Date: Wed, 21 Dec 2005 09:11:05 -0500
From: "Michael Walsh" <MJW at press.jhu.edu>
To: <WSFAlist at KeithLynch.net>
Subject: [WSFA] Re: Odd event on Metro
Reply-To: WSFA members <WSFAlist at KeithLynch.net>

> omni at omniphile.com 12/20/2005 11:33:28 PM >>>
>At 12/20/2005 11:24 PM, Keith F. Lynch wrote:
>>"Mike B." <omni at omniphile.com> wrote:
>> > Maybe all those who rely on much touted public transport, who
>> > couldn't get their trains to get to work this morning, can catch
>> > a ride with neighbors on their trains?
>>
>>It would indeed be nice if there were multiple competing transit
>>systems.
>
>New York used to have that.  The current subway system is a result
>of
>merging them all together.  Or so my friends who grew up there told
>me once.

Yes.
See: http://www.nycsubway.org/faq/briefhist.html

>
>> > Private transport may occasionally break down or otherwise be
>> > unavailable, but not all at once...
>>
>>If everyone who lives or works in Manhattan commuted by car, you
>would
>>indeed see the private transportation system break down all at
>once.
>>Even if they could all somehow magically get to their destinations,
>>the vast majority of them wouldn't find a parking space once they
>>got there.
>
>Sounds like very poor city design to me.

Few cities are designed well, and most tend to be designed, as it were,
over a period of time.

E.g., the Paris of today was redesigned in the 19th century, see:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baron_Haussmann

& of course we have DC and L'Enfant - dontcha just those circles?

Of course there are "planned" communities like Columbia, where they
seem to hide house numbers and have too cute street names.  I'd be
tempted to replace Whispering Willow Drive with something like Puking
Dwarf Gulch... in the dead of night of course... <g>

mjw