The Philadelphia region was brought to a de facto standstill with yesterday's freakish 24-hour sleet storm. I had the day off from work, and didn't leave the house all day, sitting around blogging, drinking beer, and watching the roads and sidewalks ice up. My companion the radio broke in every ten minutes or so to update me on the roads and highways. Naturally, we were being warned to "stay off them", and naturally, they were all jam packed due to the snow and countless accidents. If there was any good news, it was that mass transit, with the exception of buses (ie, the trolleys, subways and regional rails), was "running on schedule with no reported delays." And even though Philadelphia's transit system is but a shadow of its former glory (click on the "maps" link to see how our system of streetcars was once more extensive than about anywhere else in the country, and how that Venus Williams of a system has been starved to a Kate Moss skeleton), and is mismanaged by the Board, the fact remains that on any given day, rain, shine, sleet, or snow, SEPTA's trolleys and rail lines outperform the highways and city streets.
This is due to the specific right of way trains have, and the fact that subways don't have to deal with traffic lights, slow drovers, crosswalks, and snow. Even when the snow is falling here, the trolley's surface routes are generally fairly reliable, as the sharp edges of the steel wheels cut through any snow and ice on the track. In fact, last night's 4-block trudge through blowing sleet to my girlfriend's apartment was made possible only by walking in the 13 trolley's right of way.
You don't need to have a ph.d in transit studies to know that trolleys and subways are good for local economies and small business owners: anyone who's traveled in the MTA, SEPTA, the MBTA, or any other line knows that newsstands, kiosks, food trucks, and sometimes entire underground shopping plazas, sprout up around stops.
So why is it that outside of New York City, most transit authorities have such dismal reputations and schedules? Why does the MBTA in Boston shut down everything, including buses, at 12:30? Why can't Pennsylvania provide a dedicated funding stream to SEPTA and other tranit authorities in the state? It's simple really: for years the highway lobby has had a much more powerful voice than the transit lobby, and things have not gotten any better during the Bush Administration.
Mass Transit matters: it's better for the air, it's better for traffic congestion, and its better for local economies. Moreover, as we face higher and higher oil costs, due not only to the war but the simple fact that we're running out of the stuff, we will have to change our lifestyles. One change we'll eventually be forced to make is the abandonment of the drive-everywhere lifestyle that is now more common than not. We'll have to build more sidewalks, and live closer to where we work and play. Transit is going to be a big part of that, and despite attacks by the Republicans and BushCo (and gee Arlen, why is it your vaunted seniority in Washington isn't bringing home enough pork to keep our transportation systems fully funded?), numerous systems are expanding and opening, including believe it or not in truck-lovin' Dallas Texas (in an ironically sad aside, Philadelphia is one of the only major transit systems that continues to shrink, a reflection on on the short-sighted nitwits who represent us in Harrisburg, DC and on our own City Council). It strikes me that if our leafy picket-fence suburbs ARE to survive, healthy transit systems are imperative that can bring people to the city to work, and return them home reliably.
Now, I'd like to end this post by saying the Democrats have a plan for mass transit, but I have been gooogling like crazym ad nd can't find anything specific: most links discuss rail security
. You can see the House Plan here and search the Senate's site here. And FYI: I'm a transit fan and a rider, but not an expert. So I'd love to hear from anyone more informed! See you in comments!
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All I can add is that L.A.’s mass transit really sucks, even with the addition of the subway and the new bus paths.
Thankfully, people seem to be embracing it more, and not just the traditional users, the working poor. I see more and more suits at the bus stops every day.
quiet day here?
I agree – MORE MASS TRANSIT.
If everyone else took mass transit – THEN I COULD GET WHERE I WANT TO GO ON THE FREEWAYS AND EXPRESSWAYS FASTER!
Atrios once did a piece on LA’s history as a streetcar city. lemme find the link, it had an old map.
I grew up in a small town in Maine, and never gave public transit a second thought. Then, when I was 30 I went to graduate school in Boston, lived without a car, and was lucky enough to have an apartment on the MBTA’s Green LIne. For all the MBTA’s problems I found it a reliable and comfortable way to get were I needed to go. I love to read, and could sink into a good book to and from classes. In short, I’ve been a mass transit junkie since then.
I live in Portland, Maine now, and use Amtrak’s Downeaster to get into Boston when I can. So much better than driving a car, or riding a bus.
Allow me to add a kudos for San Francisco transit values..) (MUNI)
Not sure but I think it was CNN who had a story today saying mass transit use last year was as high as its been in 50 years..
The Twin Cities used to have the best streetcar system in the country. We built our own cars because the stock ones couldn’t handle our winters — and every year, each car would be taken apart down to the frame and rebuilt, whether it needed it or not. And then Fred Ossanna and his boys came in and deliberately ran it into the ground.
Our local Democrats had to bludegon the Pugs like crazy to make light rail happen. And now that it has, everybody loves it: The one place where the housing bubble hasn’t burst is — you guessed it — along the light-rail line that leads from the Mall of America past the airport and into downtown Minneapolis. Ridership is two to three times above the wildest expectations for it, and we’ve had to order new cars to meet the demand.
It’s been great for downtown — the Old Chicago nearest the Warehouse District end of the line, which was normally a bit of a meat market, recently added kids’ chairs and such because families coming on the light rail from the ‘burbs would come in to eat.
Brendan @ 2
Yupper — everyone’s watching March Madness, I think. My own thread didn’t crack a hundred comments, though I’m glad to see that Howie’s did.
ah, here it is
san francisco actually has more of philadelphia’s old trolleys than Philly does.
it’s an embarrassment…
Not sure but I think it was CNN who had a story today saying mass transit use last year was as high as its been in 50 years..
Atrios had a link to an article about the increase in transit ridership herej Though the link no longer seems to work.
charlietuna @ 3
And that’s a big benefit of mass transit: It takes a load off the existing highways that are normally crammed with cars with one person in them.
Whoops, sorry The link to the Atrios site is here
One of the ways I find transit to be really useful is that it economically unifies a larger area in a way that cars simply cannot.
For instance, areas like Queens and the farther reaches of Brooklyn would be cut off from the greater NYC without 24-hour transit, which allows people to stay out late in other neighborhoods. In Philly, there are some neighborhoods I never go to because I don’t want to take a cab home if I have a few drinks (which is highly likely). I’ve also noticed that, because of the need to leave the city early, Philly’s relationship with the burbs is one of economic colonization. I don’t know if that’s philly specific or the same rleationship exists with other cities and their burbs.
Gorgeous weather out here in SF…
http://freewayblogger.blogspot.com
just perfect for freewayblogging.
