver]

Why is that that no one wants to talk about public transportation?
Even in Los Angeles where the car is king people are getting the point.
The only problem with some of this is that the smaller arteries that feeds
the major bus and rail lines need to be expanded then people will more
likely get on board.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Transportation experts are quick to point out that mass-transit riders remain part of a tiny minority who use rail instead of their own cars. And it remains an open question whether that will ever change.

James E. Moore, director of USC's transportation engineering program, compared the current uptick to the aftermath of the Northridge earthquake in 1994, when several major roads were closed.

"There was some speculation that once people got used to it, they'd stick with (public) transit," Moore said. "But people don't fail to use transit out of ignorance, they choose the option that is the cheapest for them."

But with gasoline approaching $5 a gallon, the effect may be more permanent.

Michael Miller, 45, used to spend $460 a month at the pump, but now he buys a $230 monthly pass for his daily 2 1/2 -hour commute from Rancho Cucamonga to L.A.

An electrical engineer, Miller started using public transit when gas prices hit $4.45 a gallon just under a month ago. Even if fuel costs go down, he says, he's staying on the train.

"I'm a Metro convert now," he said. "You avoid a lot of hassles. You don't have to deal with traffic; driving is a big headache."

Although the region's rail lines have seen more commuters lately, bus ridership in Los Angeles is slightly down compared to last year, Sotero said. More than 1.2 million passengers boarded Metro buses on an average weekday in May, but compared with all of May 2007, ridership is down 5.37%.

Facing a deep operating deficit, the Metropolitan Transportation Authority last year approved the first across-the-board fare increase in more than a decade, with officials at the time predicting that bus ridership might go down.

Bus riders make up more than 80% of all MTA boardings, officials said.

But for Metro rail rider Thair Peterson, the trains offer more efficiency than cars or buses.

"The Sunset Boulevard [bus line] is pathetic," Peterson said, walking through Union Station on Thursday. "It can be discouraging."

Because the Gold Line stops running before he gets off work, Antral Thomas takes the bus home. He says it's not as convenient and prefers taking trains.

"The train comes on time; you know when it's going to be there," he said.

Originally Posted by motordavid

Speculators? probably adding to the fiasco...but demand remains huge world-wide, and that nearly 15 million barrels of oil per day, that we consume here in the US, for "transportation", ain't helping the "price".

[motordavid]

Originally Posted by Quicksilver

Why is that that no one wants to talk about public transportation? ...

I guess nearly everyone would raise their hand and say, "yes, we need
more"...And, where we "have it", it works, sorta. Where we don't have
it/where it is spotty, (per your previous post), it is like it doesn't exist.

The Interstates and state highways were built on all that dough from
gas/road use taxes going to lay millions of miles of concrete and asphalt...

"Mass transit" has always gotten short shrift and the politico geniuses
jumping on their desks now, are about a decade behind the time, need
and planning-wise, imo.

For most of non-urban US, it is a myth or an absence that won't get
"fixed" or, even addressed, any time soon. Unfortunately...
BR,mD

[Quicksilver]

Then it's MHO that until this issue is given some serious consideration and follow thru then all this talk about reducing dependance on foreign oil is nothing more than lip service.

I know you are aware that i come from an era when I have seen PT work big time. So I'm sure it's implementation would vastly improve the situation. So for me it's a source of frustration watching short sighted people make decisions that ultimately will lead nowhere.

Some folks will resist change till the cows come home. But the reality of PT is the future.

http://www.grist.org/feature/2008/06/06/avent/

[Eric5273]

Originally Posted by motordavid

"Mass transit" has always gotten short shrift and the politico geniuses jumping on their desks now, are about a decade behind the time, need and planning-wise, imo.

Back when I was in college (about 15 years ago), I knew a guy who was from Japan and was attending college in the US. At the beginning of the Fall semester one year, we were discussing what we had done that summer, and he told me he had an internship in Tokyo the previous summer. I knew he wasn't from the Tokyo area, so I asked where he stayed that summer. He then explained to me that he lived 600 miles from Tokyo, but he commuted both ways each day, and using their high speed trains, the commute only took around 100 minutes each way.

This was 1992 I think. How fast do our trains go? It takes a half hour to get from the Bronx to downtown Manhattan.

[motordavid]

I've ridden PT in all the major cities I ever travelled to, (back in the expensive suit/bag carrying daze),
and with the exception of NYC, MARTA in ATL if one is going that "way", and maybe a couple other
cities in the US, nothing we have is comparable to PT systems, in developed areas outside the US.

I got around metro Tokyo/and T to Osaka, et al, on the Shinkansen, a thousand times with ease,
often by myself...my point is that PT was/is given lil'consideration here in States, for the past several decades;
and, only then, in a few large urban areas. Who's to blame? Who cares...

The numbskulls that populate Congress, and the big buck project purse strings, should drop what ever
pork/inane/feel good "bills" they are "working" on and get down to listening to a mixed bag of
experts/planners/idea people and get a plan(s) of sorts going...
that would include some PT, quickly.

Obviously "quickly", in our system, means a decade plus and cost overruns of 100-200%...

Of course, Senator Warner, how probably hasn't driven his own car, (or bought a loaf of bread),
in 30 years, wants to wave his arms and make the NSL 55...I love politicians.

OT...Eric, do the arith: your friend was slightly exaggerating...most of the Shinkansen run 120-180
miles per hour avg. at high cruise, slower through some sections. Your friend musta been riding a fighter jet...
and, he didn't have to walk, subway or JR Train it to the Shinkansen station, lol!

[AzX5]

Originally Posted by Eric5273

He then explained to me that he lived 600 miles from Tokyo, but he commuted both ways each day, and using their high speed trains, the commute only took around 100 minutes each way.

I believe those bullet trains average under 200 MPH, so that would take well over 3 hours each way. I don't think they can travel an average of 360 MPH yet.