Good then their will be less traffic as I drive. For example a girl I know was trying to figure out how to take the bus to SCSU. Now this is a 13 mile one way trip for me by car, takes about half an hour. By bus you are looking at at least 2 hours each way, plus if your classes don't line up with the bus schedual you have to wait.

No thanks, evan at $10 a gallon I'll drive.

__________________
2006 CL500
1969 280SE
2023 Ram 1500
2026 Genesis GV70
2007 Tiara 3200

Yep.

I'll smile and wave to all the people packed into the busses like sardines, as I drive by in the comfort of my 300SD.



Mike

__________________
_____
1979 300 SD
350,000 miles
_____
1982 300D-gone---sold to a buddy
_____
1985 300TD
270,000 miles
_____
1994 E320
not my favorite, but the wife wanted it

www.myspace.com/mikemover
www.myspace.com/openskystudio
www.myspace.com/speedxband
www.myspace.com/openskyseparators
www.myspace.com/doubledrivemusic

Mass transit was destroyed in this country by a combination of auto manufacturers, big oil collusion, highway lobbyists, and government promotion of suburban living (that's just a few of the reasons). Trains were allowed to rot while their treasuries were looted.

Mass transit is quite comfortable in other countries, fast, efficient, usually government subsidized and owned. The middle classes don't live in the suburbs but in the city. Low-income housing was built on the outskirts of cities (they suffer from poor mass transit there also). Project housing around some European cities is truly deplorable.

Many European countries (Asian, also) did not allow essential infrastructures to fall into the hands of "benign" market forces where they were looted and allowed to rot (trains and mass transit for example). To them it was an essential matter of national security as it will be become to us in this country.

Our increasing dependence on foreign oil will lead us ever further into foreign interventions, overreaching, and our inability to pay for such ventures. Iraq is a thinly disquised "resource war" over oil that in both the short and long term is a failure. Those dependent upon "faith-based" anyalysis would not agree, I'm sure.

The failure of any of our ploiticos to even articulate a reasonable alternative to profligate consumption is nothing short of criminal. We have something like 3% of the world oil reserves including everwhere in the country: Alaska, Florida, California, whatever. The party is over for all but the wealthy. It is only a matter of time until realization dawns, but by then we may all be indentures sevants.

__________________
Rev. Dr. G. Church of the SubGenius
It doesn't take a genius

The problem is our country is many times the size of Europe. In the more rurual areas are you going to make a train stop at every farm?

In upstate CT which isn't very rurual its just impractical for a bus or train line. What about out west when the next farm is 20 miles away? Are you going to run a bus to pick up one farmer to go 30 miles into town? Who pays for this?

Mass transit is great, its pretty good in NY. Tons better in Boston. They run a commuter train line along the coast of CT to NY, works great.

But in less populated areas of the country, like everywhere except the east coast mass transit is useless.


Besides most Americans hate the idea of mass transit. I would never ride a bus unless forced to.

__________________
2006 CL500
1969 280SE
2023 Ram 1500
2026 Genesis GV70
2007 Tiara 3200

Part of our history with the general failure of mass transit is that America is an ever-changing dynamic place. Whole population centers shift and change over decades, whereas in Europe, towns and cities pretty much have had the same characteristics for 100 years or more. That makes it relatively easy for the Europeans and Japanese to design systems that will remain useful and relevant for a long time. You can't just move tunnels and tracks when jobs and housing move to satellite cities from a main hub city. It kind of suggests that free enterprise with its dynamic nature, and mass transit with its static nature don't work well together.

__________________
1985 380SE Blue/Blue - 230,000 miles
2012 Subaru Forester 5-speed
2005 Toyota Sienna
2004 Chrysler Sebring convertible
1999 Toyota Tacoma

The car is Smart but are the buyers?
http://www.scrippsnews.com/node/9393

Rob Zaleski: Bringing Smart car to U.S. shows some brains
http://www.madison.com/tct/news/index.php?ntid=90265&ntpid=8

Smart Car ready to roll onto California roads
By Joe Cohen [email protected]
http://www.moorparkacorn.com/news/2006/0707/Community/025.html

Daimler-Chrysler Seeks Big Profits with Small Smart Car
By George Dwyer
Washington, DC
05 July 2006
http://www.voanews.com/english/2006-07-05-voa49.cfm

I am very lucky and can walk to and from work 3 miles each way. The thing that blows me away is I am passing 3 lanes of traffic going into the city and it's all single drivers in these huge SUV's, no one is commuting. we have one of the best subway systems in the country and still all these single drivers. This is something we should have started addressing 20 years ago. Unless people collectivley start thinking about conserving our resources this gluttoney will continue. The future of transportation in America- 10 toes...