Our local Democrats had to bludegon the Pugs like crazy to make light rail happen. And now that it has, everybody loves it: The one place where the housing bubble hasn’t burst is — you guessed it — along the light-rail line that leads from the Mall of America past the airport and into downtown Minneapolis.
I’ve heard great things about the Hiawatha Line. Unfortunately I haven’t been back to the Twin Cities since it was innagurated. I have tried St. Louis’s Metro Link and found it easy to ride.
Scoopernicus @ 13
that came out this week, right? It’s good to see that ridership is up (and i think reflects current realities wrt gasoline). but ridership could be up a lot more if real muscle was put into public transit.
Hi. Info request here. Did the Republicans succeed in putting some kind of constraints on the Plame panel yesterday? This goes to a wingnut meme I heard today, not focusing on substance, but mocking Waxman for continually interrupting Toensing (’that’s not the question I asked’).
I know it’s not substantive, but it’s still something they may be starting to harp on (I can only assume the ass I heard it from had gotten it from his morning nazi radio show)…
…The parts of the hearing I saw seemed to have a hurried feel to them, and I want to know if it’s because the Republicans insisted on a truncated hearing. TIA for any insight.
One thing that is very visible is the effect of dedicated funding. in philly, there’s a NJ line, PATCO, that uses an old trolley tunnel. everything about patco is superior to septa, from the speed to the cleanliness to the quality of the maps to the 24-hour schedule. It’s all because NJ provides semi-adequate funds to their lines.
I would like to see a return of passenger rail use across the country along with increased freight transit on rail instead of so many semis on the interstates as well as an all bio deisel Greyhound. I loved Japans bullet trains, clean, fast, safe, much better than planes, imo.
I wonder if New Orleans will save or even expand rail/trolly infrastructure since rebuilding could be seen as an opportunity in this respect.
Hey, Brendan. I’m taking a break from packing boxes for moving. I haven’t had a chance yet to look at the house plan, but I will. Thanks for the links. And I’m no expert either.
Phoenix Woman @
12
I’m a big fan of electric systems myself. Multiple cars powered by a single source. Even with the lax emissions standards of bushco, this is superior to thousands of tiny smoke machines idling in traffic.
and of course, bikes are even better. but that’s for another day ;)
Eureka Springs, AR @ 20
…but there is not enough capacity on what is left of the US rail network to carry the traffic they currently have – how are we going to dramatically increase mass transit and freight traffic on rails?
Here in the Bay Area I also do casual carpool, which makes it easy and free to get into town in the mornings, and then BART back to the East Bay in the evenings. It works out great.
I think light rail and high speed trains need to built now before peak oil really starts to hit. It would be great to have trains like they do in Japan, connecting major cities and regions in the US. Like James Howard Kunstler likes to say, we have rail service in the US that would make Bulgaria embarassed.
I recently saw a PBS program about Seattle’s attempt at extending its mono-rail line. It would have been a shining example of a low cost system that could be built quickly. All was going well. The citizens approved referendum, and construction was about to begin. Then some conservative prick lawyer decided to scuttle the whole project, just because he could. He attacked the project planners, who decided they didn’t need this grief, so they resigned.
Still no solution to the traffic congestion, and they are looking at a more costly solution, which is still years away.
Growing up in Seattle we didn’t have a car. Taking the bus from Beacon Hill to the Pike Place Market every Saturday and coming home loaded down with fresh food still makes me happy thinking about it.
Now when I visit, the congestion is unmanageable. People complain about the public transportation, but I don’t really know how it is to use it today.
Public transportation made being poor not quite so bad, since we could go almost anywhere and it was reasonably priced.
I love the L in Chicago, but don’t have to use it on a regular basis.
Public transportation just makes sense in so many ways.
I live in an Atlanta suburb and love the trains. I only wish there were more.
one major problem with mass trrabsit as it exists today is that there isn’t enough incentive to use it.
let’s face it, buses in general suck. They’re slow, as vulnerable to traffic delays as cars, and they usually smell. One city thathas a truly lovely transit system is montreal: very quiet, with rubber wheels, and covers the whole city. good connections to regional lines as well.
one incentive is lowering the cost of PT vs. cars. I’d be willign to bet that’s what accounts for increased ridership that atrios linked to.
A quick search of Google news brings up > 1000 hits for Toronto transit.
The city wants to put in 80km of surface routes with curbs to keep cars out of them. It’s a big hit with most folks, but the merchants fear the end of curbside parking. So there are local fights.
Then there are the city council fights. The right wingers want scarce capital dollars spent on potholes.
Then there’s the problem of getting Federal and Provincial support.
Transit may be one of the biggest political hot potatoes in Toronto for the next few years in spite of hideous gridlock problems.
Thanks for this post, Brendan!
Your timing is perfect. Yesterday I was riding the H Bus and Broad Street line wondering if there was any hope of mounting a campaign to get every city councilperson and every city employee to ride public transportation to work just ONE DAY in a given month.
I’d like to make it a requirement for every candidate running for any Philadephia office. If they propose to represent Philadelphia constituents, they should demonstrate that they know how the system works (or doesn’t).
I have lived here for 4 years, and the history and infrastructure of the transit system is incredibly valuable. As fuel costs continue to make the internal combustion engine a worse choice, having a great transit system could put a city way ahead of others.
I’d like to put pressure on Philadelphia politicians and leaders to do something about it.
About incentive to use it:
Bill Maher suggested years ago, to hire Disney, since people are willing to travel great distances, spend lots of money, and wait in long lines, just to ride what is essentially a train.
So he suggested adding a corkscrew to all mass transit lines to increase ridership.
My observations from this part of the country show most of the old rail lines have been torn up and sold for salvage but the original rail (beds?) lines remain, ready for modernization. Glass half full or empty, I don’t know. Since overall use is up and fuel prices are going to be a factor I think the public would be willing to pursue a political move for improved infrastructure.
In Finland, they have a great mass transit system (street cars). Which is free for mothers with small children (since digging for a ticket or change is hard with a small child in tow). They allow baby strollers, and other riders actually help parents board and deboard. Plus the street car tilts to make loading easier.
Small things like this go along way making people want to use the system.
the way we fund all major highway projects of course: it falls under the same congressional committees that fund our highways. they need to provide the necessary funding instead of the shoestring they run on now.
also, building such systems creates jobs for american workers.
the question of course is where does the money come from, and one goal of Bushco has always been to make the feds unable to fund anything.
Eureka Springs, AR @ 33
Many of those rail beds got converted to rail-to-trail systems, or in some cases the right-of-ways were sold to farmers and others, so putting the system back together is near impossible.
I saw a great rail bed around Ithaca NY get lost as the county blew its chance to buy up the right-of-way, and the land got sold to private land owners, who then blocked the trails to runners and skiers with barriers, including bee hives.
