On Mon, Jun 23, 2008 at 11:23 AM, Doug Henwood <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > > On Jun 23, 2008, at 2:15 PM, Gar Lipow wrote: > >> No, the suburbs in sense you mean were invented before the auto, >> based on the train. > > Huh? Outside New York, and to a lesser extent places like Philadelphia and > Boston, commuting on a train counts for almost nothing. And given today's > work patterns, which often mean commuting from one suburb to another rather > than to a CBD, you couldn't build enough trains to make it work. How could > modern Atlanta or Dallas exist without cars? > > Doug > _______________________________________________
I did not say there were as many. But London was surrounded by suburbs by the end of the 19th century. New York had suburbs before the model A came around. LA was a city born around trollys not around cars. Also, we will see the number of car reduced not vanish. Electric cars and trains in combination could replace the existing automobiles - with more electric cars at the begiining and fewer over time. Think of it this way. Heavily used bus routes could be replaced by automated ultra-light rail, paying for itself in energy and labor savings. Such trains are so much more pleasant and convenient than buses that usage would increase. (You don't have to wait long an automated train; you don't have transfer problems. and you are guaranteed a seat.) That would probably increase usage of some of the moderately use routes that they could be replaced by ultra-lights as well. In the meantime car-share based electric cars would be used mainly to get to train stations, from train stations or for runing errands in a small area. (Car share or some other type of rental would be more convenient than owning your own electric car because you could have on available at the other end of your train journey. If if you were in a suburb there would be zip car location within walking distance of your home, you would rent the zip car, drop it off at the train station, get a train within five minutes, get off at the other end,walk to your desitination of that was your best choice or rent another electric car to to drop off point near your destination. In the long run houses near stations would become more valuable, houses further less - there would be lobbying for more stations, and develpment near existing stations. But that would be a long term process. _______________________________________________ pen-l mailing list [email protected] https://lists.csuchico.edu/mailman/listinfo/pen-l
