[s-cars] Thought-provoking stuff.......NAC, but all Car stuff.

[Ian Duff]

This is indeed a good discussion. Two thoughts.

First, let's not forget the destination. I live in the center of a  
small city, in one of those soon-to-be-grand-again old houses, and  
walk downtown, where there is bus service to the rest of the world.  
We may even get passenger rail service again, Real Soon Now. However,  
when I get on that bus, it delivers me to a bus station in another  
population center, which is miles from where I'm working every day.  
Suburbs scatter people, ring roads scatter businesses. So we must  
consider not only getting to the people, but also getting to their  
destinations. While a mall may offer public transportation, the  
business park in which I work, which has far more parking lot  
capacity in use every day than all but the biggest malls, does not  
have any even remotely convenient public transportation available. I  
know, I checked. So instead, I drive my diesel Jetta here every day.

Second, well-entrenched businesses will use every tool available,  
some ethical and legal, some not, to survive, even when market  
conditions change and threaten their reason for existence. The  
recording industry is case in point. Enron is another anecdote. Don't  
expect Big Oil to do anything but fight for continued profits.  
Delivering energy? Hah. They do not have the imagination of the twist  
drill company that had the epiphany that they sell holes, not drills,  
and expanded their laser drilling capability. Big Oil turns holes in  
the ground into profits, nothing more. The more they can wring out of  
everything between the hole in the ground and profits is in play,  
fair or not. We might consider treating Big Oil like Tyrannosaurus  
Rex, big, nasty, dangerous, but ultimately doomed, and likely to be  
replaced by La Cucaracha, the electric car powered by solar or wind  
generated electricity. Not in my lifetime (damn, but I get to keep  
driving my S6 Avant!), but eventually.

I guess this is all to say the solution is not simple. It is  
certainly not as simple as The Inventor of the Internet would have us  
believe, conversely it is nowhere near as difficult as our Shrub In  
Chief would have us believe, either.

-Ian Duff.

On 12 Jun, 2007, at 07:58, Taka Mizutani wrote:

> Good discussion.
>
> One thing that I see in the Northeast and suburbs is that there is too
> little population density, even in places like north Jersey, which  
> is pretty
> much totally developed. Look at the really old towns around there  
> and there
> are distinct town centers with a lot of old Victorians clustered  
> fairly
> close together and within easy walking distance of the center of  
> town, where
> there is a train station. If people lived in that kind of  
> population density
> throughout, mass transit would be feasible.
>
> Where I live now, it's too spread out- a lot of "towns" have no  
> town center
> at all, it's more of just a district with a name. Everything is  
> miles and
> miles away, can't easily walk there and there are no sidewalks or  
> pedestrian
> paths by the main roads.
>
> Unless people fundamentally change their ideas on prosperity and  
> lifestyle,
> it's not going to happen any time soon- around here, having the big  
> house on
> the big lot is a big deal. Everyone wants that, so developments become
> really spread out over acres and acres of land, which is only  
> possible when
> you move far away from a town center. Thus, the suburban sprawl  
> that is so
> prevalent across the US. It's really only in the downtown area of a  
> major
> city where mass transit is useful- Boston, NYC, Philadelphia, D.C.
>
> Until that changes, our dependence on foreign oil is probably going to
> result in the eventual decline of the US as a major power in the  
> world.
>
> Taka
> _______________________________________________
> S-CAR-List mailing list
> S-CAR-List at audifans.com
> http://www.audifans.com/mailman/listinfo/s-car-list