I think that the real tragedy in energy consumption is that many large municipalities don't invest in sufficient mass-transit systems. I live in suburb of St. Louis, MO. St. Louis has *some* busses and a Metro Link train that really only serves as a way to get from a few select parking lots to a couple of stadiums and convention centers. When they tried to extend the train into the suburbs to provide a truly useful system, it was voted down because people were afraid it would bring crime from the city into the suburbs. I guess criminals don't have cars?
It was really an eye-opener to visit a place like Washington D.C. that has a truly awesome train system supplemented with a lot of buses. It consisted of several different train lines, a few of which reached *deep* into the suburbs. Seattle, WA, which has a monorail capable of going TWO places, also has a magnificent bus system. There Metro transit authority has a webpage that will plan your trip based on starting point, destination and arrival times. Wifi is extremely common in the various businesses there and the city is even peppered with free municiple Wifi hotspots. So if you have a laptop with you, you never have to worry about being able to figure out which bus to take. Seattle is also currently building a more useful train system as well.
So, lord forbid we save energy, reduce carbon emissions and give the underpriveleged a leg up on getting to their jobs, because, you know, criminals don't have cars and HOLY JESUS WHAT IF WE MEET A POOR PERSON?!
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I think that the real tragedy in energy consumption is that many large municipalities don't invest in sufficient mass-transit systems. I live in suburb of St. Louis, MO. St. Louis has *some* busses and a Metro Link train that really only serves as a way to get from a few select parking lots to a couple of stadiums and convention centers. When they tried to extend the train into the suburbs to provide a truly useful system, it was voted down because people were afraid it would bring crime from the city into the suburbs. I guess criminals don't have cars?
It was really an eye-opener to visit a place like Washington D.C. that has a truly awesome train system supplemented with a lot of buses. It consisted of several different train lines, a few of which reached *deep* into the suburbs. Seattle, WA, which has a monorail capable of going TWO places, also has a magnificent bus system. There Metro transit authority has a webpage that will plan your trip based on starting point, destination and arrival times. Wifi is extremely common in the various businesses there and the city is even peppered with free municiple Wifi hotspots. So if you have a laptop with you, you never have to worry about being able to figure out which bus to take. Seattle is also currently building a more useful train system as well.
So, lord forbid we save energy, reduce carbon emissions and give the underpriveleged a leg up on getting to their jobs, because, you know, criminals don't have cars and HOLY JESUS WHAT IF WE MEET A POOR PERSON?!