Silicon Investor (SI) -- The First Internet Community

STOCKTALK

We've detected that you're using an ad content blocking browser plug-in or feature. Ads provide a critical source of revenue to the continued operation of Silicon Investor. We ask that you disable ad blocking while on Silicon Investor in the best interests of our community. If you are not using an ad blocker but are still receiving this message, make sure your browser's tracking protection is set to the 'standard' level.

Pastimes : Advanced Micro Devices - Off Topic -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: pgerassi who wrote (865)	3/5/2007 1:02:37 PM
From: TimF	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 1141

The average is higher than 16MPG. Irrelevant as that is what the IRS assumes. I would say more that what the IRS assumes is irrelevant if your talking about reality. Not irrelevant if your talking about tax figures, but you can't use an IRS assumption as a strong argument for real, non-tax related events, esp. over a direct description of reality. That request to double mainline track was a single loan whose principal was equal to just 20% of one year of highway construction budget nationwide. In other words, the highway system spends every year on construction, 5 times the cost to double all of the mainline track nationwide. And again that doesn't include all the costs for doubling the line, and more importantly doubling the main lines would provide transportation to only a small fraction of the places that the new road construction each year would allow people to access. "Even living in one of the worst metro areas for traffic, it still would normally take longer to get to most places by mass transit, and that would be true even if the budget for mass transit greatly increased." Not true. It takes 2.8 hours to go from Kenosha, WI to downtown Chicago, IL by car during rush morning (its long past a rush hour). By Metra from downtown Kenosha, it takes 40 minutes including many local stops along the way. That lets out at Ogilvie Transportation Center. From there its less than 5 minutes to most downtown locations by bus. Quite a few use mass transit than drive because of the aggravation and traffic jams. And the number is rising. So mass transit is faster than going by car. Not many people commute 2.8 hours. Examples of such long commutes aren't fictional, but they aren't very relevant to the typical commuter. I gave my personal example (where a car is much faster) and implied that typically transportation by car was typically faster. The particular example of Kenosha to Chicago hardly is enough to even say "not true" about the wider implication, and is totally irrelevant to my specific direct assertion. "I doubt it. In any case 10% of long distance highway use is probably less than 1% of total miles driven." You forget trucking which does more long distance than 1%. IIRC the definition for local is within 5 miles, intracity at 20 miles, regional at 100 miles and long distance greater than that. Even with trucking I doubt long distance is greater than 10% of the total of all miles driven. Since you where talking about 10% of long distance highway use, that probably means less than 1% of total miles driven. Most of the current freeways go along old trolley routes. I'm not sure whether your just talking about Milwaukee or all cities. If your freeways covering most cities, then the assertion that most of them go along old trolley routes is just false. If your talking about Milwaukee only, well then it might be true, but I have some doubt, esp. if you mean most of the miles of the freeway system, not just some part of most of the freeways. So your contention that light or heavy rail couldn't go into the suburbs is wrong. I never made any such contention. Both light and heavy rail do go in to the suburbs. What they can't do is cover all the various suburb to suburb commutes.

To: pgerassi who wrote (865)	3/5/2007 1:02:38 PM
From: TimF	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 1141

dup

To: pgerassi who wrote (865)	3/6/2007 9:33:53 PM
From: Joe NYC	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 1141

Pete, Not true. It takes 2.8 hours to go from Kenosha, WI to downtown Chicago, IL by car during rush morning (its long past a rush hour). By Metra from downtown Kenosha, it takes 40 minutes including many local stops along the way. I don't understand why you pick the most extreme example to make your point. I can drive from NYC to Philadelphia in that time, and BTW, nobody commutes this far. Do to this by mass transportation (during the hours of frequent service), it would take me 40 minutes just to get to Penn Station, then an average of 20 minutes wait for the next train, then 1h 20 minutes by Amtrak at $60, then another 40 minutes to get where you really want to go (to the door). Did I mention that $60 is one way? You can save money and double the train time on a commuter railroad (with some money savings likely). From there its less than 5 minutes to most downtown locations by bus. Pure BS. It takes 5 minutes (or more) just for the next bust to show up. It generally takes more than one ride to get where you really want to go, so you need to add an additional 5 min average for the waiting time for your transfer. Plus, of course, the bus drive time and walk from where the bus drops you off to your ultimate destination. Now, add to the equation -5F windchil factor we had in NYC today, or drenching in your sweat in the summer all I can say: "Where do I sign up?" And with 5% of the annual gas taxes, mass transit would have 3-6 times the equipment and 10 times the operating budget yielding to more area covered, more frequent service and longer hours of operation. Mass transit already operates at loss in most places it is tried. You are proposing multiplying these operating losses several-fold, while increasing the average commute times, and greatly reducing convenience. Again, where do I sign up for this plan? Joe PS: Mass transit has it all wrong. It starts from its name "Mass". It needs to be completely rethought, turned upside down, and start from the individual, and how the individual can be best served. Since most people involved in the entire money losing operation called "Mass transit" start with the wrong premise, the probability of them arriving at something smart would be only by chance or an accident. Throwing more money will only increase the Massive losses.