Got a glimpse of this and thought it was going to be your tattoo piece. Ah well - someday, maybe? Do you take requests, AD DJ?

AskMom is eloquent on the "public" transportation issue. She's obviously had her enlightenment replaced by her pragmatism. No room for her on the Left.

Have you ever heard Michael Medved on light rail? He despises it and even calls the use of tax money for such projects immoral. I enjoy his rants too.

The South Lake Union Train?

Did you ride the S.L.U.T?

In Las Vegas there exists a secret 900 million dollar monorail that wouldn't go anywhere if it actually worked. It was claimed, to calm the right wing rabble, that private money was raising the project, but surprise, surprise.

It is extremely unfortunate politicians are not shot. And journalists.

Now "they" want to move on to a five billion dollar, so they say, high-speed train to...... Victorville. Privately financed.

If I am making this up, bag me and tag me.

The people who tout these systems as the answer should be forced to use the present system for everything everyday for two years before they are permitted to open their mouths in public again.

I guarantee that being at the mercy of their fellow citizens' humanity on a daily basis will be an illuminating experience. Yes, public transit is inefficient, wastes time you'll never, ever get back, but unless you are the next Mother Teresa, it's a deal breaker.

Thanks for the front paging, Gerard, and for the compliment, Western.

My pragmatism has always kept me from being too enlightened, thank God. And it's been easy from the first to be cynical about public transport. My childhood out in the sticks left me oblivious to any bus except the big yellow one that took an hour to get me to school. It smelled like gym clothes and dog poop, and was drafty as a rollercoaster. Brief forays on other busses later did nothing to improve my opinions.

In college as a 40 year old mother of six, I had to write an economics paper about some public utility issue. I chose the installation of wheelchair lifts/purchase of kneeling busses as a topic. Turns out that considering reality, which of course liberals are violently allergic to, but if you can be brave and look at the actual numbers...

Every time a wheelchair-bound person took a ride on a bus in Seattle, instead I theoretically had them call an office, sent a car and driver just for them, took them wherever it was they really had gone on the bus. The cars were Lincoln Town cars. Maintenance as per Washington State standards for State Patrol cars. Drivers paid union wages and benefits. Office staffed 24/7/365 by three people at union rates, with benefits, with appropriate phones and a computer for scheduling/dispatch. And how much more would this have cost?

It would have been cheaper. Considering lost space on busses, lost time loading and unloading wheelchairs while schedules were delayed and drivers were paid to sit, considering the cost and maintenance of the special busses and equipment, considering that the city wouldn't wait to see where actual wheelchair riders were, no, they had to equip EVERY bus before they even knew if it would ever be used.... it would have been cheaper to give the wheelchair brigade their own Town Cars.

Instead of the bogus "respect and dignity" they're supposed to feel as they are crated into and out of busses like luggage at the airport, they could have had real respect, real dignity, real PRIVACY. For LESS of your tax money.

I hate government. I hate mass transit. I hate central planning. I lust for a free market in transportation; a free market in everything, dammit. I stopped voting for Democratic Party candidates for anything, ever, after my economics classes showed me the evils of their ideology.

I recommend it heartily. Abstain, vote crazy, vote Republican, you can still respect yourself in the morning. Vote for a Democrat and the slime will never wash off. Kinda like the stuff on your hands after you hold the grab bars on the BUS.

I used to live in a city neighborhood about 2 miles to downtown when I was younger & single. In nice weather, walking or biking was an option. But here in the midwest, the weather is rarely nice and easy, it's nice and rough as Tina Turner might say. Those cold/rainy/snowy days I would huddle on the sidewalk waiting for the bus, and then cram into it with my fellow travelers. I decided that one measure of success for me would be that I would never ever have to ride public transportation again. The fascination lefties have for public transporation must be because they themselves never wait for it or ride it.