Pectopah @ 32
Hey… there are some places where the train car rocks pretty seriously on some of the Regional Rail lines in Philly. They just need to advertise it as an exciting feature, I guess.
cazimi @ 31
Dude, I got into it with councilman nutter on this topic: part 1 and part 2. Once a month? I think it should be once a week. Bloomberg rides all the time in NYC, perhaps daily.
Our system is a gem, and thank god we still have as much infrastructure as we do, even if it’s largely dormant. Philadelphia is a sustainable city, and that system is a major reason why.
In my view that makes you an expert, since you know what works and what does not. Most people will not use mass transit because of some percieved inconveniences. Address those problems and people will use the system, thereby increasing network coverage.
Phoenix Woman @ 8
Sorry,
I’ve got less to say about mass transit than about local political blogs. We’re probably still 30 years from mass transit where I live – 50 miles north of Anchorage. They have organized ride sharing from here to Anchorage, and my kids car pool to work from here to there in the summmer. Only buses within 50 miles are the senior centers’ shuttles. I work two fifteen-hour days per week in Anchorage, and an eight-hour day here, so car pooling hasn’t worked for me since the 80s.
I drive a diesel Golf unless it snows really heavy, then I switch to an AWD Aerostar until the roads are clean.
Only game I’m going to watch this weekend is Winthrop vs. Oregon tomorrow. A local kid, who my wife used to teach, plays 2nd string center for Oregon.
Pectopah at 39: It’s more than just that: the systems themselves need to be invested in change. for instance, as cazimi will tell you, SEPTA’s Board is hopelessly backward. All but one member lives in the burbs, none ride the system, they refuse to change strategy… the corporate culture needs to change as well.
In the MBTA’s case, I believe they actually have a bunch of cash on hand, they are just incredibly stingy with it. I may be wrong about that.
Eureka Springs, AR @ 33
I have always heard that GM was behind the ripping up of trolley tracks and as the original funder for Trails to Rails. A quick Google search was unsatisfying. Does anyone know? Can they point me to a source of information?
I can see why it wouldn’t be of interest :).
But imagine if Ted Steven put his “tubes” logic to work for an underground rail system connecting all of Alaska’s population centers. It would be impervious to the snow, and probably more useful than a bridge to nowhere…
100% true, a deliberate and successful campaign.
Vancouver BC has an excellent public rail line (skytrain) and electric buses to transverse the east west routes. Mass transit is easy to use and much cheaper than car ownership, car rental and parking. Car parking in Vancouver is expensive and driving in the city is not fun. Pedestrians and bikers take full advantage of their right of way (as well they should). There are bicycle lanes to encourage biking. Every city should have a mass transit system as good as Vancouver.
Florida voters approved a light rail line a couple of times and Jeb Bush found a way to axe the funding. These guys are in the pockets of Big Oil. Nothing much can be done until they are voted out or impeached.
Brendan @ 44
That was quick!! Thanks!
I love this blog.
I love the concept of mass transit. I fully support any measure that will reduce emissions and encourage people to use it.
However if my tax dollars are going to be used to supplement the cost, and I have to pay additional money out of my pocket to use it, it better work properly. It has to be somewhat efficient and user friendly, neither word can be used to describe SEPTA. I understand there are mechanical problems, traffic delays, etc, but they do have duty to provide something to the public that is financing them.
To be honest, SEPTA was a motivating factor to move out of Philly. I got tired of throwing money into a system that didn’t work, and had no desire from the top down to address the problems that were there. More money won’t help SEPTA. A new board and new union leadership would be a good start.
it’s not just the GOP, hackworth at 45. it’s democrats like John Dingell too.
Hey E T, You guys use natural gas heat up there like they do in Canada? I think they run the heat in Edmonton about 9 months per year.
Millineryman @ 47
I agree with you 100%: and that is why I support a complete overhaul of the SEPTA board. I like to say I love riding public transit in Philly, but I hate SEPTA. It’s as dirty as NYC, without a fraction of the efficiency.
man, that better be a good fuckin’ basketball game.
I used to live in the Chicago suburbs, where you drive everywhere, even to a place that’s only a block or two away. Sometimes I would walk, and I would have to walk behind restaurants and through parking lots, because there are hardly any sidewalks. People would look at you like you were walking around naked. It would feel like an act of rebellion. Needless to say, there wasn’t any public transport available there.
I live in NYC now, and I love the subway. We have the best public transport in the country, and it’s fantastic. I don’t have a car anymore, and I love it. No payments, no gas, no insurance, no scraping the ice off, no maintainance, etc., etc.. The NYC subway isn’t perfect, but it’s pretty damn good.
I’ve heard L.A.’s public transport sucks donkey dick. Chicago (the city, not the suburbs) isn’t too bad, but there’s a lot of no man’s land there, i.e. places where the subway don’t go. Buses are OK.
Brendan @ 43
We have less road miles in Alaska than there are in Rhode Island. More roads are added to the suburbs of Chicago every nine months than exist in Alaska. Less road miles have been added to Alaska’s main transportation grid in the 34 years I’ve lived here than are added to the LA area in four days.
We CAN use more rational mass transportation in the two urban areas of the state – Anchorage and Fairbanks. I’ve seen very little improvement in either one in decades.
The further politicians with a development agenda stay from our road planning, the better off we are up here. All their projects seem to benefit a well-connected few or mega-tourism concerns like Holland-America or Princess.
But practically any new bridge in Alaska is on the edge of “nowhere.” If you go through the woods north of my house a couple of miles, you cross a paved road. After that, you’d only cross one more paved road between me and the Trans-Siberia Railroad.
wow. that’s pretty amazing.
hackworth @ 49
We have natural gas. It finally got expensive this winter, and we’re in what may end up being the coldest winter on record, so we’re using more heating fuel than I can ever remember. Already, it is the coldest since 1956. Usually, by this time in March, I’m thinking of starting tomatoes and peppers and the first planters of greens and basil in my greenhouse. Not this year.
Brendan @ 48
I hear you. That’s a problem. The whole Republican Party is bad for 99 percent of us (half of us don’t know it or don’t care) and half of the Democrats are not so good either. We’ve got an uphill battle. We’ve got to clean house in our party, but primarily, we’ve got to keep their guys from getting elected. And they own the media.
We need to return the fairness doctrine. That is of utmost, UTMOST importance.
We have natural gas. It finally got expensive this winter, and we’re in what may end up being the coldest winter on record, so we’re using more heating fuel than I can ever remember. Already, it is the coldest since 1956. Usually, by this time in March, I’m thinking of starting tomatoes and peppers and the first planters of greens and basil in my greenhouse. Not this year.
You run the heat about nine or ten months a year?
