Date: Fri, 31 Mar 2006 11:46:55 -0500
From: "Michael Walsh" <MJW at press.jhu.edu>
To: <WSFAlist at KeithLynch.net>
Subject: [WSFA] Re: Metro is 30
Reply-To: WSFA members <WSFAlist at KeithLynch.net>

> omni at omniphile.com 3/31/2006 11:37:09 AM >>>

>
>I read a few years ago that someone had done a study of BART (San
>Francisco's mass transit system) and found that if you'd skipped the
mass
>transit and just painted lines down the middle of every road in the
area,
>and built half-width efficient commuter cars and *given* them to the 6

>million or so people in the area covered by BART, you'd be able to
move
>just as many people *more* efficiently in terms of time and energy and
it
>would have cost less and taken less time to set up and cost less to
>maintain than the combination of BART and the current road system
(which
>BART didn't, and can't, replace entirely).  Even the pollution
produced
>would be lower.  About all BART comes out on top in is political
points for
>pacifying the folks who have internalized the absolute rule that
>"mass-transit=good, individual transit=bad".

Apparently BART paid for itself after the earthquake when the only easy
way to travel between SF to Oakland was via BART.  BART was fine, the
bridges weren't.

mjw