A New Hope?
May 11, 2008 Mass Transit, Oil
At times, when calling for a massive expansion and utilization of mass transit, I have seen preference for hybrids instead of rail and buses. Even friends who themselves would prefer to see the same thing have treated my insistence like that of a flower child who demands peace and an end to all international conflicts. Americans like their cars. End of story. Solutions, albeit only partial ones, must be emphasized. Mass transit expansion on a significant level simply wasn’t a possibility for most of the U.S. In many dark moments, I secretly suspected they were right. Until last night, that is.
The NY Times reports,
With the price of gas approaching $4 a gallon, more commuters are abandoning their cars and taking the train or bus instead.
Mass transit systems around the country are seeing standing-room-only crowds on bus lines where seats were once easy to come by. Parking lots at many bus and light rail stations are suddenly overflowing, with commuters in some towns risking a ticket or tow by parking on nearby grassy areas and in vacant lots.
“In almost every transit system I talk to, we’re seeing very high rates of growth the last few months,” said William W. Millar, president of the American Public Transportation Association.
“It’s very clear that a significant portion of the increase in transit use is directly caused by people who are looking for alternatives to paying $3.50 a gallon for gas.”
And there are some very interesting surprises.
…the biggest surges — of 10 to 15 percent or more over last year — are occurring in many metropolitan areas in the South and West where the driving culture is strongest and bus and rail lines are more limited.
What does this, along with other encouraging factors, mean?
The Energy Department recently predicted that Americans would consume slightly less gasoline this year than last — for the first yearly decline since 1991.
In fact, growth is so strong, we now have a problem.
But meeting the greater demand for mass transit is proving difficult. The cost of fuel and power for public transportation is about three times that of four years ago, and the slowing economy means local sales tax receipts are down, so there is less money available for transit services. Higher steel prices are making planned expansions more expensive.
Typically, mass transit systems rely on fares to cover about a third of their costs, so they depend on sales taxes and other government funding. Few states use gas tax revenue for mass transit.
I personally would level a national gas tax that would be divided between each state and national mass transit projects. This is an emergency situation. It cannot wait. We must act now.
And we have reason to believe the public will support such a measure.
The South Florida Regional Transportation Authority, which operates a commuter rail system from Miami to Fort Lauderdale and West Palm Beach, posted a rise of more than 20 percent in rider numbers this March and April as monthly ridership climbed to 350,000.
“Nobody believed that people would actually give up their cars to ride public transportation,” said Joseph J. Giulietti, executive director of the authority. “But in the last year, and last several months in particular, we have seen exactly that.”
8 comments
I saw some fool on the daily show waive his hand at the idea of harnessing an alternative energy source. Can anybody explain to me why all alternative energy sourced might be inviable? Have they just gone out of vogue? DK, can you put, in more definite terms, how screwed we all might be?
They’re non-viable because we haven’t put our $$ into the necessary R&D. Just one example: solar has come a long way in the past few decades, but it’s still pretty inefficient. But now that a near-critical mass of consumers is starting to take solar energy seriously (my shul has a large array on the roof, and a refurbished local public school boasts the largest solar project in the state), the prices are starting to come down. Plus, several organizations are offering grants to defray the significant cost.
But what about other technologies? Rail has been stagnant for so long that you can’t even buy parts to refurbish existing rolling stock(!!!) because they’re no longer made. Small but vital components are back-ordered for years– and from Canadian firms.
In addition, railroad right of ways have been sold off, the big thing around here was to turn old freight lines into walking and biking trails. Or they haven’t been maintained and would take time and great expense (that’s already been committed to the highway system) to rejuvenate. Believe it or not, there’s no commuter rail service between New Haven and Hartford, a heavily driven corridor. Why? Ask Gov. Rell. See if she even remembers…
Another thing- those electric lines that supply power to the NY & New Haven line? Built in the 1800’s and still in use. That’s why a downed line brings the system to its knees. Ever thought about what it takes to replace one of those old transformers? They don’t build ‘em like that anymore.
The system, she’s a-broken. We’ve got to do our part as consumers and citizens to bring about change from the bottom up, ’cause it ain’t gonna happen from the top down.
Kudos, DK, for keeping this issue in the spotlight.
