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Politics : Formerly About Advanced Micro Devices -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Joe NYC who wrote (124082)	9/17/2000 7:00:22 PM
From: tejek	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 1571832

Joe That's what people chose to do, given a choice. What individual people prefer is not always what's best for society in general. Something that has not been tried is the other approach: making public transportation more attractive. Or even better, taking public out of the public transportation and replace it with private. Actually there are more and more attempts at this kind of approach. Many new light and heavy rail trains have amenities normally associated with first class airline service......telephones, laptop hookups, spacious seating, designated places to sit and eat and/or drink, food/drink bar, etc. They are fairly successful. In many cities, mass transit ridership (particularly on the west coast) is increasing albeit slowly. I was in LA recently and they now have special buses that can change traffic lights to insure faster travel. That seems to be the ultimate key....as traffic congestion worsens and speed of travel diminishes....more and more middle and an upper class people turn to mass transit as an alternative so long as it gets them there faster and is pleasant. As for private involvement, Super Shuttle et al are the equivalent...and they have met with mixed success. I actually took a bus from the airport the other day (you should try it one day, talk is cheap). It was run by a private company, and I had a very positive experience. The bus was roomy, quiet, clean, comfortable, air-conditioned, with enough leg room for my long legs. Like I said earlier, there have been a ton of improvements. Unfortunately most people don't know about them. Of course there is the inconvenience of not ending up exactly where you want to end up, and another leg by some other means of transportation to get to your doorstep, which can be very inconvenient with luggage. That's why people take cabs, if they can afford it. Nothing is perfect. <g> The only way for mass transportation to work is to remove it from the control of people with 19th century, industrial age thinking. Also, the word "mass" will somehow need to be removed from mass transportation as well, and cater to the individual. I think that is happening....gov't officials are being forced to think outside the box. I consider this as important as issue...you will love this one, Joe....as global warming. <g> I don't see anything on the horizon with a good chance of succeeding. There will not be one solution...the problem is way too complicated. Rather we will have to rethink the entire transit system for a metro area, pull it apart and rebuild it piece by piece...implementing different solutions for different pieces. ted

To: Joe NYC who wrote (124082)	9/17/2000 7:39:42 PM
From: tejek	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 1571832

Apropo....in the current issue of BW...maybe its time for mass transit to make a revival. ____________________________________________________________ Business Week: September 25, 2000 Readers Report There Is More Than One Way out of Airport Hell Similar to the futility of solving highway congestion, laying down more concrete is not a long-term solution to ``Airport Hell'' (News: Analysis & Commentary, Sept. 4). The Europeans and Japanese have years of experience showing that high-speed rail works and is a viable alternative. Closer to home, even much-maligned Amtrak has a better on-time performance record and fewer canceled trips on its own property (Northeast Corridor) than most airlines. With trains, weather has less of an impact, there are no airport security hassles, it is downtown-to-downtown, and it's downright relaxing. You're not crammed between two burly passengers with the seat back parked under your nose. You're not stuck with nothing but pretzels and unable to work or read because the air is too bumpy. Following a particularly bad shuttle flight in 1982, I haven't flown on business trips in the Northeast Corridor since. By train, I have never experienced more than trivial inconveniences or delays. I dream of the day I can take a similar train to Raleigh or Charlotte, N.C. There are many people, like me, living in hub cities, who would like the option of high-speed rail travel to destinations less than 400 miles away. One high-speed train can hold three planeloads of passengers traveling between Chicago and St. Louis. The train can do it at less cost with less energy and greater comfort in about the same downtown-to-downtown travel time. Why couldn't we divert some of the billions we spend on airports to build dedicated high-speed rail lines, reducing flights between their end points? There is a growing divergence between the wishes of travelers and those of airport and airline lobbyists. High-speed rail in the U.S. is long overdue. Robert H. Leilich Springfield, Va. Airlines are overbooked; airports and highways are congested. Now might be the time for another national program similar to the manned moon mission. We as a people like to set a goal and accomplish it. A goal to provide an alternative means of travel that is reliable, efficient, comfortable, and cost-effective would be such a program. The Interstate Highway System was conceived in the 1950s, when automobile traffic was much less. Now is the time to envision a high-speed passenger rail system, initially between large cities and then to smaller markets. Using the medians and land adjacent to the interstate highways for the right of ways and limiting their use to passenger trains would allow for the development of an alternative to airlines and the automobile. Money from highway, gasoline, and airport taxes to fund this system and the creation of an agency similar to the Federal Aviation Administration to monitor its development would allow faster construction. When people consider the time lost in traffic and in driving to an airport, crowded airlines, and weather delays, high-speed passenger rail service becomes a viable alternative. Louis Schultz Portsmouth, Va.