I lived in San Francisco till a couple of years ago and can say that mass transit there was actually pretty good-but then, the City was compact and I walked a hell of a lot there too.

But anyone with $1.00 could ride and this meant a lot of dirty and sick people got on, pickpockets too. And you couldn't easily shop for anything, like groceries or furniture and then go on the bus or subway (though some people actually did try)

So I maintained a car too, and used it pretty often - you coulod really get here to there quick, but parking was another problem.

Outside the city limits of San Francisco, public transit wasn't much of an option at all - the Newspaper did a survey, riding public transit and from SF to San Jose to Oakland and back to the City took EIGHT hours- in a car it could be done in about 1 1/2.

The good and bad of public transit kind of evened out, but I always felt I needed a car even in San Francisco, even as car-unfriendly that City was, and still is.

__________________
1991 560 SEC AMG, 199k <---- 300 hp 10:1 ECE euro HV ...

1995 E 420, 170k "The Red Plum" (sold)

2015 BMW 535i xdrive awd Stage 1 DINAN, 6k, <----364 hp

1967 Mercury Cougar, 49k

2013 Jaguar XF, 20k <----340 hp Supercharged, All Wheel Drive (sold)

The auto as we know it will be gone from the earth in 50 years. It was only 50 years ago that street cars and all manner of PUBLIC surface transit existed in America's metro areas. After WW2 the need for housing moved the city planners into the surrounding areas. Here in Los Angeles they paved over every available bean field and orchard they could get. Today there is an extremely underused transit system. I can not believe the light rail attempts in Los Angeles.

America waited decades for a high speed commuter rail and the only one yet is the silly Amtrak corridor run between DC and Boston. I toured the facility in NYC where the trains are maintained. Skanska I believe had the contract. The Amtrak corridor can barely support conventional trains, let along a real speed rail. Those trains don't run at a fraction of what they were built to do. The corridor is two narrow to expand it to account for the wider turns needed for faster trains. Its a fact. The place we need high speed rail is in new communities. Price however wont allow it. The big three wont allow it either. We dont have a clue here. Everybody else has trains that are running on the track. Not just Japan and France and England and Germany but all through Europe and the rest of the world. The rest of the world utilizes the rail systems. They also drive autos where they can. And they even use scooters and bicycles. Here in the US we drive the most wasteful designs in the world. I say we tax all trucks that are not actually used for work. That means all Americans driving Hummers and Expeditions and Suburbans and the like will really pay what they should for the LUXURY PRIVILEDGE of driving the biggest emissions vehicles. Also, all US trucking fleets have got to get efficient or the freight must go back on the rail lines. U.S. freight and commuter RAIL must be brought back if we are going to survive. China and India may all start driving autos soon, but their roads and infrastructure sucks for the car system. And besides they will all drive 1 Liter engines for a family of five. It's very different outside of the US. There is really no comparison. India is still using an aging British rail system. Can you imagine even a fire truck getting to a burning building in the middle of Calcutta? Or Rio for that matter? Or Mexico City? The point is that the entire thing must be transformed and it's being done outside of the U.S., with or without us. It makes no difference. American's are already turning in their Expeditions and Tahoes. All we need is a reality check and it's long overdue. Whatever happened to conservation? If California, for example, was really into Clean Air then Los Angeles would be smog free. It's not because all the freight coming in from THE PORT of Los Angeles is TRUCKED thru the City with old, wasteful trucks is it? It's a system that should never have been allowed to happen. I say, put the freight on the rails not the roads. Free up the the short commute with dedicated, right of way, efficient transit alternatives. And then repair those roads for the CARS (not SUVS) that have a relatively long commute. And anyone living on a farm that has a long commute should already be using an efficient CAR and not an SUV. That point is mute. It's really about common sense. Whatever happened to American's good horse sense? It went south along with mass transit. What we need today are critical thinkers not schools of guppies hauling ass around in Suburbans. I thank my stars that I dont have to commute. I walk everywhere. And I live in Los Angeles. We pay a permium to live here in this community but it's worth every cent. Sometimes I dont get in a car for days. My wife has a short commute with her little four banger and I have a driver-project inline six that was a dirt cheap purchase. I consider us lucky. We barely factor gas into the budget. The rest of the country needs to find a way to do the same. This war is going to go on and on and oil is going to going more and more costly. Its simple really. Adapt or don't adapt. The choice is ours. Take back the government from the lobbyists. Stay local and do whatever can be done to adapt. America is the greatest nation in history because we can adapt and prosper. It will happen. It can be positive. It takes real visionary planning. Just what the doctor ordered. '