Change might be due; one of my jobs happens to be at a supplier of electricity who recently has bought more than half of the US’ electricity and groundgasmarket, and they put not only emphasis on efficiency and maintenance but also on researching and applying sustainable and renewable sources of energy. As Judi rightly stated though, solar energy is still inefficient when it comes to evaluating cost vs output, but I think we need to come to terms with the realization that if we want “clean” energies, we’ll have to pay the price for them.
My local power company has a program called Clean Energy Options http://www.ctcleanenergyoptions.com/faq.htm
Customers who sign up pay a bit more to support programs that generate energy from water, wind and landfill gas. You still get the same energy as everyone else, but they’re selling the program to people who want to make an “economic statement”.
Agreed with you on this. I’d love to see Obama and McCain get asked about this in the first debates. Amtrak doesn’t even own their own tracks, never mind supporting infrastructure of two train cities like Atlanta. A massive influx of money is needed, and now.
You dislike and go nearly instantly apoplectic at any perceived spread of Big Aish and company, and expound on their corruption, but you have no problems with a national gas tax meted out by a government whose multivariate corruption is well documented?
Think for a second, please.
Long story short, you cannot fix the problems of the world through exercise of the police powers of the state to confiscate the peoples’ monies and property. Socialism isn’t a solution, it’s a problem.
Slightly longer… alternatives are currently not tremendously viable NOT due to lack of investigation as ever since the last phone baloney gas crisis of even-odd license plate rationing which I was here for, but because they are just inefficient.
Windmills chop up birds, many of which are endangered before alternative energy Quisinarting.
Solar cells are inefficient even when monocrystalline systems are used and expensive even when polycrystalline systems are used. They also require ever larger real estate be covered with them the father north you go and you need to take into account safety and seasonal reliability. Old ladies in Boston should not be risking death falling off their rooftops because they had to broom snow off a panel.
We’re lambasted for our obesity in the US but they want to recycle all the fry grease in America to fuel.
Hydrogen storage is still inefficient and more dangerous than gasoline systems used today.
Hybrids can still make a huge contribution and are preferable to mass transit for a couple important reasons:
1. No need for the state engaging in private land takings which is ALWAYS engaged in as an abuse of power every single time it is done, for the benefit of the few and at the expense of the many. New London, CT comes to mind.
2. No one likes taking a train or bus to a stop NOWHERE NEAR their destination and then riding a bike for three miles in a foot of snow and slush to get to a store to carry home an amount of cargo their bike won’t carry in the first place through weather that will destroy their goods before they ever get to the mass transit.
3. We can make hybrids that in concert with present portable electrical energy storage systems are actually more efficient than standard prime mover direct to wheels systems despite the inefficiency losses of conversion because some fuels and engine designs lend themselves much more to electrical generation than moving a car directly.
Ultimately, it is a tech issue when it comes to replacing the gas powered car and the infrastructure and hybrids allow use of the existing infrastructure for fuel as a parallel infrastructure for electricity is built out. We could long ago make failsafe fission reactors that by design are incapable of meltdown but the reflexive opposition has dogged them for decades. We’ll see how they feel when gas is $7/gallon and they can’t afford their cutsey outfits from Abercrombie and Fitch or even get to the mall for them.
The oil market situation is highly reminiscent of the pre-Depression years when all eyes were on all the wrong variables and factors and a lot of very obvious abuses were ignored both for willful collusion and total ignorant idiocy.
As the bumper sticker says, you came stork, everything else you know by truck, and diesel is still climbing way above what you pay for your own car. All economies can be likened to balloons, and what is going on is like trying to shove a cactus inside it.
suitepotato ,
I see no alternative. And look at transit in Europe. It was worth the abuse and corruption. They have a real mass transit system. We should steal it and improve upon it.
suitepotato, a small percentage of the national gas tax is already earmarked for mass transit. But most of the revenues go to the national highway program. And if New Haven’s Quinnipiac River Bridge rebuild project on I-96 is representative of how well these highway funds are managed, we’re in a huge, icky pile of trouble. Seriously, the amount of money squandered so far on taht project (and this is before it’s even been started) could’ve gone a long way to improve the rail system- which would take a large number of the cars that cross the bridge every day to & from work, off the road.
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