Comment 50358

By Undustrial (registered) - website | Posted October 25, 2010 at 15:45:26

I fully understand that rising oil costs put added strain on transit budgets, but raising fares is an amazingly short-sighted way to deal with it.

And Pxtl is right - so many of the reasons that the HSR is unpopular have to do with factors (like rude and abusive drivers or shoddy scheduling) which could resolved without millions of dollars.

We need to give up the idea that people are going to ditch their cars out of some sort of noble self-sacrifice for the environment and wise urban planning. As someone who doesn't own a car and never plans to, I can tell you that I avoid it for purely selfish reasons. They're expensive, complicated, dangerous, unhealthy and not really all that enjoyable. Unfortunately, I avoid buses for many of the same reasons.

If city planners want people to treat mass transit like a serious transportation option then it needs to be one. Would you bet a $80 000/year job on HSR schedules?

"Today, the notion of progress in a single line without goal or limit seems perhaps the most parochial notion of a very parochial century." — Lewis Mumford

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