Ann wrote: "The response I often get when I ask "Wouldn't it be quicker and cheaper to enhance the bus service vs. commuter rail?" is that people refuse to ride buses."
The same kind of response is generated for many commuter rail services throughout the country. The problem is that cities, our state and the feds have all invested so much in catering to the automobile over the last 50 years, including subsidizing oil, that there is a built in financial incentive to drive. But if the price of automobile driving truly represented its cost, it would be so much more expensive that most rational people would choose some form of mass transit if it were available, and forget about the status symbol and conveniences of SOV driving. Of course like Cathy says, now that all our outlying communities are designed exclusively for auto use, [greyhound buses used to stop at most Wisconsin cities 40 - 50 years ago] it makes it all that more difficult to promote an outlying bus system, and especially rail transit, which is rather "fixed", geographically speaking. So I would argue that an improved and greatly expanded bus system or rail system would only work for Wisconsin and Dane county, if the subsidies for highway driving were removed. This could be done by a significant (at least a dollar) increase in the per gallon gasoline tax. But now that the new governor promises no new tax increase, it looks like we'll have to wait another four years for that to happen. By then, global warming and incidences of asthma hospitalizations should have really taken off, so there will be perhaps more of an interest in that kind of thing, allow belatedly, from the environmentalists. Once the gas tax better reflects all the damage being done by all the extra highway pavement and greenhouse gas accumulations from excessive auto driving, the revenues from the tax increases could go (as those of you who have been on this bikies for awhile perhaps could have guessed), to those of us Wisconsin residents who ride bikes, walk, take the bus and live reasonably close to where they usual plan to be during the day, i.e., those of us who do not drive very many miles on the state highway system on an annual basis (as measured on the odometers of our registered motor vehicles). The insurance companies have been giving low vehicle mileage reductions to people like me who don't drive much over a year noticeable cost savings on their insurance premiums, provide we continue to register less than 7,000 miles the vehicle over the year. Of course, people who don't own or lease motor vehicles would also earn the low or no driving "drive-less $ incentives. State records of who owns vehicles could be used to make sure someone who owns a vehicle doesn't try to cheat the system to earn the rewards. Additionally, it is in violation of state the law to tamper with odometers, so I doubt whether very many deviant minded people would want to risk going to jail for the few hundred bucks they might earn by trying to cheat the system under this program. And of course, if DOT really acts in line with what they've been telling people these last few years - that they support rail, transit, bicycles, pedestrian use, etc.., they would not object with this kind of "nonstructural alternative" to their $9 billion+ highway capacity expansion program in the state to be implemented over the next two decades. Right? Fat chance! Buses vs. trains is not really the issue. Subsidization of automobile driving is the real issue that needs to be dealth with. Until that is done, nothing else will solve anything. ----------------------- Ann also wrote: "Frankly I don't care if it is buses or rails, lets get some regional travel options going here!" I'd say we need more than just travel options for such alternative to solo driving to be successful. What we need to do is to remove the existing built in financial incentives (provided by the subsidies of having a low gas tax), so that the governmental policies of the last 40 years of encouraging people to drive everywhere to their heart's desire, regardless of the cost and consequences to society, are done away with, for all our sake. Mike ________________________________________________________________ Sign Up for Juno Platinum Internet Access Today Only $9.95 per month! Visit www.juno.com _______________________________________________ Bikies mailing list [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://www.danenet.org/mailman/listinfo/bikies