Alison @
46
I’m still steamed that GM buried all those oh so cool electric cars in the deserts of Nevada that were so beloved by the once lucky lessee’s throughout the Golden State…and want ta be’s like moi.
I’m surprised by the lack of Washingtonians decrying the DC Metro. Metro is comparatively very clean and simple to use, but it has very limited coverage. There is no metro line to Georgetown (!). Also, the bickering between Virginia, DC, Maryland and Congress seems to make it impossible to get anything done to extend it (plus, there is no commuter tax). Extending a rail line to Dulles airport (a no-brainer, imho), gets mucked up in the VA legislature because suburbanites fight over it being above ground or below ground, and don’t want to deal with congestion caused by construction. The Maryland commuter rail (MARC) is excellent, but only runs on weekdays, leaving travellers with no way to get to or from BWI airport on the weekends. The bus lines inside the city are great, but unreliable regarding schedules. We also have slugs: suburbanites who literally stand at designated corners in the city, holding signs with their destination. Drivers will pick them up just so they can use the HOV lanes.
Brendan @ 57
Well the dems are talking about it anyway, arent they?
Riding the Red Arrow and the P&W. My aunt lived at the end of the Sharon hill run, we’d always stay to see the operator reverse the seats (they back rests flipped over so the all riders cold look forward)before we walked to her place. Also rode the Trolley to my grandmother’s in West Chester from 69th street.
Ahh..the memories.
Brendan @ 57
and public campaign finance.
Cars are a pain in the ass. They constantly break down, traffic sucks (the streets of the suburbs of Chicago are as crowded, possibly more so, than Manhattan), and the fluctuation of gas prices is annoying as hell.
i fucking hate driving in the city.
there, i said it.
I think dem Republican rednecks don’t like mass transit…they think it’s Communistic, because it’s funded by the government….
The only thing I can say, Brendan, is that here in Phoenix the mass transit situation can only get better, because there is none. The only faint resemblance of mass transit is bus service that is basically inadequate and I don’t believe it runs 24-hours per day yet. There have supposedly been plans in the works for lite rail for over a decade, but the debate about that has gone on for so long that most people have lost interest or given up. We are the fifth or sixth largest city in the country, yet in many ways we are the country’s biggest small town.
hackworth @ 58
No. Our house is fairly efficient, has good southern exposure. We don’t use much heat at all from mid-April until early October, depending on the year. Virtually no heating required from May through early September. Every three or four years, we wish we had air conditioning for a day or so.
And think how much more important mass transit will be as the Baby Boom ages and can no longer drive. We need to start now to build the systems we will need when this happens.
Ann in AZ @ 67
yeah it would seem a lot of areas are ripe for PT, like phoenix. heck, you guys outgrew philly a year or so ago, right?
Good day Brendan and all,
As a fellow Philadelphian I’ve spent a good part of the day digging out – including the extra foot of chunks of slush the streets department plowed on my sidewalk.
We moved from the fast-growing southern suburbs to the city to be close (5 minute drive, 20 minute walk) to work, something that not so many do since anyone with kids seems to want to buy their way into the modern schools in the suburbs (further out ones) than the city. Can’t blame them. On the other hand we’re a leisurely 20 minute train ride to center city, museums, orchestra, etc.
Trouble with Philadelphia for sure, and I suspect other cities, is that transit is regional yet the tax base is not. So you have competing interests, and in PA that includes a significant rural population that just does not want to give any money to the evil city. And the burbs love the development of McMansions with their high incomes and high taxes, none of which they need to share with the city. Since roads, especially in PA, are funded mostly by the state and feds, while SEPTA is regional, there’s no incentive to build out the mass transit system.
Here’s a perfect example: we moved from southern Delaware County which was once served by a rail line that ran through the area that is growing significantly. Yet a bridge was either out or unsafe – I forget which – stopping the trains at Elwyn. When I still worked in Center City, I often drove half way into the city, passing easily 6 to 8 train stations before I’d be able to find a parking space. Yet SEPTA never has had the money to fix the bridge, and only recently has SEPTA acquired land to build a station with sufficient parking one stop further out in order to expand the service. Is there demand? You bet, bunches of cars park (illegally and unsafely) on grassy spaces and along the road shoulder near the Elwyn station so people can park and ride. But SEPTA has little funds for infrastructure development. So the roads get more crowded and dangerous, more money is spent to expand roads and the public transit that people clearly would use if it was there is starved for money.
And in Philly, where I now live, we have the longest trolley line in the US, the route 23, which is “temporarily” served by buses. The cost to completely rebuild the infrastructure is beyond SEPTA’s resources (who wants to spend money on old fashioned trolleys), and since the route is a state highway SEPTA doesn’t have to maintain the right of way for buses to run. Besides, according to the claim, buses can go around obstructions (like cars and trucks stopped in the road) and don’t block the way like trolleys do. Which is ridiculous, buses still pick up passengers in the middle of the street and block traffic, and parking in the street is illegal, I thought. But according to at least one friend, there’s an irony here that shows how absurd this can be. SEPTA can’t abandon the trolley line and must maintain the tracks and wires. It seems that the street, Germantown Avenue, does not have a cartway wide enough to legally operate buses without making significant portions no parking. It is wide enough to operate trolleys. So the buses are “temporary” until the trolleys are returned to service, and there’s not the will to allocate or find the funds to return the trolleys.
Then again, as someone pointed out, many of the cars that used to run on this line are out in San Francisco, just saw one on a tv show last night. Somebody is fixing the cars up…
Public transit is for city people, city people bad/Democrats/not like us (the suburban counties in the region which dominate the SEPTA board are all long-entrenched Republican, though that is changing (yea Joe Sestack and Patrick Murphy!), so why spend the money on them… Let’s just build more roads, burn more gas and be more dependent on foreign oil, pollute the air, etc., etc. McMansions rule.
OT, but snared a good one reading through comments at TPM Muck, where they’re discussing the difficulty in nailing Tony Snow down on what “loyalty” and “serving at the pleasure of the president” really mean:
It’s important to remember that Monica Lewinsky served at the pleasure of the President too.
Lived in Dublin- no car. Moved to London- no car. Moved to Toronto-definitely no car. Moved to Montreal- no car. Moved to Baton Rouge- still no car.
Moved to L.A.- Asked neighbors, “Hey, where’s the closest transit stop?” Was looked @ like I had two heads (I don’t BTW).
Bought first car.
domma @ 60
Yeah, the biggest problem with Metro is that it took so long to get built that the demographics of the whole region had changed between planning and construction (from almost entirely suburb-to-city to heavily suburb-to-suburb), and there was no plan for ongoing expansion.
Yeah, ’cause at the time those idiot “upscale” types didn’t want the riff-raff coming in, and didn’t want the construction. Joke’s on them now.
