Paul Krugman ponders the reason that conservatives are so enamored of the idea that speculators are driving up the price of oil:
The odds are that we're looking at a future in which energy conservation becomes increasingly important, in which many people may even -- gasp -- take public transit to work. I don't find that vision particularly abhorrent, but a lot of people, especially on the right, do.
And indeed -- gasp -- according to an article in The New York Times, "Gas Prices Send Surge of Riders to Mass Transit":
Mass transit systems around the country are seeing standing-room-only crowds on bus lines where seats were once easy to come by. ... "In almost every transit system I talk to, we're seeing very high rates of growth the last few months," said William W. Millar, president of the American Public Transportation Association.
The sudden jump in ridership comes after several years of steady, gradual growth. Americans took 10.3 billion trips on public transportation last year, up 2.1 percent from 2006. Transit managers are predicting growth of 5 percent or more this year, the largest increase in at least a decade.
It must be a socialist plot!
Unfortunately, cities and regions are short on the money needed to expand their service, as the article documents. So let's push Congress and the candidates to match the new ridership with new funding.
For public transportation to survive, we all need to ... drive more?
Comments
View as Flat
green8659 Posted 3:40 pm
12 May 2008
Green and Environmental Website | Almighty Cleanse
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Colin Wright Posted 4:03 pm
12 May 2008
... streetcars cost three to six times as much to build as electric trolley buses. Both are powered by electric wires, but fixed rails must be built and maintained for streetcars, while rubber-tired trolley buses run on street pavement without tracks. According to the city estimate, electric trolley construction and facilities such as power lines would cost $7 million to $8 million per mile for systems lasting 30 years. The city estimate compared that to $30 million to $45 million per mile for streetcar systems that last 40 years (one proposed line would cost more than $50 million per mile). Light rail trains, by comparison, cost between $100 million and $160 million per mile and can last more than 60 years
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The Overhead Wire Posted 6:14 pm
12 May 2008
It's Electric! TheOverheadWire.com
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Delay And Deny Posted 11:20 pm
12 May 2008
Mass transit schemes, especially of the type being foisted on the Puget Sound, are really taxation "vehicles".
The game is: structure a system that is so money wasting and costly that voters feel compelled to "fix" or "extend" it every year in order to "make it better".
But it never gets better because it was never intended to work in the first place.
End result: lots of bureaucratic jobs.
Texeme.Construct(Participant)
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Jon Rynn Posted 12:33 am
13 May 2008
I noticed in the article Colin mentioned that one of the factors in streetcars' favor was that Seattle has control over streetcars, whereas the county has to sign off on buses. This is the same problem NYC had with congestion pricing -- cities should have control over their transportation needs.
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PermieWriter Posted 5:18 am
13 May 2008
Eat what you grow, grow what you eat
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