🚀 go-pugleaf

nancb@dryad.eng.sun.com (Nancy Block) wrote:

>In article <pfraser-1906961841550001@198.68.128.10> pfraser@dnai.com (Pete Fraser) writes:
>>In article <4qa110$6u4@news.scruz.net>, Laura Cohan <laura@tmx.com> wrote:
>>
>>>If you have had it with California's ultra-high gas prices, visit this 
>>>page to download a petition and make a stand.
>>>
>>>Our politicians will only pay attention to us if we show them IN WRITING 
>>>that we are upset, and we vote.
>>>
>>No. I am happy that gas prices are high. Any politician who would add
>>an additional $1 / gallon tax, to be used to support public transportation,
>>would be likely to get my vote.
>>
>>Thanks for your concern though...
>>
>>-- 
>>Pete Fraser

>Around here (San Francisco Peninsula), public transport is close to 
>useless, so I particularly resent the idea that more $ down that
>particular rat-hole is a good idea.  If light rail could be built to
>serve residential areas, work locations, and downtowns, in that order,
>I would be enthusiastic.  But when projects are proposed, there is 
>such eagerness to move people from work to downtown (to spend $)
>without any service to residential areas, that I have voted against
>every single proposal.


>Nancy Block


Everyone has their own definition of "useless".  I guess if a person grew up
in the country or the 'burbs and always had a car, it wouldn't surprise
me if they considered _every_ form of public transportation "useless".

The gasoline/auto lobby in the U.S. has, unfortunately over the years
contributed to a geographical distribution of communities that is not nearly
as conducive to public transit as say, some typical European countries.  It's
a chicken-or-the-egg scenario - now with the growth of suburbia, as in where
Nancy lives, public transit becomes much more fantastically expensive to serve
the same amount of people than if we didn't have such extended residential 
sprawl.

People in many other countries who live "in the country" I suspect expect to
be somewhat isolated.  Here in the U.S. we have come to expect to be able to
not only live "in the country", but to simultaneously be able to transport 
ourselves into the city in short order.  The concept of "neighborhood" in 
the U.S. outside the major cities is, I believe, becoming an increasingly
foreign one -- now we have "virtual neighborhoods" created by the shopping
mall, the personalized/customized environments in our cars, etc.  For many
people, public transportation will *never* be good enough, because we have
lost the value for the close-knit community, we want our cars and our 
independence, we have grown up with them, we feel uncomfortable sharing our
personal space with others, etc.  

Unfortunately I sometimes feel the time to make the major decisions was
back 40-50 years ago.  I'm not sure there's much magic that public transit
advocates can do to wrest American's little 4-wheeled ego-bubbles away
from them at this point...



Phil


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Philip J. Koenig         Computers & Communications           pjk@aimnet.com

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