I'm a commuter by bus. I could very well become insane by bus. Very few problems with the busses running frequently and on time, indeed from my Hudson County NJ town into Port Authority bus terminal in NYC, busses run all the time for the morning and evening commutes. Not bad on weekends either. No, the problem is with other people. If I was Queen of the Universe, and count yourselves lucky that I'm not, I'd make it Holy Writ that all cell phone use and all iPod use would be permanently prohibited on public transport. Offenders would be promptly removed from bus or train and shot without benefit of trial or of passing go and collecting $200. Further, any person who steps onto the bus without either their pass or some money ready to show and go, will be immediately kicked to the curb for being a Dumb Ass. And as for all the goddamned tattooed body parts, well, can't say much about that until people by the thousands need treatment for some variation of hepatitis and then it's time to say out of luck! No can do! How do like that rationed health care now?!

Yeah, I've got a little commuter rage. I need to get over it by moving somewhere else. Besides it's $8 to cross the Hudson by car and $28 or more to park. Contempt for taxpayers is everywhere around here.

Kerry, you have to pass through the human scum and refuse at the Port Authority Bus Terminal EVERY WORKING DAY? You deserve sainthood. I've lived and worked in the City and I'd rather give the last year of my life away than have to do what you do.

My port was Penn Station and only for trips out of town, and the people there were bad enough, but every time my friend and I were joustled and insulted, we'd remind ourselves that at least we weren't over at the Port Authority.

Jeebers. Guard your soul, brave warrior.

I can see at least one way Seattle light rail can be made less unbearably heavy.

A lot of the more disgusting shortcomings of public transportation in Seattle would be lessened considerably if the monopolies were abolished. Fat chance.

"Vote for a Democrat and the slime will never wash off..."

True enough. I voted for Carter in '76, and it still makes me feel dirty, even though I rectified that mistake in 1980.

I've seen some public transportation systems that work very well--Singapore's, for instance--and others that are, shall we say, less well thought-out, like Washington DC's. It might seem obvious, but it appears to me that there's a direct correlation between how much a system is actually designed to move people from one point to another and how well it works. The heavier the social engineering aspect--"reduce traffic", "cut pollution", "improve efficiency"--the worse the system works.

You are 99% right. The exception is:

...since your hearing is not good and your poor eyesight...

I've used both auto and public transport and basically, public transport is a form of poverty.

A year or two ago, US News & World Report had an article on ideas the USA could use from foreign lands, and one of them was biking to work, and they were concentrating on the Netherlands. The picture was great - cyclers going to work in suits and holding umbrellas because it was pouring rain.

Wonderful. And the USA isn't as densely populated as the Netherlands, and in most cities there is this thing we call winter. I pushed a paperroute bike through the snow, but to get more than a couple of miles for a commuter? Forget it.

I hate government. I hate mass transit. I hate central planning. I lust for a free market in transportation; a free market in everything, dammit. I stopped voting for Democratic Party candidates for anything, ever, after my economics classes showed me the evils of their ideology.

Beautiful sentiments. May I add, I hate the environment? Oh, yes, and endangered species.

"Were they ever parents, ever disabled, ever need to do errands, ever want to buy more than half a bag of groceries?"

They had nannies to take care of the kids, servants to take care of errands and groceries.
After all, they're the elite who can afford that from the money they pilfer from the taxpayers.

Like Marx and Lenin, they know (or claim to) that having less is better for other people who already have less than they themselves.
And if all those others no longer have cars, there won't be any more traffic jams or lack of parking space for the elite's Mercedes and Rolls Royce cars.

Public transportation can work provided:

1/ you have a polite and well behaved populace

2/ the area covered is the size of a postage stamp

3/ the population density of that postage stamp exceeds that of a mosh pit at some overbooked heavy metal concert

Get all that together, and it can work just great.

waltj: Singapore sucks compared to Hong Kong, that's how good HK is. I find myself getting annoyed if I have to wait 6 minutes for a train at 12:30 at night! Can you imagine the horror?

I am reminded of a woman I worked with; she was a member of the League of Women Voters and an outspoken advocate for public transportation. She lived about twenty minutes' walk from work on a bus line. Her own method of commuting was to have her retired husband chauffeur her to and from work.

You add to this mindset the combination of mayors and city councilmen with the lobbyists for the construction companies who are the real beneficiaries of most urban transit systems, and you get the kinds of useless systems we have in this country.

