Re: Car Craft Ramblings on Alky,,,,

[farna@xxxxxxx]

The problem with public transportation is mainly location. In densely populated areas it works exceptionally well if scheduled with stops every 30 minutes or less -- no more than an hour between stops. But much of America is spralling suburbs or rural/small towns. Even a smallish city like Dover would have trouble with public transportation. Larger ones like the LA and DC areas shouldn't and generally don't. The general public has to get enthused about it too, I guess that's the main thing. If I lived in a crowded area like Atlanta or LA I'd use it provided it was convenient and I didn't have to wait to long for my ride. I've seen public transport at work in Korea. Most people use it, and property values/rent near main hubs like a bus station or subway stop soar! But it wasn't until the last 10 years or so that many Koreans could afford a car. 30 story apartment buildings are in large clusters -- looks like they grew them in fields near Seoul! Limited parking, but bus stops !
 at the ground floor of nearly all of them. Ground floor is all shops with the occasional large store, so you could literally live and work in the same building, and find everything you need in your building or one adjacent to you! No need for a car. It's different here. With dense traffic areas like LA would definitely benefit from better public transportation, but it has to be cheap and more than that convenient. Would take a lot of changes to the current infrastructure to make it convenient enough. In Korea there is a special bus only lane on the freeways that is strictly enforced during holidays and certain hours of the day. It works like a HOV lane, but you have to have SIX people in the vehicle to use it. The HOV lane in Atlanta requires only two people in the vehicle and isn't enforced, making it more of a joke than anything else. Should be at least four people! And if you own a two passenger car you just stay in with the traffic. 

On May 2, 2005 Tom Jennings wrote:

> On Mon, 2 May 2005, Sandwich Maker wrote:
> 
> > i still think biodiesel has the most promise of the various
> > alternative fuels.
> 
> Think systems, man systems! :-) It's a safe bet there are no more
> 'magic bullet' solutions for any of the problems we have now.  Car
> nuts should wildly support mass public transportation -- lessening
> freeway traffic even 20% would take massive pressures off petro
> consumption, greenhouse gas, old-car smog checks,
> runaway/throwaway care production, etc. Flexible hours and a
> 32-hour work week (with bennies and living wage) would knock off
> the peaks, municipal planning in some instances (not all) instead
> of developer raping/pillaging, etc to lessen transpo need, would
> all leave room for more fun, less toxic, less contentious car
> ownership.
> 
> Public transportation isn't a slippery slope to car banishment.
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> .


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