Personal Transportation -vs- Public Transportation

We have been brain washed into believing we are free and independant ...
yet, public transportation was the victim of American Imperialism... Goodyear, Ford, and a few other tycoons reached a ceiling and conspired to increase sales by sabatoging pubic transportation in the late teens early 20's. as one city after another abandoned its public transportation systems in favor of the wave of the future freedom vehicles... but really is your car worth what you pay for it.
and what about buses why are they empty for the most part if they are better. If energy is the problem then outlaw private transportation for public and increase the routes to serve more people... anyway - I thought this can of worms would intrege the minds of ATS and we can come to grips with the future of American Transportation free of lobbiest...

let me have it boys... both barrels

[edit on 11-2-2010 by Anti-Evil]

[edit on 11-2-2010 by Anti-Evil]

IN the 1920s EVERY town and city on the East coast of the US had an extensive light rail and/or trolley car system already. An evil triumvirate made up of Standard Oil (now known as ExxonMobil), Firestone, and the Ford Motor Company, pooled funds and proceeded to buy up ALL the light rail systems on the entire East coast. They tore up most of the rails, and scrapped all of the cars. I grew up in the Northeast, in most towns you can still see some of the rails here and there.

Thus they destroyed the entire public transportation system, so that people would be compelled to buy oil, tires, and cars. Then proceeded with brainwashing to convince everyone that a car was the meaning of freedom. Everyone is now convinced that having to buy a car, built using oil as energy, buy tires for it, made usiing oil, and buy more OIL as well in the form of gasoline in order to do your daily business, is somehow the meaning of freedom. The only town they couldn't destroy the system was NYC because it was far too well advanced already. Therefore NYC is the only place on the entire East coast that has a good public trans system. One can live there and never need a car. Most native New Yorkers never learn to drive, because why bother? You can get anywhere in town in minutes for a dollar.

If you amortise the cost of buying the car, plus the cost of buying fuel, and tires and other maintenance, well figure it out for yourselves rather than me telling you, it's very expensive, depending on the car you have. Even a FREE car will still cost you 10 bucks a day in fuel and maintenance. How is that better than having trains everywhere that you can ride for peanuts?

The average speed of the traffic in US cities is now around 12 mph. In China it's already at 16 km/h or 10 mph.

bicycleuniverse.info...

www.shanghaidaily.com...

This is merely slow jogging speed. A bicycle is far faster than a car in any city, yet everyone is convinced that their car is speeding things up.

I used to live in San Francisco. After the first three months there I sold my car because it was just getting a lot of parking tickets, and it was easier to take the BART, trains, and trolleys. Even though it is entirely large steep hills, I could get anywhere in town on my bike far faster than a car. I would talk to someone on the phone on the other side of town, and say, "I'm coming over" and then when I arrive they would be dumbfounded and ask how I got there so fast, and not believe me when I said I rode a bike.

I worked on the other side of the Bay, and take the BART train to get there which would hit 90mph in the tunnel. SOmetimes someone would offer me a ride back to the city. Every time I accepted, while we were stewing in the traffic halfway over the Bay Bridge, I would be thinking, "dayam, I would be home by now if I took the train"