Re: Transit

So you mental problems require a national solution?

Reply to
george conklin
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In the name of profit, people can all too often fall by the wayside.

Reply to
Warm Worm

Cars are banes on the mental and physical environment.

Reply to
Warm Worm

...So if by 'mental problems' you are referring to cars ;) then, I might be interested in _international_ solutions.

Reply to
Warm Worm

On 17 Sep 2008, george conklin wrote

FWIW, the current mayor of London has for some years been particularly well known for cycling to work rather than driving, or being driven there. Last time I checked, he's still doing it.

(And it's never been a PR stunt: in fact, it annoys the hell out of the security biz guys, who have a vested interest in keeping high- profile people scared enough to hire bullet-proofed protection.)

Reply to
HVS

As I noted, your mental problems do not require a national solution.

Reply to
george conklin

So what. Driving is so popular that mayors have to use high taxes to discourage driving, which is vastly more popular than cattle-car transit. Why do I say cattle car? Well, that image was given to me at a railroad museum where they took a large group of us on a steam train ride using commuter cars. The older men in the group, who used to commute on those cars, stated, "We called them cattle cars." They disliked getting back into them. Transit. Same thing. I grew up on the subways of NYC. You can't fool me.

Reply to
george conklin

Z snipped-for-privacy@earthlink.com:

.

Note that people may avoid public transit if the other commuter are nasty, if its too expensive, if it is unsafe due to crime, if its too stressful, if it is difficult to use, or if it is too slow. Some people however can't drive or some other reason.

Beyond traffic, access to and cost for urban parking turns out to be another motivation for using mass transit

=A0 =A0

the problems with using multiple bus routes is not cost but synchronization in the DC area - the wait time between two bus route can be as short as 5 minutes and as long as 45 minutes. For long 60 minutes route may be four buses (two in each direction). Under heavy traffic conditions, buses *bunch* up so the buses in a particular direction o the route is not half-way distance from one another along the route but much closer or much farther. During rush hour when commuting traffic is very bad, longer Metrobus routes tend to *bunch* up and buses rarely are able to keep to their published schedule.

Reply to
drydem

"george conklin" wrote in news:LL6dnVktxLurck3VnZ2dnUVZ snipped-for-privacy@earthlink.com:

[snip]

WTF are you talking about?

Reply to
Kris Krieger

innews:AOidnU7dppIJZVLVnZ2dnUVZ snipped-for-privacy@earthlink.com:

Note that people may avoid public transit if the other commuter are nasty, if its too expensive, if it is unsafe due to crime, if its too stressful, if it is difficult to use, or if it is too slow. Some people however can't drive or some other reason.

Reply to
George Conklin

I think it's hilarious that you think the fact that people supposedly don't "want" to use the crappy transit we have in most of the US is an argument against transit, but you're hung up on this law that supposedly prevents people from doing what they don't want to do anyway. I can't think of _one_ person I've ever heard say "gee, I wish I could make a living ferrying people around in my car." I've heard lots of people say "gee, I wish we had usable transit."

Reply to
Amy Blankenship

"george conklin" wrote in news:oMCdnTmwXc0Kck3VnZ2dnUVZ snipped-for-privacy@earthlink.com:

Broad extrapolation from a local situation is inadequate. It'd be like claiming "everyone in the US can grow palm trees because people in Luisiana can grow them". Your local situation, even if accurately described, is not the end-all and be-all absolute definition for *everywhere*.

Reply to
Kris Krieger

Warm Worm wrote in news:garpch$sip$ snipped-for-privacy@aioe.org:

More like a 3-second a$$ bite :p

Reply to
Kris Krieger

drydem wrote in news: snipped-for-privacy@73g2000hsx.googlegroups.com:

[snip]

The thing is that plces are differnt, ridership inthose places are differnt.

The problem is that GC speaks as tho' everyplace in the entire world is an exact mirror image of his local situation (or at least, his opinion of his local situation), and then talks as tho' anyone who says "but differrnt places are differnt" is an idiot.

Which also includes the amount of space available for that parking.

THat's a problem in many areas. But in others, it works. I don't pretend to know the formula, it just seems to me that simply sitting around and kvetching (as deos GC) that there is NO public transport idea that can

*possibly* work is worse than useless.

I never took the bus when I lived in Laurel, but I did take the DC rail. THat was pretty good. But again, differnt places need differnt solutions

- what's goofy is talking as tho' the present is the one and only possible way to do something - esp. when the present way isn't working well either...

Reply to
Kris Krieger

message

People say anything, but they want transit for YOU so they can drive. And remember that before the anti-jitney laws people were successfully, with government approval during World War 1, picking others up for a nickel or a dime and taking them to work. Transit called this "unfair competition." I am citing accurate history here.

Reply to
George Conklin

You mean London, NYC and other cities are not different enough for you. Tell Bloomberg that please.

Space? Transit vehicles waste fuel because they have to return empty for the next load. If they could also stay in the city then they would be fuel-efficient.

Transportation in the public realm failed, in case you don't remember any history at all. It was there, and went out of business. Costs were high, and ridership went down. Trolleys reached their peak fare-revenue ratios in 1914. That far back.

But most jobs are not downtown.

Reply to
George Conklin

If transit made money, then the transit companies would still be in business. They all failed. That is pretty generalized. Based on fact, not your idle wishes.

Reply to
George Conklin

"In attribution theory, the fundamental attribution error (also known as correspondence bias or overattribution effect) is the tendency for people to over-emphasize dispositional, or personality-based, explanations for behaviors observed in others while under-emphasizing situational explanations."

--Wikipedia

...Like the car. ;)

Reply to
Warm Worm

snipped-for-privacy@73g2000hsx.googlegroups.com:

The Blue and Orange Line that serves the Laurel, Maryland area (Prince George's County) has a reasonable route in that is it is not too long and therefore suffers less from timing issues. The Red line that serves Montogmery County is a longer route and has reliablity and timing problems. The longer the line the higher the probablity of failure and timing problems ( given that all things are equal). Metrorail is definitely much better than Metrobus - the fare is higher so it serves a more unscale commutership than Metrobus. Shorter rail routes like the yellow line tend to be more reliable.

Metrobus has improve over the years. Better policing around and one transit systems is one of the solutions that have helped. As transit systems become more heavily used - commuters become targets for criminal elements. Initially, Metro official tried to keep it secret but eventually the public found out that Metro security was losing its battle against crime on metro rail station areas - it was only with the assistance of local police patrol and support that the crime levels have subsided. In the past onee of the worst places to park one's car was at the huge mega parking lot at the New Carrollton Metrorail station - the local authorities have stepped up patrols because of it. We've had several local car theft rings busted in recent times

- even the minor involve were prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law.

Reply to
drydem

I noticed that a lot of car advertising represents cars in "pristine" environments. That's probably partly why driving is popular; slick (sick?) advertising, marketing, etc..

I'd like to see more representative marketing that highlights the benefits of a gridlocked car in a loud smoggy urban environment. Perhaps a new car model could tout the benefits of a new pressurized cabin with its own air/oxygen system... (Maybe they already have that.)

A gridlocked car seems like a bit of a cattle car. If cars are going to remain the same and in the same contexts as they are now, then you might get "best-of-breed cattle cars" whether you like it or not.

Fool yourself?

Reply to
Warm Worm

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