Er, not exactly. It was planned out as being aboveground because although everyone agreed underground would be better, it would cost too much. Then a company came in an showed that they could do it with new boring technology for not much more. However, it was far enough along in the planning process that a delay would “jeopardize the federal funding” or, depending on who you believe, the funding was jeopardized by Frank Wolf (R) because the aboveground contractor was Bechtel, which is one of his big contributors.
That said, it is certainly difficult to get agreements for federal funding through the competing interests of two state legislatures and congressional delegations, and a District that has no voting representation in Congress.
In the sprawling suburb know as Gloucester County, NJ, we have local residents fighting light rail solutions. They don’t like the concept of people coming into their towns to use the trains.
Funny thing is, some of these towns could use redevelopment. The PATCO line that Brendan referred to earlier goes through Camden County,which neighbors Gloucester County. The PATCO train stops is some thriving small towns that have shops and restaurants. The towns in Gloucester County that fight these proposals tend to have vacant storefronts, and business that fail quickly.
I’ve heard some of the local folks where I live say they don’t a train stop here because it’ll bring an “element” to the town that don’t need. They also say since 2 bus routes go through town, there is no need for train.
The town sprung up as summer retreat due to the train and a large lake. Somehow, that is lost on the people who don’t want the light rail, yet are so proud of the town’s history.
Dick Durbin has helped our area to get close to getting an Amtrak train from Chicago to Dubuque, Iowa. If we can come up with $62 million we’ll have twice daily service by the end of 2008. Trains used to run regularly, but stopped in ‘81.
Alison, i’ve heard the same thing about GM. I believe I got that information from a wonderful documentary on the fall of public transportaion systems in America. Unfortunatly, I am blanking on the name…
helpful huh?
Redshift @ 74
Thanks, Redshift! I hadn’t heard anything about the new technology aspect.
jdkahler @ 71
WRT Philadelphia and SEPTA that is a major part of the issue. Another is that Philadelphia’s representation on SEPTA’s board is very small.
Also true, but a flawed premise (on their part, not yours). My father grew up in NYC and likes to point out that while Albany always screws the city to some degree, they recognize NYC’s power as a economic engine for the state, which was hammered home in the days after 9/11. harrisburg does not recognize that the whole state would benefit from a thriving philly (and pittsburgh for that matter).
that’s the dedicated funding thing…
And in Philly, where I now live, we have the longest trolley line in the US, the route 23, which is “temporarily” served by buses.
they are actually paving over stretches of germantown. Illegally, I might add.
that was me!
that is also true, but and in PA’s case it’s not the way it should be. the relationship between the nearby burbs and the city should be more symbiotic: currently, there a real imbalance.
Brendan,
There are many of us who read long after the next thread is up. I’m lucky that I finally caught up today.
At the risk of using a too-hackneyed word, it’s a matter of dominant paradigms. We get used to thinking something is better, by hook (and crook), it becomes dominant. American cities evolved to accept cars, but they weren’t really made for them (Boston’s a perfect example–downtown, the roads are twisty little paths, because those were the routes to move livestock down to the Commons to graze). Move on out to Brookline and the roads are wider and straighter because those were the townhomes for the wealthier people–needed room for more carriages.
But, I’ve spent almost fifteen years in the manufacturing side of the transit business, and like most other aspects of life today, there are a lot of hidden reasons for the way things are. Someone asked why the MBTA system shuts down so early compared to other cities. Part of that is that there are blue laws which then caused other sub-system changes to become institutionalized (my guesses on those institutionalized changes are two-fold–maintenance requirements and union rules on overtime).
While there’s been more federal money for equipment purchase in the last decade or two, the money for maintenance has been steadily dropping, which may be why equipment isn’t in service more often. Used to be that if operators bought equipment through an FTA program, they got a payment from the feds amounting to 55-60% of the parts and maintenance costs. Those stipends have been steadily dropping for the past decade and a half, and are now perhaps 8-10% of actual costs. That means more equipment will sit waiting for repairs because the operating budgets are tighter. Not many major systems are able to fund themselves right out of the farebox.
Millineryman @ 75
that is crazy to me. there’s another big hole in the North Jersey Coat line: if it crossed tom’s rive and connected to atlantic city that would be a big benefit.
My folks live in EHT, I use the atlantic city line regularly. my sister comes fromny and has to transfer at least once, sometimes twice if she takes the train.
[Mod Note; your earlier atrios link is fixed. No extra charge]
Brendan at #70 says:
I checked that out and found a website that ranks Philly & Phoenix virtually neck and neck in 2005. However, I’m not sure how it would be if ranked by Metro area. Mesa is like the second largest city in AZ (I think) and Glendale and Tempe are pretty good size too. You have to see the signs to know you’re leaving one city and entering another, so…
In any case, it’s uncertain whether we’ll even get enough highway improvements to satisfy all the burgeoning population increases, and it’s hard telling how long before we get anything more technologically and ecologically sound.
Here are two good reasons (for this Dem voter) for why I will not vote for the front runners for Democratic prez of the U.S. in 2008. Obama for overtly supporting Lieberman over Lamont, and Clinton for covertly supporting Lieberman.
montag at 81: “Those stipends have been steadily dropping for the past decade and a half, and are now perhaps 8-10% of actual costs. That means more equipment will sit waiting for repairs because the operating budgets are tighter. Not many major systems are able to fund themselves right out of the farebox.”
Too true. Also vehicle replacement suffers.it’s my understanding that PATCO’s trains date from 1969.
Not that they’re bad cars: i love ‘em!
SEPTA’s trolleys date from the 1980s, although the classic PTC’s have been refurbished and revived on one surface line. the el is from the early 1990s.
OTOH< some trains are made to last along time. the red arrow line someone mentioned a few comments up used the same cars for about… I wanna say almost 60 years. they could reach 100 mph.</p>
Hallo Brendan, just wanted to let you know that smack in the middle of all the FDL breakdowns of rethug admin scandals, it’s a brilliant idea to highlight public transit.
Yes, public transit in the US was shut down by a conspiracy of GM, tire makers and eventually found guilty, and fined a whopping five thou. From there moving to the personal auto was ordained, along with pork barrel highway funds. The right for bears to drive wherever they wanted became as amurkan as the bears right to be armed.
Having lived in old europe for five years, it’s indeed awesome to hear the citizen complaints about the transit systems, because on-time stats have fallen below 95% or an outlying line going from nowhere to outer somewhere is being cut to once an hour. All the while the entire society uses mass transit, ‘cept the boys with choppers (both the two wheel and two rotor types.)
from an energy standpoint alone, effective mass transit should be a given. But the social aspects are underplayed. Mass transit is simply how most people cope with getting around. San Francisco’s Muni and Portland come to mind as the closest to emulating europe.