Driving 11mpg trucks is not a "god given" American right. It's just dumb. If you need to haul building materials or ostrich feed or a crew of six every day they still make a bit of sense. However, if it's only to the mall once a week and to pick-up two kids from soccer games, get a wagon, not a Suburban. Perhaps if the SUVs were all standard shift, like the rest of the worlds trucks, I bet most soccer moms would get a wagon with auto box. Like everyone else outside of the US. America is part of the global society now, like it or not.
Jason

__________________
1988 300CE 120K RIP(Midnight Blue/Parchment)
1987 300E 202K (Arctic White/Palomino)


Now I see the secret of the making of the best persons. It is to grow in the open air and to eat and sleep with the earth. ~Song of The Open Road

It all comes down to economics. People still buy big SUVs because they can still afford them. I suppose the US could have imposed aggressive fuel and road use taxes as they do in most of Europe. Then we would be living more efficiently, but if we follow their model too closely, we could end up with their 12% unemployment rate, too.

__________________
1985 380SE Blue/Blue - 230,000 miles
2012 Subaru Forester 5-speed
2005 Toyota Sienna
2004 Chrysler Sebring convertible
1999 Toyota Tacoma

Even the average compact, sedan, coupe, etc, weighs maybe 20 times that of the driver... in very simplistic terms, most of the fuel we burn is to move the vehicle itself.

Obviously the vehicle provides safety, creature comfort, convenience, speed etc. But the vehicle vs driver weight differential still boggles the mind.... is this sustainable ?

or until $5gallon gasoline gets here which is on it's way.

Unfortunately, thanks to the oil politicians, it is the other way around isn't it. The big gas guzzlers get the tax breaks for business owners. That makes no sense at all unless you are an oil man. I own a good bit of XOM stock and still disagree with this arrangement. I say tax it till it is $5/gallon and then watch what the Bubba's and Bubba's wives do with those 11-14 mpg rides that they are so proud of. Oh yea - how bout the free gas for a year offer from some of the car companies. What a deal - purchase a $38k truck that gets 11-14 mpg and get free gas for a year. Then, after a year you have a $500-$600/month car payment and a $400/month fuel bill. What kind of dumbarse would take up an offer like that - oh yea - Bubba and his wife.

I'm looking forward to more scooters on the roads - especially around here where you can pretty much ride one year round. I lived in the Savannah, Ga area a few years ago and commuted 11-1/2 miles each way on a bicycle. I would go for weeks on end without driving a car. I really miss those days.

One other comment since ya'll got me started on the subject. I can't for the life of me figure out why the big three are so hell bent on selling hp. Everywhere you look it is hemi this, excessive hp that. I guess that is what Bubba is looking for on the race tracks that we call interstates.

__________________
Jim

i used to commute to school and friends houses on bike when i lived in kissimme fl.. which alot more developed than davenport.. where i live.. no sidewalks, just a main road/highway and sub divisions.. my job is only 8 miles away id bike that .. but not in the rain.. i like being dry and school is 12 miles ..i wouldnt bike that but.. if my electric conversion goes underway ill be good. ill keep the benz for longer disntance trips which i dont take that often

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/specials/chi-oil-3-story,0,80570.htmlstory

"What are the hidden costs of America's imported oil? The answer is complex. It may ultimately be unknowable. But this hasn't daunted the likes of Milton Copulos.

