Date: Tue, 10 Aug 2010 07:43:15 -0400
From: mark <whitroth at 5-cent.us>
To: WSFA members <WSFAlist at KeithLynch.net>
Subject: [WSFA] Re: [wsfa-forum] NASFiC
Reply-To: WSFA members <WSFAlist at KeithLynch.net>

Mike B. wrote:
> Keith F. Lynch wrote:
>> "Mike B." <omni at omniphile.com> wrote:
<snip>
<snip>
>> that happened in June of last year.  They don't seem to realize that
>> Metro is at least a hundred times safer than driving, and that people
>> are giving up on Metro and switching to driving because of the
>> frequent delays.  And because they *can't afford* to take Metro
>> with the new fares.  Driving is cheaper unless you park downtown.

Nope. It's still cheaper to take the Metro.
>
> I haven't been on a Metro train in years.  Since they've stopped taking
> money to pay for parking, and don't have any anyway most of the time,

Don't have any anyway what? Huh?

> only frequent users who have sprung the cash for a dumb-card get to use

Like those of us who use it to commute every single weekday?

> it.  The rest of us still have to subsidize it with our tax money, but

Thanks for subsidizing me, and my ladyfriend (she's in Arlington, btw).
<snip>
>> They've broken ground for the Metro extension to Tysons.  I've been
>> awaiting that extension for decades, but at this point I think it
>> should be postponed until Metro proves it's able to reliably operate
>> the existing system, with reasonable fares, and to financially break
>> even when doing so.  If they're unable to do so, I think they all
>> ought to be fired, and the whole system sold to the highest bidder.
>
> I read about an analysis of the BART system once.  For the same
> expenditure of money and energy that it took to build that system they
> could have divided all the highway lanes in half, and built 6 million
> half-width electric commuter cars and given them away to commuters, and
> moved more people, more cheaply, with less environmental impact than
> what they built.

That's complete an utter bullshit. a) there's no way it would be cheaper (oh,
and did the cost include road maintenance? You know, where they tear up the
roads? And less environmental impact? What generates all the electricity:
compare that with a vehicle that transports hundreds or thousands in one train.

Oh, and what about the cost: does the time you, personally, waste in a traffic
jam have no value to you? And how 'bout them accidents, friend?

mark "drive to work? Only if I have *no* other choices"
--
1.8x10^12 furlongs per fortnight: not just a good idea, it's the Law.