Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 2006/04/27
[Author Prev] [Author Next] [Thread Prev] [Thread Next] [Author Index] [Topic Index] [Home] [Search]If I can chip in my few pennies from over here... We suffer from a similar problem to you, albeit on a smaller scale. The problem is the commute. Most of our domestic petrol/gasoline consumption goes on making commutes into large cities. One solution is obviously public transport, but government won't invest in good enough train systems and other mass transit systems. What we actually need to do is address the perceived need for the commute. Today, technically we don't actually NEED a lot of the commute. Many people are going into cities to perform tasks that could equally well be performed from home. With communications as they are becoming, why SHOULD we locate businesses in the metropolises? The reasons that they were located are purely historical and have little to do with the way that much business is or could be connected today. Peter Dzwig Marc James Small wrote: > At 09:51 PM 4/26/06 -0400, Don Dory wrote: > > >>But with gas hitting $3 in the U.S. people might change. Possibly try mass >>transit. > > > Mass transit is simply not an option for 70% or more of the population, as > an increasing number of folks in the US live in small towns or in the far > outer suburbs -- can you imagine the cost to drive the DC Metro out to, > say, Clarke County? Mass transit already works for those living in the > inner reaches of the large metro areas, but we lack the infrastructure to > see use increase dramatically. > > I'd slap a $5 a gallon tax on gasoline imported from outside the US, open > ANWR, and start pumping natural gas from the Florida coastal waters. The > money from the new tax should go to set up processing plants for shale oil > -- the US has raw reserves of shale oil equivalent to something on the > order of ten times the proven petroleum reserves. > > I drive a manual '84 Audi 4000S which gets 40mpg on the highway and 30mpg > around town. My wife has a straight-drive Hyundai Elentra which does > almost as well. I am looking for a late 1950's VW Bus to use to haul my > gear when I go camping, but there is no rush on that: my wife and I can > lug it all in both cars now. > > Marc > > > > msmall@aya.yale.edu > Cha robh b?s fir gun ghr?s fir! > > > > > _______________________________________________ > Leica Users Group. > See http://leica-users.org/mailman/listinfo/lug for more information > >