You also get congresspersons who airily vote into law pieces of junk legislation like CPSIA (google it if you don't already know), the c4c program, and the stimulus package, knowing that they may well profit from it and are insulated from any negative consequences.

The one public transit system I ever saw that worked reasonably well was Denver's. Denver's transit is consistently rated tops in the nation by its users— and there's obvious reasons why.

1. The light rail has several LARGE park & rides at its extreme edges, enabling drivers from the Front Range and other points to drive to the outskirts and hop a ride. You could also take a bus to the airport from these park & rides while leaving your car for up to two weeks. (Very useful if you had to take an emergency flight...)

2. The light rail actually has stops at useful places, like Denver Tech (the business area), downtown, and the various stadia. Yes, you can take the light rail to Broncos or Nuggets games, and so many do that they run special trains for games.

3. They've actually put some thought into useful bus lines. While I lived there, I couldn't take the bus to work because the idiots in that subdivision didn't want the buses in because "it would bring the riff-raff." (This according to an annoyed RT driver.) They finally got past the city council about six months before I left.

BUT...

The reason this system worked was that it interacted with existing transportation methods. The park & rides were just off freeways, generally at major junctions. The bus routes tended to follow the heaviest traffic routes. And there was always an effort to have routes for those who needed them most, i.e. those who could not afford a car.

And I would not like to have to rely on it exclusively— I did so for two months at the end of my stay in that city and felt very restricted in what I could do, especially with many of my friends on the other side of the city.

I once used Greyhound for transit in a rural area. Ever gotten on a bus with 50 pounds of dog food? I guess it was better than hitchhiking but not much.

One time I mapped out what it would take to use transit for a job I'd interviewed for. I had to drive to the transit station and be there by six, then take Portland's Max out to Beaverton. It took two hours basically to get there. I figured that if I was already driving at six, I could just drive the rest of the way in as traffic wouldn't be that bad. I guess there are some people that it works for, but it really is an antiquated way to move people. We'd be better off with jittnies, small buses with custom routes.

Oh, the social engineering.

We're about to spend a billion of your tax dollars on our second light rail line here in the Twin Cities. This one will run from downtown St. Paul to downtown Minneapolis, through the U of M. But the route is angering two lefty constituencies. The U is worried that vibration will mess up medical equipment. Minnesota Public Broadcasting is afraid vibration will screw up A Prairie Home Companion.

No one, of course, is worried that it will destroy traffic along the route, as well as traffic crossing the route (a major artery). After all, gentrification will surely follow, and all of those gaudy minority-owned businesses are undercapitalized, anyway.

If the point really were to move people from St. Paul to Minneapolis via the U, they could use existing rail lines which parallel the route just two blocks north. It would save about 80 percent of the cost, too. But no, the social engineers are in charge.

Social engineering is to actual engineering as Social Security is to actual security.

"Singapore sucks compared to Hong Kong, that's how good HK is. I find myself getting annoyed if I have to wait 6 minutes for a train at 12:30 at night! Can you imagine the horror?"

As public transportation systems go, they're both pretty darn good. Never had any dramas using either of them, although Singapore's trains stop running around midnight, as you've probably noticed. As good as HK's system is (love the train from the airport) I have to admit to a certain fondness for the Star Ferry service between Kowloon and HK Island. Especially at night. One of the most spectacular cityscape views on the face of the earth.

Last time I lived in the States, I had a 50-mile commute. One way. So I was putting 100 miles a day minimum on my car. Plus the reserve unit I drilled at was about 150 miles away. Add that once a month. It all totaled about 30,000-35,000 miles per year. There are lots of people who drive more, I know, but that's still a helluva lot to me. I enjoyed driving, and I bought a nice car (a used Mercedes) since I was spending so much time on the road. I sold it when I moved back overseas. But although I do miss the Benz, which actually got better mileage with its V-8 than the V-6 Ford it replaced, I don't miss the commute. Now, I live in a big city in Asia (again), rely on taxis for getting around (average fare is between $2-$3), and don't worry about it when my cab gets stuck in traffic. The only public transportation they have around here are buses (the newer ones that use their own bus lanes are ok, the older ones should be considered for a new "enhanced interrogation" method) and real, no-kidding railroad trains (not subways or light rail). The trains are hideously overcrowded, with people usually riding on top (they don't pay a fare for riding up there). So with these alternatives, and my expat's paycheck, I'll pay a bit more and use the taxi.

