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Yeah, but who is going to take a train from Atlanta to Raleigh, Richmond, DC, New Orleans, or anywhere in the northeast when you can fly there in 1 to 2.5 hours? Even with the time to get through security and drive to the downtown core, flying is still the best option. This isn't Europe where large capitals are 100 miles away and a trip between them takes 45 minutes. Look at where rail has been successful...Europe and Japan, where distances are small and population centers are very close.
Now Charlotte might work out if the train trip is under 4 hours...that would put it at a par with driving and just a little behind flying.
Your criticisms have valid points... if nothing changed with respect to petroleum availability and price.
If / when jetfuel rises "sky high", airlines will be choked. Already, many fringe destinations are being dropped from service. Unless an alternative fuel is found for jet engines, flying may become too expensive for the majority of folks.
21st century America better wake up!
[] The Age of Cheap and Plentiful Oil is over
[] Wasteful consumption of fossil fuels is not sustainable
[] Humanity is expanding at geometric rates, while supported by a finite surface area planet
[] Short term greed has supplanted long term vision
The U.S.A. has the legacy of being a big country that was once "queen of oil". Problem is, although the U.S.A. lost the crown in the 1970s, 30 years later, it still has not lost the mindset. And now we import 70% percent of our oil. We can't afford to remain oil junkies. And there is no alternative that can supply the equivalent of 24 million barrels / day 'habit'.
That means we can't promote, subsidize or maintain any transportation system entirely dependent upon petroleum, and expect to survive the remainder of the 21st century.
Automobiles (and all related vehicles) are entirely too wasteful of resources. Even alternative fuel and electric automobiles are dependent on petroleum for lubrication, synthetic rubber tires, plastics, and the asphalt pavement they roll upon. The vast paved surfaces needed for parking, roads, as well as superhighways cannot be excused as a necessity any more. That development model has to be abandoned, as soon as possible.
Will it be a shock? Certainly.
America has the most automobiles per capita (765 per 1k) than any other nation. But that's no excuse for not recognizing that if our imports were shut off, for whatever reason - at least 70% of the cars on the road would have no fuel. Those people will need transportation.
Barring a technological breakthrough, the only viable mass transit system is electric powered rail in all its forms.
In addition, all future development will have to be changed from the automobile centered pattern to a rail based transit pattern.
All current development patterns dependent upon petroleum are at risk - especially the suburbs.
Wisdom suggests that we embark on a national initiative to build / rebuild the rail networks that once stretched across America. America once built 500 electric streetcar systems in less than 20 years (1890 - 1910). Streetcar / Trolley tracks reached 34,404 miles by 1907. The interurban electric railways for the entire country totaled approximately 18,000 miles by 1917. Most cities and towns of 25,000 or more got a non-oil electrical transportation system. The U.S.A. did this with a population of less than one-third of today's, approximately 3% of today's GNP, and relatively primitive technology.
mass transit has effected france --massive immigration a big factor. now they got mean streets - mass transit is not as desirable or safe as b4---
just like us.
BTW - 232 million automobiles that rely upon imported oil for 70% of the time, means that in the event that oil imports are stopped, 70% of your mileage is gone - if you can still afford a car.
In 2007 consumption rates
1 million barrels of oil = one hour U.S. consumption
1 billion barrels of oil = one month U.S. consumption
1 trillion barrels of oil = one human lifetime ...
In one year, 12 billion barrels of oil are consumed. 70% of that is 8.4 billion.
At $50 / barrel, we export $420 Billion / year.
At $75 / barrel , we export $630 Billion / year.
At $100 / barrel, we export $840 Billion / year.
At $125 / barrel, we export $1050 Billion / year.
At what point does someone catch on that exporting billions and trillions per year is not wise. Is it not more cost effective spending the money, here, on electric rail based mass transit?
Estimated U.S. population: 305,604,913 (2009) At $125 / barrel, it costs $3435.80 per capita to satisfy demand.
That's $286 per month per person...
If we could take that same sum of $1050 billion, and use it to build electric urban rail, we might recover from our oil addiction.
At $10 million / mile at-grade track, with half that exported money, we could build ...
(1050 T / 2) divided by $10 M
52,500 miles of urban streetcar track.
(in 1907, the U.S. had 34,404 miles of urban streetcar track and approx. 60,000 streetcars.)
In two years, we exported enough wealth to build and equip our major and minor cities with electric urban rail transportation.
Don't ever say we can't afford rail mass transit. We can't afford NOT to build it. We can't afford to subsidize oil consuming automobiles, nor bail out "Big Auto".
We also must stop sending our money over seas to foreign oil. We've got to stop throwing our money in to a resource that will one day not be here. The time is now for investment in to our future transportation needs!
Sounds like a great idea to me. Would be nice if they could connect a few cities though-Cleveland to Pittsburgh, Orlando to Savannah, Houston to Dallas and add Denver and Phoenix.
Sounds like a great idea to me. Would be nice if they could connect a few cities though-Cleveland to Pittsburgh, Orlando to Savannah, Houston to Dallas and add Denver and Phoenix.
that defeats the purpose of high speed rail.
if they're stopping at every city in between, by the time you add up the boarding times, you could just drive.
Quote:
Originally Posted by WanderingImport
We also must stop sending our money over seas to foreign oil. We've got to stop throwing our money in to a resource that will one day not be here. The time is now for investment in to our future transportation needs!
automobiles are going to be our means of transportation for a very, very long time.
we only need to work on a better fuel source instead of wasting money on these rails.
I MYSELF LIKE TO DRIVE EVERYWHERE. I like to stop and shop on my way to places as I travel and maybe have a bit to eat. I love the confort of my car it's clean and new and roomie it works for me as for the train the cost to run them might cost a lot .I really don't know BUT it might help some people.
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