Subject:
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Re: Rolling Blackouts
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Newsgroups:
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lugnet.off-topic.debate
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Date:
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Wed, 30 May 2001 08:58:34 GMT
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Viewed:
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848 times
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Shiri Dori wrote:
> <nod> I wish the government(s... all over the world) would invest in cheaper
> public transportation and promote it. When it is cheaper for a family of 4
> to take a train from, say, Boston to Cape Cod, that's when we'll see actual
> results....
NO, you won't actually. It will have to be cheaper AND more convenient. Too
many public transportation systems are"broken" in that you have to use your CAR
to get to them in the first place.
There was an article in the SJ Merc last week or the week before where they had
a race from a spot in Oakland to a hotel in LA, one guy drove himself there, the
other took a plane. We're talking 400 miles here, so you'd think the guy taking
the plane would have gotten to the hotel ages before the guy taking his car.
Bzzzt. People forget about all the traveling leading UP TO the plane trip, and
all the traveling AFTER the plane trip. Now extend that to a train ride. A
train ride where you may not be able to pack half a minivan of luggage (and crap
you wouldn't be caught dead carrying around in a train) with you (at all, let
alone for an increased fee).
Public transportation won't truly fully succeed until it is EVERYWHERE. Until
you can walk out your front door with tons of luggage, hop on a bus within a
block of your door, and connect to all other PT needed, ending up at your
destination within a few hundred feet or less.
> dropping accident rates, dropping energy waste, dropping
> pollution rates, decrease in man-time spent in traffic jams, decrease in
> expenditure on *better* highways, *bigger* interstates, *faster* cars...
While I agree with all of this, it's not going to happen any time soon. We
aren't going to go through a complete shift of thinking in transportation
overnight, it's going to take DECADES.
And if fuelcell cars are economically viable any time soon (I wish they were
already), it won't happen for a lot longer, unless we all end up in permanent
gridlock on the highways.
> > What I would like to see is the price of car insurance included
> > in the price of gas. Then it would be fairer to the person who drives a
> > 100 miles a month and to the person who spends 30 times that on the
> > road. That would probably require some sort of universal id card
> > though.
>
> Wow, *cool* idea! That's really smart. But actually, the person who would
> actually spend 30 times more time would (on average) also be that much more
> experienced, dontcha think? Or... maybe not.
Exactly. Insurance has little to do with mileage travelled. It is PART of the
equation, but not a big part. More important to the ins cos is what demographic
you belong to - that shows your risk (statistically, at least, not on a true
individual basis) more than the miles you drive. Penalizing good drivers that
happen to drive more miles than bad drivers that drive very little would be
quite unfair.
And don't forget that the more expensive fuel is, the more expensive EVERYTHING
becomes. If you want to jack up fuel costs 50% (or more, for the unrealistic
people out there), you'd better damned well have a decent amount of disposable
income (DI), because that DI will quickly need to be rolled into your normal
budget as the cost of all of your food increases, and everything else too.
--
Tom Stangl
***http://www.vfaq.com/
***DSM Visual FAQ home
***http://ba.dsm.org/
***SF Bay Area DSMs
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Message has 1 Reply:
 | | Re: Rolling Blackouts
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| (...) Which won't happen anytime in the near future. One of the biggest impediments to 'universal' public transportation is that our current model of suburban development does not lend itself to fast and convienent transit options. (...) While I (...) (23 years ago, 1-Jun-01, to lugnet.off-topic.debate)
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Message is in Reply To:
| | Re: Rolling Blackouts
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| (...) Chris's in general never cease to amaze me... <grin>... and you two both just did. (...) Arguably? *Arguably*?! I mean, show me anything else with greater threat. (...) <nod> I wish the government(s... all over the world) would invest in (...) (23 years ago, 30-May-01, to lugnet.off-topic.debate)
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