By the way, about 5km from here, the transport between Unterburg and the more elevated Schlossburg is an aerial tramway! And the way to cross the Wupper river between Remscheid and Solingen is hand propelled tram! the customers must pump it! (OK, its a park.)
Oklahoma kiddo @ 84
so, would you say you’re… wait for it…
wait for it…
“throwing them from the train”?
HAHAHAHOHO! thank you ladies and germs, I’ll be at the Hu Ke Lau all week, after Wino Karaoke, every Tuesday!
BTW, anyone know how comes on after me?
I gotta eat soon.
Brendan @ 85
Don’t forget the highway lobbyist! How many major east coast cities ended up with I-95 cutting them in two, or cutting them off from their water front? It is akin to putting a coal plant or oil refinery in the poor neighborhoods.
Brendan @ 82
domma @ 78
Here’s an article that mentions it. I know there was more extensive information about it at the time, but I may have heard it on the radio, rather than in print.
Brendan @ 88
Oh, don’t starve yourself on our account! We appreciate it, but you don’t have to stick around until the next post goes up. We’ll just talk amongst ourselves.
go eat, sweetie – we’ll talk amonst ourselves.
Hey, Redshift! how are you. You and the mrs going to YKos2?
i was dismayed to see the lines torn up around here – west of Boston. And i have sore arms from shoveling snow.
(hey, mods! nice spellcheck feature!)
stina @ 90
There used to be a huge “road to nowhere” highway segment in the sky next to 95 south of Baltimore. I saw it all the time growing up, and never knew until about ten years ago that it was a remnant of a project to build I-95 through downtown Baltimore, and that a lot of well-known Baltimore politicians like Kurt Schmoke had risen to prominence in the fight to stop it.
Kathryn in MA @ 95
I’m doing okay. How are you? I should be working on my taxes. :-)
We’re planning to go, but not absolutely certain yet, so we haven’t signed up yet.
Sorry I didn’t see this post sooner. Transit and transportation issues are a passion of mine. I have been working on this issue for several years now, including drafting a citizen’s initiative to bring light rail to my city(it failed alas). As luck would have it, now I don’t have much time, but if you want to know why transit in the US is in such horrible shape watch “Taken for a Ride”–it is a documentary that tells how GM and Firestone systematically destroyed successful streetcar systems all over the country. Also, whenever people discuss transit and cost, they ignore how much our automobile based systems costs each of us individually–much more than a good transit system. See “Driven to Spend” a report by the Surface Transportation Policy Project (www.transact.org). Finally, Ann in AZ the light rail line in Phoenix is under construction right now and is scheduled to be up and running in about a year–extensions are being planned right and left. One of the most frustrating things in all of this is how many progressive types don’t realize how much transportation issues impact so many other issues–economics, environment, land use, access to jobs and education…it is a terrific tool but when you try to change the status quo the cement heads come out in FULL FORCE. Still, I believe the transition is inevitable. Even if we all drive Priuses or biofuel vehicles, the inefficiency of single occupant vehicles is just too costly.
NH
New Hamsher
I just know I’m in epu territory, but I have to post this: The d r i f t g l a s s version of Henry Waxman’s cross-examination of Victoria Toensing.
30 years of living in NYC and I’m a devoted fan of mass transit. Fast, reliable, convenient, low stress (I read or knit, and can even do the latter standing up). But it’s a hard sell out yonder. My own theory, reading between the lines of conversations I’ve had over the years, is that folks think there’s something not quite American about mass transit. It doesn’t quite jibe with the “rugged individual” who jumps into his saddle, or revs his engine, and goes. A crowded subway car just doesn’t hold the same promise of adventure as the open road.
Not to mention that one argument I use that never convinces anyone is that it’s faster and more convenient than taxis or driving your own car around town. Mind you, I’ll be talking to people who’ve never ridden a subway, even when they’ve visited NYC. But I’m the one who doesn’t know what I’m talking about.
Couple that mindset with the highway lobby and it’s no wonder that we’re light years behind Europe and Japan with transportation alternatives.
Brendan @ 87
Any train or trolly will do. ;0)
jhc @ 99
Wow! Good starting places. Thanks so much!
yay, Jane’s here!
I’m going over there to see what she’s up to, and then headed out for some wine. makin’ chicken marsala tonight!
As an adjunct professor in urban design, urban planning and landscape architecture all I can say is that the U.S. is really behind the 8 ball on comprehensive, holistic transportation planning and policies. It’s really quite pathetic. The highway lobby (big oil, Detroit and the concrete/asphalt industry) has dictacted transportation planning since the end of WWII to the detriment of the quality of life for both urban and rural communities. Because Americans are so provincial and travel so little to other countries they have no idea that viable and exciting options are possible.
I think I’m going to Tahlequah (Ta’ligwu) tonight. To see the people.
Would seem to be that climate activists need a public transport division.
Bluetoe @ 106
All true, but I think we’ve got a few problems, practically and politically, that European countries don’t have. We have that big chunk of the country between the coasts where major metro centers are spread out from one another, and in the middle west and rocky mountain states, big stretches of empty space. For that reason, there’s a big disconnect between the urban east and west coasts and the western states regarding policy. With each of those states getting two senators who don’t want to spend any money on public transit, it’s tough developing a national policy.
The gradual destruction of the national passenger rail system through de-funding and attempts at privatization is a good example of how that works.
Brendan @
35
Precicely the point – for all the crimes and treason of this administration – they have been extremely “successful” in one are: determining the fiscal agenda at all levels of government for generations to come.
This is a fantastic post. I remember, as a very small child in Los Angeles, the last of the trolleys. There were trolley lines throughout the city in previous years. The (unused) tracks were still being torn out into the 70’s.
You could (my Father did) go from Glendale to Manhattan Beach on trolley lines, or even from Glendale to Balboa Island in Orange County.
It’s a cryin’ shame.
jhc @ 99
I agree with you because, for me, it all comes back to what they told us in my last class before graduation. They said and Indian or Chinese person riding a bike used much less energy than our cars, and that by 2030 we would probably have to give up our cars, both for lack of oil and because of their pollution effects on global warming.
But I would also point out that the light rail was a very long time in coming. I remember it being on the ballot a number of times in various forms over about fifteen to twenty years before there was one length of track laid. All the while, construction and build up of potential routes was occurring, and real estate prices were going up. Arizona is seemingly always way behind when it comes to transportation needs, and always seems to find the most expensive, inefficient ways of solving problems. Maybe that’s because, until recently, repugs were primarily in charge. (First it was a used car salesman named Meacham; then a land developer named Fife Symington. Then there was Jane Hull, who managed to come up with what was called the alternative fuels fiasco) Now that Janet Napolitano is in charge, I have higher hopes for the state’s progress.
