Friday, November 30, 2007
Cars or Public Transportation?
To show how conflicted I am as a human being...I love the styling, the feel, and the drive of a great car, but I don't believe it should be the regular mode of transportation for individuals. I am a real advocate for public transportation. I would take that any day over driving a car. Do I have any proponents who are okay with are current system of driving? I really would like to hear views on this as I think driving to get places is inane.
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2 comments:
I agree--driving cars is terribly inefficient. However, public transportation as we know it in America is terrible. I think the issue in your above topic about suburban sprawl relates here--as when all of your destinations are spread out over a large area--the bank, the supermarket, school, work, etc--then there is virtually no way to get anything done taking a bus that goes by every 30 minutes.
I look at it as a supply and demand thing, as long as owning/driving a car is relatively cheap and efficient compared to public transportation, people aren't going to use it. In the city of Madison, where most everything is in a centralized location due to the Isthmus, the buses are used rather frequently, although college students represent a rather large segment of the ridership. Even so, Madison Metro still loses money, although as a public good, they should be subsidized. I personally dislike the buses, as they take forever to go anywhere, you have to schedule yourself around them, and if there's any sort of bad weather, forget getting anywhere on time.
Anyway, the fact is for now, that cars are the best way to do things. However, when possible, people should use public transportation or carpool. I think the future will be computer-controlled, zero-emission cars are the way to go--see this recent NY Times article:
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/12/04/science/04tier.html
To Joe G, driving efficent cars is okay but public transport is better.
To Joe Z, I know you don't like Amtrak but ridership is increasing and they are becoming profitable.
Also Dan J has some funny ideas about driverless cars and pod cars that connect for long distances. You should ask him about it.
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