[sustran] Re: [NewMobilityCafe] Re: "Driven to despair" - PBS Exposes the Joys of Transit

[Lee Schipper]

Todd raises a good point. Why don't automobilists pay directly through a kilometer tax for using roads? Why isn't insurance in part charged by the kilometer, which is what drives a lot of the risk? (My company State Farm has two tranches, above or below 11 500 km/year, that's all.)  If users only pay indirectly (partly through a fuel tax) then they use up capacity, more is built, that gets used up etc etc.

Who benefits from Highs speed rail? We have no more places to build airport capacity, we cannot build much more highway capacity. Why aren't fliers and drivers facing these costs? If they did, the pressure to build high speed rail - which IS expensive - would be less, and, if built, the incentives to use it greater.  

Advocates in California who harp on Japan, France, or the Eurostar forget that for decades the French and Japanese controlled air fares, charged tolls on intercity freeways and high gasoline taxes,  and essentially build the high speed rail network between cities well connected within themselves by mass transit.  HSR may be a good thing for California -- I'll vote yes on the bonds - but only if we also raise landing fees at crowded airports, keep car fuel prices high, and consider charging for our motorways. And yes, lets cluster development around HSR terminals so that not hundreds but hundreds of thousands of people live within ½ hour of terminals by foot, pedals, or mass transit.  Just building expensive tracks without assuring that there will be customers  close by -like the present model for airports-may fall way short of the ridership goals, much of which is touted as taking riders from cars and air.

 

Well, Eurostar did that to some extent, but I would argue that in the long run high speed rail in Europe also created new mobility.  The load factors in Europe tend to keep the energy use per passenger -km low - can we do that in California? Getting automobile and air travel costs up to full social costs is an important first step.

 

We'll see - when I'm 80 years old! 

 

Lee Schipper, Ph.D

Project Scientist

Global Metropolitan Studies

http://metrostudies.berkeley.edu/

 

Street/Mail Address:  

2614 Dwight Way 2nd floor 

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skype: mrmeter

 

 

>From Oct. 1, also

Senior Research Engineer

Precourt Institute for Energy Efficiency

Stanford University

 

 

Analyst Emeritus, EMBARQ, 

the WRI Center for Sustainable Transport

 

From: NewMobilityCafe at yahoogroups.com [mailto:NewMobilityCafe at yahoogroups.com] On Behalf Of Todd Edelman, Green Idea Factory
Sent: Saturday, October 11, 2008 7:20 AM
To: NewMobilityCafe at yahoogroups.com; LotsLessCars at yahoogroups.com; sustran-discuss at list.jca.apc.org
Subject: [NewMobilityCafe] Re: [sustran] "Driven to despair" - PBS Exposes the Joys of Transit

 

Pretty good... and as someone born in southern California actually a 
little emotional at times (as now they are repairing one of the systems 
which drove me to exile). The only problem I saw was where they left the 
statement unopposed/unresponded to about the proposed high speed rail in 
California having to pay for itself, which is as we know not a 
requirement for automobile transportation infrastructure.

- Todd Edelman,
Green Idea Factory, now in Berlin, formerly of Canoga Park, Brentwood 
and Culver City, California

LEric Britton wrote:
> Thanks Streetsblog.com for the heads-up.
>
> 
>
> This is a very interesting take on transport in the US, which I think
> provides at least a modicum of hope for a different and more reasonable
> future. We have long believed that it will be pocketbook issues which sooner
> or later will drive us to more sustainable transportation and most
> sustainable lives. It might be wonderful if we changed because we were
> noble and thought ahead, but if we change in the right direction simply
> because we have to, well that's progress too.
>
> 
>
> Eric Britton
>
> 
>
> PS. For their 26 minute video, click directly to
> http://www.pbs.org/now/shows/440/video.html 
>
> <http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/Streetsblog/~3/417175390/> PBS Exposes the
> Joys of Transit - http://www.pbs.org/wnet/blueprintamerica/ 
>
> 
>
> With gas prices spiking and home values crumbling, the American dream of
> commuting to work from the fringes of suburbia has become an American
> nightmare. Many are facing a hard choice: Paying for gas or paying the
> mortgage. How did it come to this? It's not just about America's financial
> crisis; it's also about big problems with our national infrastructure.
> Overstressed highways and too few public transportation options are wreaking
> havoc on people's lives and hitting the brakes on our already-stretched
> economy. This week, NOW on PBS takes a close-up look at our inadequate
> transportation network and visits some people paying a high price-in both
> dollars and quality of life-just to get to work. Do we have the means to
> modernize both our infrastructure and our lifestyles? 
>
> 
>
> Posted: 10 Oct 2008 04:08 PM CDT
>
> 
> <http://www.pbs.org/wnet/blueprintamerica/reports/driven-to-despair/watch-fu
> ll-report/103/> now_train_still.jpg
> NOW host David Brancaccio does an interview on the LA Metro.
> <http://www.pbs.org/wnet/blueprintamerica/reports/driven-to-despair/watch-fu
> ll-report/103/> Click through for the full video.
>
> The
> <http://www.pbs.org/wnet/blueprintamerica/reports/driven-to-despair/overview
> /6/> latest episode of NOW is surely the most effective takedown of
> car-dependent planning ever broadcast in news magazine format. Adhering to
> the familiar contours of pocketbook journalism, "Driven to Despair" starts
> with a sympathetic portrayal of the Schleighs, a family who moved to a
> southern California exurb seven years ago. With their adjustable rate
> mortgage about to reset and gas prices already busting the family budget,
> they need a way out.
>
> What follows can be fairly described as a 25-minute ode to the time- and
> money-saving benefits of transit, complete with
> <http://www.pbs.org/wnet/blueprintamerica/reports/driven-to-despair/timeline
> -of-los-angeles-transit/101/> a brief history of the Los Angeles streetcar
> system and a rueful suggestion that the Presidential candidates should
> address transportation more forcefully.
>
> Watching the Schleighs and their neighbors react to the idea of riding a
> train to work -- sneering, in one case -- it's all too apparent why someone
> running for national office would skirt the issue. But you also realize that
> if a national pol were to finally go out on that limb, he or she may find
> voters more receptive to the idea of better trains and buses than feared.
>
> "Driven to Despair" will be broadcast on PBS affiliates tonight (check local
> listings). It's the first part in a NOW series on infrastructure called "
> <http://www.pbs.org/wnet/blueprintamerica/> Blueprint America."
> http://www.pbs.org/wnet/blueprintamerica/
>
> 
>
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