From: Mike Lorrey (mlorrey@yahoo.com)
Date: Tue Feb 11 2003 - 14:03:40 MST
--- Dehede011@aol.com wrote:
> In a message dated 2/11/2003 1:26:14 PM Central Standard Time,
> rms2g@virginia.edu writes: ### If people really need trains and
> buses, they don't need to be subsidized.
>
> Rafel,
> I am not debating what you said and in one sense I am
> definitely not responding directly to you -- but you did start me
> thinking.
WHich is never a bad thing.
snip..
> One morning I started counting up. The Edens choked down to
> maybe 25 MPH and carrying barely over one passenger per auto still
> was moving more traffic than our El was.
This is quite true. A decade ago, I was involved in the opposition to
the light rail project in Seattle. Studying past mass transit projects
around the country, I found that proponents generally overestimated
actual new ridership by 50%, and underestimated actual investment costs
by a similar proportion. Adjusting Seattle Transit Authority's
proposals for these facts, I found that the cost per new rider for the
system expansion came to over $25,000 per year for the 40 year life of
the project. Projected increased ridership was 34,000, adjusted to
17,000, while project cost was originally around $7 billion, adjusted
up to over $13 billion.
Mass transit is only viable in areas which have already been radically
transformed by other socialist policies, like fuel and other taxes,
oppressive parking enforcement, and restrictions on construction of
private parking facilities. Successfully used public mass transit is a
paramount sign of a mature and ingrained socialist society.
=====
Mike Lorrey
"Live Free or Die, Death is not the Worst of Evils."
- Gen. John Stark
"Pacifists are Objectively Pro-Fascist." - George Orwell
"Treason doth never Prosper. What is the Reason?
For if it Prosper, none Dare call it Treason..." - Ovid
__________________________________________________
Do you Yahoo!?
Yahoo! Shopping - Send Flowers for Valentine's Day
http://shopping.yahoo.com
This archive was generated by hypermail 2.1.5 : Tue Feb 11 2003 - 14:05:50 MST