Here is a tale of two cites. One with rail transit that works extremely well and is a definite boon to the area and one that wants to be like that.

Chicago:

1. The city’s rails were built when Chicago was the hub and rail was king. The CTA has 11 lines going to all parts of the city and the METRA covers 12 lines going from South bend to Kenosha and in between. All METRA lines have ample parking at them so you can commute easily.
2. Auto traffic in downtown Chicago and its corresponding parking is horrible and VERY expensive. Taking the train makes a lot of sense there. I worked for 6 years in the South Loop and was grateful for the train’s existence. There was some waiting during off peak times but the convenience of taking rail to the city was worth it.
3. Cities and businesses had more than a hundred years to grow around these train stations and provide the necessary infrastructure nearby.
4. Downtown Chicago has lots of jobs. Corporate headquarters, stock exchanges, banks and retail. That is a compelling reason to go downtown.
5. All was not perfect however. Any commuting not to and from the city was primarily a car trip. attempts to add cross the grain rail service has failed because of (1)-(4) above.

Detroit:
1. Detroit had, until 1956, one of the best rail transit systems in the world. It was dismantled along with its infrastructure. Subsequent growth was designed around cars.
2. There are two bus services in the area. One is owned by the city and the other by the surrounding region. They have never been able to work cooperatively in the past and show no signs of doing so in the future. Bus service is sporadic and the city is planning to eliminate late Saturday and Sunday service altogether. This and (1) make Detroit what it is; “Motown”
3. There are plans that are partially financed by the stimulus package to put light rail down Woodward Avenue, but it will stop at Eight mile road and only go further if someone else has the money to finance it. Note that this only covers one route where dozens or more would be required. It also does not go by much significant infrastructure such as businesses that provide jobs people can go to.

In the early 90’s I was looking for a job while working in Ann Arbor and living with my family in Chicago. Here is what I did for 11 months.
1. Get to the METRA train station in Chicago 20-30 minutes before the train leaves for downtown. There is no other service that will get you there on time.
2. Take the train for an hour and 15 minutes to Union station. Walk across the platform to the Amtrak side and wait over an hour before boarding the train. Ride for 5 hours on the train minimum to get to the Deaborn , MI AMTRAK station to pick up my car and ride to where I was staying. The minimum time was frequently not met. Total time traveling was about 9-10 hours. You can drive between these locations in 5 to 5-1/2 hours.
3. Repeat the same on the return trip at the end of the week.

The Governor of Michigan has made an application yesterday for high speed rail funding from Detroit to Chicago. This will increase the speed of the trip from 65 MPH to maybe 100 MPH but the average for the trip is likely less since there are a number of stops between here and Chicago.

My conclusion is that train travel is only worth it where there is or can be infrastructure built that places people near where they want to go with some degree of convenience and costs less than other alternatives.

"All METRA lines have ample parking at them so you can commute easily."

Sorry Ned, that may have been the case in the early 1990's, but it isn't any more. Not on all lines anyway.

I live in between the Lemont, IL station for the Heritage Corridor METRA line and the Lisle, IL station for the METRA BNSF (Burlington Northern Santa Fe) line.

Lisle, IL has a SEVEN YEAR waiting list for a parking permit in the one municipal lot at the train station. SOP is for businesses around the train station to "rent" parking spaces in their lots to commuters. To take the BNSF from my town means driving three miles to a park and ride, taking a PACE bus the remaining six miles to the train station, and THEN getting on the train downtown. Naperville, IL has the same long waiting list, and until Downers Grove, IL built a municipal parking garage within a block of their station, they too had a years long waiting list. The PACE bus only runs from the park and rider between 5:45 - 7:15 in the morning, and from 4:45 - 6:00 in the evening. After 6 PM the bus is a "milk run" that stops on demand, so who knows WHEN you'll get home.