A tenacious economist with the National Defense Council Foundation--a right-of-center Washington think tank--Copulos spent 18 solid months poring over hundreds of thousands of pages of government documents, toiling to fix a price tag on America's addiction to global crude. He parsed oil-related defense spending in the Middle East. He calculated U.S. jobs and investments lost to steep crude prices. He even factored in the lifelong medical bills of some 18,000 U.S. troops wounded in Iraq as of March. (About $1.5 million each.)

Copulos is a highly respected analyst in Washington. And his exhaustive findings flabbergasted the Senate Foreign Relations Committee this spring.

The actual cost of gasoline refined from imported oil, according to Copulos?

Eight dollars a gallon.

When he isolated the hidden costs of Middle Eastern crude in particular, the price jumped to $11. This included a war premium that swelled the Pentagon's spending to protect all Persian Gulf oil to $137 billion a year. In a truly transparent economy, by Copulos' math, filling up Rodriguez's Jeep would run about $230.

Consumers don't dodge the bill for all these masked expenditures. Instead, they pay for them indirectly, through higher taxes, or by saddling their children and grandchildren with a ballooning national debt--one that's increasingly financed by foreigners. The result: Unaware of the true costs of their oil habit, U.S. motorists see no obvious reason to curb their energy gluttony.

"Gas isn't too expensive," said Copulos. "It's way, way too cheap."

Or, as he put it to senators, quoting the cartoon character Pogo: "We have met the enemy and they is us."

In fact, many experts think Copulos' Olympian feat of accounting is still much too conservative. Nobody can really calculate, they say, the future security cost incurred by funneling petrodollars to regimes that have incubated Islamic terrorism, such as Saudi Arabia. Or tally foreign oil's role in global warming.

__________________
John

2003 Firemist Red/grey leather SL 500
2015 Palladium Silver/black mbtex GLK 350
1987 Smoke Silver/burgundy mbtex 300E Sportline (SOLD)

Click to see 87 300E

I agree with your logic concerning the big SUVs.... Soccer mom's don't NEED a Hummer H2 to pick up their little brats from school every afternoon... But I don't think that common sense should be enforced legislatively. Same reason that I don't approve of seat belt laws (for adults), helmet laws, etc... I also don't think taxes are the answer, because that approach comes with a whole other set of problems....

But sooner or later, a little common sense is going to HAVE to take hold in this country... I think the perpetually rising fuel costs will bring people around eventually... It just hasn't reached that critical point yet. People who can afford the big inefficient SUVs can still afford $3 fuel... but if it reaches $5... $7.... It may get their attention.

On other other hand... Many Americans, myself included, just simply LOVE to drive. It's not merely a matter of practicality. I don't WANT to ride a stinky, dirty bus or a crowded subway train or sweat on a bike everywhere I go. I ENJOY my car. I enjoy the act of driving. I enjoy the solitude. I enjoy being able to just pull over on a whim, and grab a coffee or go to a store or whatever... Like it or not, the automobile is still a BIG symbol of, and an integral PART of, our culture's sense of freedom and achievement.

The same goes for why the Big Three are pushing horsepower... Same reason that they always have... because horsepower is FUN! There's nothing like pushing the pedal down on a 300+ horsepower engine...

I know that many will condemn me for what they perceive to be callous, self-indulgent wastefulness... but sometimes I just get in a car and drive, with no particular destination, just for the sheer ENJOYMENT of driving. And I certainly don't intend to stop doing so anytime soon.

Mike

__________________
_____
1979 300 SD
350,000 miles
_____
1982 300D-gone---sold to a buddy
_____
1985 300TD
270,000 miles
_____
1994 E320
not my favorite, but the wife wanted it

www.myspace.com/mikemover
www.myspace.com/openskystudio
www.myspace.com/speedxband
www.myspace.com/openskyseparators
www.myspace.com/doubledrivemusic