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SK writes to tell us that a new streetcar, powered by lithium battery, has been invented by the Railway Technical Research Institute in Kokubunji, Tokyo. The new transport is capable of speeds of 40 kph for 15 kilometers and can convert 70 percent of its deceleration energy into electricity which is then sent back to the battery which can recharge in under one minute.
You realise that 1.4 million multiplied by $10,000 is $14 billion? Which is much, much bigger than $1 billion. In fact, it's 14 times as big.
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Public transportation is a joke (at least in the US). It's also naive to believe public transportation is a viable solution in the United States. It works in small land masses (Europe, for example), but is inefficient and impractical. Why should I ride two hours each way to work on public transportation, making multiple connections when I can take a car and have a 25-30 minute commute? The problem isn't public transportation, it's the fuel source/storage problem. Electric drivetrains will fix transportation problems in the US, not public transportation.
Improving public transport will reduce pollution, congestion and accidents. Sadly, before we can improve public transport, we'll need to change attitudes like yours.
That's the joy of living in a free country. I'm free to have whatever attitude I like without people like you telling me what to think. Then again, why would someone as superior as yourself care about the people who live in communities that can not afford public transportation like Findlay OH for example. What about the good people of Springfield IL or Houma LA? Even in large cities like Houston TX have areas where people work that are not downtown. Many people work in the outskirts of town. What good is the Metro Park-and-Ride that takes people from parking lots in the outskirts of town to downtown Houston to people who work at HP (formerly Compaq), in north Houston. What good would a public rail system to and from downtown Austin do for the people who work at Dell in Round Rock?
See, that's the problem. People like you want to charge outrageous taxes to build a public transport system so people can get to and from the center of town. What that does is drive up taxes to the point where no new businesses can afford to be downtown. When they try to build on the outskirts, you claim that they are going to destroy the environment by building out there or that they are contributing to urban sprawl or whatever. Finally, the company says screw you people and moves to a friendlier are such as Houston or Austin, or they say screw it all and simply outsource their workforce to someplace like India or Mexico where there is simply no environmental regulation whatsoever. So while you think you are saving the world, you are actually playing a large part in destroying it. Instead of wanting clean, plug-in, quick charging cars that I can use to drive to and from work, you think that the government should be taxing businesses out of this country so I can ride in cramped quarters with a bunch of human flu-factories to my soon-to-be outsourced job.
Of course, this also forces people to live as close as possible to the rail or bus station. Few people can afford to drive to the place where public transportation picks them up. Then they are paying for a car, insurance, parking AND for public transportation. This means we'll all have to live in cramped, overpriced apartments next to the rail station. Nothing says dinner at home like the 5:15 L roaring by, squealing as it bounces from side to side. So much for Americans owning their own homes or making a life better for themselves. They must now live in planned communities, have to rely on the government to take them place to place, rely on the government to build and maintain public spaces for their kids to play in, only be able to buy a day or two's worth of groceries because they don't have a car trunk to put them all in.
Of course, don't even get me started on what will happen if an evacuation were to occur. Without a car, where will you go? Maybe you could go to the local sports stadium and wait for the government to take you away from there.
Is that your idea of 'land of the free?' Wouldn't it be better if I could just have my clean car AND my freedom? Isn't that what freedom is all about, being able to live as I want to live? I can take care of myself. I don't want the government proving for my every need.
There is no "I disagree" mod for a reason. Flamebait, Troll, and Overrated are not substitutes.