Brendan, SF has the old trolleys on the tourist parts of the City– that run on Nob Hill and Powell St, in downtown SF. The rest has articulators– long electric powered buses and of course the local underground transit B.A.R.T that connects the City to SFO, which is great.For a long time the cab drivers opposed it, but it opened up a few years ago and has helped traffic congestion somewhat.
I just got back from New Mexico’s Albuquerque,where new transit systems are popping up all over this growing city and its a great thing. I would rather ride than pay for gas – $3.15pg for 87 octane.
I’m not even going to buy a new car now.
You know I grew up in SE Texas, in a town where I had to drive two blocks to my best friend’s house, because there was no sidewalks and it wasn’t safe to walk. Public transport was practically non-existent, and whether or not it was directly taught to me, as a young child I internalized the idea that if you took the bus there was something very very wrong with you.
Of course as an adult I have grown out of that notion, and refuse to live in a city without a workable public transport system, but this is a notion I still find parts of the Midwest and South. A result of the great white flight to the burbs? Our urban sprawl that expands the way of our waist lines? When I visit my mother in Texas there is a different notion of environmental soundness. She and her friends believe themselves in good shape because they live in a gated 50 and up community that has walking trails and is conscious of water run-off. They drive EVERYWHERE, whether it is to pick up a tube of toothpaste, or around the corner. I have had to fly into Albuquerque several times in the past year for work and noticed the same mindset. I saw people in line at restaurants change their mind, and decide to go to the restaurant next door. They would get into their cars, drive twenty feet, and re-park the car. This is absurd! Where did this mindset come from? Why does it exist and why is it perpetuated?
Not to knock these areas of the country, but as long as these mindsets, and ways of life persist we are all in big trouble.
Living in Minnesota,I’ll ditto Phoenix Woman above but add that one thing that stymies mass transit here as elsewhere is the lack of coordinated planning. Even though the Metropolitan Council has authority over both sewers and mass transit, sewers lead development resulting in large lot developments built around suburban cities which assume all residents have at least two cars. Mass transit lags far behind. This needs to be reversed so that there is no new sewer extensions until there is a plan for mass transit serving the development resulting from the sewer.
jonerik @ 115
Yeah, and any such proposals are always met with an inevitable challenge: “You’re against growth!”
We’re going to have to think harder about what growth means before there’s a publicly-understandable reply to that charge. Planning should be more than just accommodating willy-nilly change. When real estate developers run the world, we’re in big trouble. :)
fourmorewars @
18
Valerie Plame Wilson has, like any CIA agent present or past, questions which she may not answer. Anyone can *ask* anything.
Re was it rushed? Each rep had 5 min to speak/question (usual format) and second round each had 3 min. Rep Waxman seemed to indicate that another session would/could be in the works. BTW, I watched the hearing and the R who complained the most abt too little time was minority chairman Tom Davis (R-VA), who spoke in a veeeeery sloooooow draaaaaawl and he flirted w/Valerie and he talked about steroids in baseball and if he was serious abt short time he coulda talked f’ing faster amd stuck to the f’ing point. But I am a Gemini from Michigan/Canada, I am suspicious of drawls and I equate slow-talking with slow-wittedness. However, it may be normal for VA-ians. I was also annoyed b/c he was asking Valerie about things she could have no knowledge of (what had her CIA bosses said to whom, why had she been outed, etc.) Duh, why wasn’t he asking the people who did it?
Anyway.
A large number of the R’s simply did not show up. Possibly to show that this hearing was not important, but if they were serious abt getting questions answered, perhaps they should have had a few more bodies on deck. Ed*ard Teller monitored the FreeRep comments and someone around comment 1000 actually called their rep, the young woman who answered said, “He didn’t go, too busy.” so that shoots the ‘D’s wouldn’t let R members speak’ meme, I guess. Details and a sampling of the Freeper comments on the Friday Night Goddess Blogging/LateNight thread starting here..
More info at Chrmn Waxman’s site here.
Also, I heard the hearings, and VT was talking away like she was a guest pundit on Meet The Press not a witness at a Congressional Hearing. She wans’t answering the question HW was asking. It’s not her show, it’s his. Perhaps she would rather have been there for the baseball steroid hearing that Tom Davis conducted when the R’s had the majority. (/snark)
Pec @ 26
Ummm, re Seattle monorail, PBS left stuff out it was another program? Mayor opposed the monorail. Put it to a vote TWICE. Citizens voted yes TWICE.
So what did he do? Put it to anOTHER vote: finally got his no vote. As for the pr people? They let the meme be used: “From West Seattle to Ballard”, instead of: “From W Seattle to downtown and Ballard to downtown.” Connecting those 2 neighborhoods to each other sounds like it serves only them… whereas with the downtown thrown in, you can visualize each neighborhood serving to funnel from areas nearby to downtown.
To boot, when they originally proposed our light rail… they were going to stop 1 mile short of the airport. If you wonder how much sense our city planners have, and how clean the process is.
To boot,
This is a marvelous topic. Hopefully there will be more to come on this issue. Maybe the blogs can shove progress along on mass transit. BTW, please don’t think that the majority of VA-ians resemble in anyway our elected officials.
This is yet another issue we lost with the stolen election of 2000. One of Al Gore’s concerns then and after was the consequences of urban sprawl.
I am so EPUed here, but I feel obliged to note that, following the hurricane of 1938, my mother got to college in Rochester, NY from Boston entirely by taking inter-urban trolleys. It took a couple days, but she did it safely and had a good time, too. Now, inter-urbans don’t even exist.
If GM goes belly-up, it will be 50 years too late. Dingall’s 80, and we can’t let his bought-and-paid-for past stop our future. It’s time to plough him under.
The bus system can be improved with good University-Transit partnerships. In Lafayette, IN, Purdue collects money from student fees and contracts with public transit to provide bus service. The Univeristy gets extra routes, saves are parking garage construction and congestion. Students, faculty and staff can not only ride on campus but ANYWHERE on the system for free, because of the lump sum contract. Cities could do the same thing with a lot of their own employees. This would free up parking for businesses, and give transit ridership a boost. The more riders the more frequent the busses run and the better the service and the more riders. It takes investment to start the spiral up.
Joining Veritas78 deep in the heart of EPUland…
I lived in an outlying neighborhood of Philadelphia (Chestnut Hill, for the locals, on the cheap side of the trolley tracks) for 18 years, during which I owned a car for about 10 hours (brought it home and parked it at 9 p.m., by 7 a.m. it had been stolen – all too true story). I commuted to work in Center City on one of two available regional rail lines, and did all local travel by rail, very occasionally by bus, and on my own two little feet.