To go to Lemont is a twelve mile drive from my home, but I can park for $1/day. The down side is only three trains run in the morning and three trains run in the evening.

I've heard complaints about parking and permit waits from riders on other lines as well.

Funny comments. There are definitely some issues with the Seattle transportation system.

Jayne/Askmom - Any chance you would publish your paper on the costs of wheelchair transport for open scrutiny? How did you cost the additional segregation that would result from seperating wheelchair users from the rest of the population? Did you speak to anybody from the 'wheelchair brigade' about your proposal?

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Not to mention the teens and able bodied people who will not give up their seats to anyone much less the elderly, incapacitated or the pregnant. And the joy of being exposed to every disease that can be passed on by a sneeze, cough or grope initiated by the unwashed masses.

So in the last few years of my old career I was responsible for a large phone system and Call Center in Boston. After years of my employers chipping away at my perks and benefits, I had no company vehicle or payment for parking or payment for mileage to drive into town.
To save money I took Boston's MBTA subway. After years of 50-75% rate bumps the crumbling, dirty and crime-ridden parking garage located in the suburbs had gone from 50 cents to $7. So I biked to the station, or walked to the bus stop when the roads were covered in snow and ice.
I was usually on the train by 5:30am but got to return by 3pm. The early morning train was usually half full of people trying to stay just enough awake that they could be ready for their stop. One morning, O dark thirty, the train is rocking along faster than usual I thought. But then the lights of a underground station flashed by, Andrew Station. A key bus terminal and never skipped even by expresses. I realized that I hadn't heard any announcements that this was an express but wasn't unusual, so many of the cars on the line didn't have working speakers anymore. I hoped that the train wasn't going to skip South Station or I'd end up with a long walk and be late. Then I noticed that we weren't slowing for Broadway Station which should be coming up. Seconds later the lights of the station were flashing through the trains grimy windows.
At that point the subway car began to brake, braking harder than any subway car I'd ever been in had ever braked. The train come to a stop with (as far as I could tell) the last car of the train still in the lighted station. My car was past the station and in the dark, the lights in the car showing the reflection of the startled passengers, all now fully awake. We sat there for several minutes. The rasping sound of voices coming from some metal grid speaker up "forward" could be heard. After a while there was a short attempt to back up the train to the station, then more rasping voices and after another brief pause the train started going forward and we continued on the next station in the line.
As I sat there and started putting it all together I came to the conclusion that the most plausible scenario for what had just happened was that the driver of the train had just fallen asleep and was finally awoken by the lights of the station he was passing. Awoke and instinctively hit the brakes, hard. With the early morning separation of the trains, after bypassing two stations he would probably have caught up with the train ahead by South Station. At South Station with it's bus, Amtrak and Silver Line connections the trains stayed a little longer and would probably have been stationary when our bolt from the dark arrived.

The head of security at the downtown building where I worked was retired from the MBTA and later that morning I told him the story for his "take" on the event. He told me that many years ago the drivers of the Subway Trains were only allowed to touch the controls of these machines until after years of working at lower jobs in the system; starters at the bus terminals, bus drivers, trolly conductors then trolly drivers and finally (min. of ten years later) subway train engineers. But at the end of his career he had seen that change, "Community Activists" had sued that this was keeping minorities out of the drivers seat (so to speak) and now within a year a new hire could be driving. I never saw the driver, I don't know. But I wasn't totally unhappy when I got laid off and thereby got out of there alive.

Note: A few months later a "T" operator drove a underground trolly into the rear of another train. While texting. That driver was mid-twenties and a transgender, transexual new hire, eighteen months on the job. "O what brave new world, that has such creatures in it!"

I survived hurricane Andrew in south Florida. Many folks lost their automobiles so the government used relief money to supply "jitneys" for the residents to go to and fro. It was an expensive program and one fine analyst figured out that for the money of the little used "jitneys" each family in the devastated region could be provided with a brand new luxury automobile. But the bureaucrats opted instead for the third world mode of transportation that was erratic, did not go where you needed, smelled and wasted money. Your government at work.