Public transit systems are already in place in high density urban areas where they work effectively. In most of the country they simply would not.
For SOME…but not for all…and probably not for the majority. If you live in NYC or Chicago…then yes it’s best to take public transportation. In fact I NEVER drive into Boston or NYC…I take public transportation into them…The problem is that most jobs are NOT in the city. So in order for me to take public transportation from where I live to work…I’d have to take a train into Boston…then out where I work. There is no public transportation directly from where I live to where I work…I have actually taken public transportation to work once…I was going on a business trip with a couple people from work…So we met at work…then took a limo to the airport…The trip from my house to work using public transportation took me OVER 2.5 hours. I’m with MB and many others on this…it’s just not practical.
I did not compare 21st century USA to third world countries. Or anything else. I simply sugested that of you’d like to see what a world without cars would be like you should spend time in a third world country. You’ll find out that without the ease and convenience of cars, without a developed road system, every aspect of daily life is different. You cannot drive your child to the hospital when he/she is sick. Food becomes only that that’s local. Stores can’t carry the inventories that they do here. Fuel supplies become wanting. You’ll also find out that using livestock for transport needs, which is the “next rung down” from autos and a developed road system, brings with it diseases and hygene commpromises that you may not enjoy.
If we are “falling behind”, it isn’t because of cars. The ready availability of cars and our developed highway system are two major contributors to our having become the most powerful and productive country in the history of the world. Do you really think we could have gotten here without these things?
You may call me jack if you’d like. I won’t even ask that you capitalize it, bud.
So, the automobile is self-centered and destructive and I value my selfishness to the detriment of greater society. Okay. It works for me. I’m happy.
How can you look at the following
http://www.venomgt.com/
and not have a pang of desire? Are you well?
I’d say more like $1 septillion ($1,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000). If only we could get just 0.0001%
CCc…I suggest you actually visit a 3rd world country before you make those false statements. I’ve seen people who still live 100 years behind the rest of the world…It’s a hard hard life. I’ve also seen how drastically their lives improved by the automobile. They can now sell their crops outside their valley. They can now get food to feed their family when the storms that year wiped out their crops. They now have access to medical care that they never new existed. It’s obvious that you’ve NEVER lived outside a large metro area.
I could just jump off the public transit and do some shopping or stop for lunch, no problem. I could also be much more spontaneous when not stuck with the car and looking for a parking place and not getting stuck in traffic jams
Now you’re just picking and choosing the “good” points and ignoring the bad. Jump on and off and do some shopping, eh? What, pray tell, did you do with the bags of goods you acquired while shopping? Carefree hopping on and off public transportation lugging bags of goods at every stop along the way… ah yes, panacea.
I could also be much more spontaneous when not stuck with the car and looking for a parking place and not getting stuck in traffic jams
Spontaneous on a train schedule? I’ve had to sit and wait 45 minutes for the next scheduled train because I missed one by two minutes. And buses are not immune to traffic jams.
The vast majority of people are motivated by the path of least resistance. The only way you can get them to choose mass transit is by excessive taxation on, or costs associated with, the freedom of personal transportation.
If in defending the US system of car culture you suggest comparing it to third world countries without cars, then yes you are comparing the US to third world countries. That’s just a fact of logic.
In doing so you are jumping to another fallacious point, that creating a good public transit infrastructure means there would be zero cars in the US, resulting in the list of horrors you describe. That’s nonsense, or course, since no one is proposing the elimination of all autos. We need to cut down the need to commute with the car, first and foremost, in order to cut down on the life-destroying pollution, accidents and economic and social ills connected with car-based culture.
TT, people who live in places with good public transit often do a small bit of shopping everyday, so they are only carrying one bag home with them (often a reusable bag they keep with them). Also, good urban planning going along with good public transit means they have shopping in walking distance from their homes.
Yes you can be spontaneous in place with good public transit. In places I have lived and visited, the light rail and trams and subways ran as often as every 5 minutes during rush hour.
Where were you when you had your 45 minute wait for the train? I have to say if that relatively short wait upset you, then probably a lot of things do.
We need to cut down the need to commute with the car, first and foremost, in order to cut down on the life-destroying pollution, accidents and economic and social ills connected with car-based culture.
Why is that foremost??? Cars can be made today with 0 pollution. Lets concentrate on that…not some stupid idea of MASS TRANSIT that no one wants and won’t work.
But, back to the original post, how many countless billions of dollars a year in productivity are wasted by people waiting for mass transit?
Fair enough but I still envision schleping these packages along multiple stops or having to go home to drop them off versus putting it in a trunk and going about my continuing business.
45 minutes is a short wait? I guess I’m really spoiled from my years of personal transportation 
The example was in Boston. BTW- I could have driven home in that time and stopped along the way to buy groceries ( a week’s worth at a time not one bag ) but instead, I sat at an expensive restaurant and ate lunch until the next outbound train to my destination was scheduled to leave. And then I still had to endure the transit time on the train. We were discussing wasted time here, right? Poster child example I think.
They both have their pros and cons. But you’ll never convince me that public transportation is more convenient or spontaneous than jumping in your own car even when you consider traffic, tolls, fuel and parking. ( not to mention those shivering souls waiting at the bus stop in -10 degree F weather! ) I think a lot of people feel the same way. That’s why they have to tax people who want to drive into the city in an attempt to discourage it…
have to say if that relatively short wait upset you, then probably a lot of things do.
Ad hominem attack.
I for one do not need a tree hugger to try to regulate my life to suit his own views.
Sure, spontaneity is a plus, though I had plenty of spontaneity with public transit when I lived in Europe, or in New York city for that matter.
So what you’re saying is
A) We all must live in LARGE METROPOLITAN area???
Or
B) We build 2,000,000 miles of RR lines at a cost of 1,000,000 per mile (not counting the trains or people to run the trains)???
Which is it. According to YOU…there can only be 2 choices.
Amen.
It’s bad enough that they’ve banned incandescent lightbulbs (2012), we have toilets that need multiple flushes to do the job, and badly needed highways have been postponed and their costs increased by tens of millions of dollars because some advocacy groups wanted to ram their philosophies down our throats.
I wonder what will happen when there are tens of millions of flourescent bulbs out there being disposed of (yeah, right…as if anybody is going the use hazmat protocols) and we start to have mercury contamination in our waste.
And I just heard that California has waken up to the huge cost increase of the flourescent bulbs.
And then there’s ethanol. We’ve debated this at length, so I’ll spare everyone the details.