These days I live in central Illinois, where I occasionally find myself talking to college classes and community groups about transportation issues. I tell them about my carless 18 years, and they look at me in disbelief mixed with suspicion. The notion that transit can be a matter of choice is a really tough sell here, despite the fact the there are pretty good small-city transit systems all over this region.
Locally, auto ownership is higher than 90% of households, 3-car garages are standard on new houses, and most parking is free, which is to say subsidized. It’s going to take a serious energy shock to turn attitudes in this neck of the woods.
Way upthread I was interrupted by a phone call, which lasted forever, then had to hit the stores before they closed so I’m here in EPUland too.
I personally think that the lack of public transportation has ruined people’s sense of community. People in cars don’t have to rub shoulders or even acknowledge strangers. My neighbor had to ride the bus to work recently since his car broke down. He said he’d been scared since he hadn’t been on a bus since he got his license in high school. I’m sure I gave him a funny look as I park in a lot and ride the bus to campus every day. Since then neighborguy said we’d have lots fewer drunk driving incidents, and people could hang out more easily if we had better public tranport.
The real question is: how much money is the Bush administration willing to see go to countries like Russia, Iran, and Venezuela because that’s more politically correct in their book than getting serious about Public Transit. I know what the Conservos would propose if they recognized the benefits of better PT: it would look so much like school vouchers that a Liberal criticism would have the same name: “skimming.”
Early in the Reagan years, Free Market economists proposed many schemes to bring market discipline to government operations. Some were good, some were bad but showed an active mind seeking the limits of a new paradigm. Their proposal here was Transit Stamps. Did they really think that a project with such a name will get middle class commuters to reevaluate their need to drive to work against society’s need for energy conservation and independence, pollution control and sprawl reduction? Either they see transit users as losers or they put the oil industry’s fortune ahead of the country’s.
More kudos from outer EPUland to Brendan for this post. I too would enjoy seeing more on mass transit, which affects one way or another just about every domestic issue before us. Good point in particular about the timeliness of joining transit, climate, and energy conservation agendas.
Regarding election strategies around these issues, it’s certainly true that Dingell, and to maybe a less obvious or long-standing degree many other members of the Michigan delegation have put up roadblocks(!) to reform—but it ought to be just as clear by now that Michigan is going to have to move in some other directions on its economic base and its own infrastructure. Those facts might make it easier to organize voters, at least within a few electoral cycles if not quite this one yet.
Late to this post… I just read Brendan’s post and jumped down here to the end of the comments… EPU-land?
I, too, am a SEPTA rider, and have a serious love-hate relationship with the service, the conductors, etc. (I ride the R-3 line and live too close in to be able to ride any of the express trains with the better equipment.)
Still, I did leave work a bit earlier than usual on Friday, in order to catch an earlier train home (regional rail), before the rush-hour madness could set in and delay the trains, too. And the train I caught (4:42) was on time.
From what I’ve heard… “back in the day” everyone used to ride SEPTA, especially the trolleys that ran through nearly every neighborhood. My guess is that as the middle-class fled the city for the suburbs, the pressure to keep the system up to snuff lessened.
My biggest complaint: the conversion of so many lines to diesel buses, which are miserable if you’re behind them, and can be just as miserable if you’re on one, and the air filtration is not working well, or if there is one of those loud humming noises that can really give you a head-ache, especially combined with diesel fumes.
And yet, I was able to attend a funeral on Thursday in another part of the city, with an easy transfer at 30th street to the R8 line, and then return to work in University City, without having to worry about where to park a car. A real pain, especially mid-day, if you don’t have a paid monthly spot.
“I have always heard that GM was behind the ripping up of trolley tracks and as the original funder for Trails to Rails. A quick Google search was unsatisfying. Does anyone know? Can they point me to a source of information?
100% true, a deliberate and successful campaign.” (Brendan at 44 with links).
PBS did a special investigative documentary on this several years ago. And the kicker was that the companies responsible for destroying our nation’s post-WWII mass transit system were fined $5,000 each with the guilty CEOs each fined a dollar, following congressional investigations into what they had been doing. Whoopee. Compared to the obscene profits they expected to get from destroying mass transit, these fines in themselves were obscene.
Face it. Patriotic and loyal U.S. citizens have to be on watch each generation for these crooked conservative businessmen and politicians, whose ultimate fealty is to money, money, money and not necessarily the best interests of our country and all American citizens.
Hey, just look at the crooked Bush administration for a prime example. They don’t give a damn for our democracy, and strangely enough have done everything they can to kill the goose that laid the golden egg. Subverting our Constitution. Subverting our nation’s fiscal health. Subverting our basic freedoms. And all in pursuit of short-term ravenous greed and to hell with the rest of us, including many of their fellow Republicans.
This is why what certain corrupt post-WWII businessmen did is so important to learn about, because it is symptomatic of how the nefarious schemes by certain greedy individuals can adversely affect all the rest of us, whether 55 years ago involving the destruction of mass transit or what the Bush cabal is doing today.
When I was a child, I lived in DC next to a trolley line. 10 years later, there were still a few stretches of track here and there.
In the 70s I lived in Oakland CA where (20 years earlier) you could ride trolleys from San Jose to the Sacramento River and beyond.
The auto industry was behind the original destruction of railed mass transit (above). These days, mass transit is seen as socialism (as in “I own a Beamer and a Caddie, why should I pay for someone else to get around?”). Which explains why in the 80s, Dallas’s bus system ran from poor neighborhoods to rich neighborhoods (deliver the maids) and nowhere else.
Bugger, I wish I’d seen this earlier.
Come to Denver, where the electorate has voted to raise sales taxes to fund a massive expansion of light-rail!
http://www.rtd-fastracks.com/main_1
Marvel at the newly opened extension which runs for 20-odd miles into the south-east suburbs!
http://www.rockymountainnews.c…..06,00.html
Shame nobody’s going to read this.
Hey, I use that Dallas line! And from what I see, it used to be exclusively nonwhite/poor people, but recently I’ve seen more whites and better-off types who are tired of high gas prices/parking rates.
Still, it leaves a lot to be desired. Texas has terrible sprawl, and so getting buses/ trains that really service all neighborhoods will take a long time. The whole idea of living close to where you work is still very foreign and exotic to people here…but new apartments are being built in the local downtowns.
One of the big problems is that one of the largest suburbs, Arlington, refuses to build any mass transit; in fact, it’s the largest town in the US without mass transit. And the clogged highways show it. There’s a lot of residual racism in this; people without cars are (in Texas) generally poor and nonwhite; not having transit means they are less likely to move into your area.
I just have to say this Brendan, people will use any transportion that will get them there faster and easier. If it’s built they will come.