Rising Gas Prices, Public Transportation is Key.
So what are you going to do to reduce your consumption? How are you going to make sure that the new pricies in gasoline do not cause you to go insolvent?
There was transportation before the automobile and there will be after it is gone. The world would be a much cleaner place if the mobility was decreased. If you used your bicycle to go to your place of work, or walked to the grocery. If the public transportation in the U.S. was adequate it would be an option.
In my location travel by bus or other public transporation is prohibitive. The nearest bus line to my house is one block and runs twice a day. The next nearest is 3 miles. It also only runs evening and morning, and is not overly helpful to get to places that are just south. For me to go 10 miles south using the local bus service requires that I go a total of 60 miles on the bus. It is also necessary for me to leave in the morning to get there by 6pm. Welcome to the state of public transporation in Minneapolis. In fact, I have gone to http://www.metrotransit.org/ to look up trips more than you can imagine, and the answer I always get is that the trip is not possible.
MTC Restructuring Upper Northwest this project looks promising, but will not be implemented until 2007.
Ride Share...
Metro Commuter Services
Craigs List Minneapolis
Car Pool World
Pedal...
Twin Cities Bicycling Club
Although Minneapolis has a bicycle freeway that runs about 9 miles, one cannot use a motorized bicycle (moped) on that or any other bicycle trail. And legally no bicycle can be used on the highways moped or fully pedalled bike. There is a great deal of support for bicycling in Minneapolis and St. Paul. In fact, Minneapolis was thrid for bicycling in the nation. This map will give you a good idea of the terrain in the Hennepin County, it is the plans as of 2003. To get the current maps look at the maps on this page.
Currently my wife works 22 miles from our home, 28 miles via bicycle trails. Following the bicycle Maps it will take her over an hour each day to get to work. Interestingly enough, if it were not that she would be travelling at night, I might actually recommend that she make the commitment to do this, she would get to work in about the same amount of time as it currently takes to drive her morning commute.
I frequently go between 60 and 100 miles to work. I work througout the Twin Cities on customer sites. I have not found a decent alternative to driving.
Work at home...
It seems like everywhere you look on the internet you are barraded by offers to work at home. However, FTC warnings about fraud abound.
Even those of us who own homebased businesses still need to visit our clients on site. This is especially true in the technology sector. I find that I can do a lot of work for people from my home, but that it requires onsite time in order to support hardware, and people's egos.
Of course, if one is making a ton of money none of this really matters, unles one believes as I do that we should work toward a more sustainable society.
Personal Rapid Transit...
Is it a pipe dream? The costs of building a Personal Rapid transit that carries 2-4 people is much cheaper than the costs of building Light Rail Transit. It also provides for much more frequent transports. One of the items I complain about most in the current Twin Cities Transits.
Others???
There was transportation before the automobile and there will be after it is gone. The world would be a much cleaner place if the mobility was decreased. If you used your bicycle to go to your place of work, or walked to the grocery. If the public transportation in the U.S. was adequate it would be an option.
In my location travel by bus or other public transporation is prohibitive. The nearest bus line to my house is one block and runs twice a day. The next nearest is 3 miles. It also only runs evening and morning, and is not overly helpful to get to places that are just south. For me to go 10 miles south using the local bus service requires that I go a total of 60 miles on the bus. It is also necessary for me to leave in the morning to get there by 6pm. Welcome to the state of public transporation in Minneapolis. In fact, I have gone to http://www.metrotransit.org/ to look up trips more than you can imagine, and the answer I always get is that the trip is not possible.
MTC Restructuring Upper Northwest this project looks promising, but will not be implemented until 2007.
Ride Share...
Metro Commuter Services
Craigs List Minneapolis
Car Pool World
Pedal...
Twin Cities Bicycling Club
Although Minneapolis has a bicycle freeway that runs about 9 miles, one cannot use a motorized bicycle (moped) on that or any other bicycle trail. And legally no bicycle can be used on the highways moped or fully pedalled bike. There is a great deal of support for bicycling in Minneapolis and St. Paul. In fact, Minneapolis was thrid for bicycling in the nation. This map will give you a good idea of the terrain in the Hennepin County, it is the plans as of 2003. To get the current maps look at the maps on this page.
Currently my wife works 22 miles from our home, 28 miles via bicycle trails. Following the bicycle Maps it will take her over an hour each day to get to work. Interestingly enough, if it were not that she would be travelling at night, I might actually recommend that she make the commitment to do this, she would get to work in about the same amount of time as it currently takes to drive her morning commute.
I frequently go between 60 and 100 miles to work. I work througout the Twin Cities on customer sites. I have not found a decent alternative to driving.
Work at home...
It seems like everywhere you look on the internet you are barraded by offers to work at home. However, FTC warnings about fraud abound.
Even those of us who own homebased businesses still need to visit our clients on site. This is especially true in the technology sector. I find that I can do a lot of work for people from my home, but that it requires onsite time in order to support hardware, and people's egos.
Of course, if one is making a ton of money none of this really matters, unles one believes as I do that we should work toward a more sustainable society.
Personal Rapid Transit...
Is it a pipe dream? The costs of building a Personal Rapid transit that carries 2-4 people is much cheaper than the costs of building Light Rail Transit. It also provides for much more frequent transports. One of the items I complain about most in the current Twin Cities Transits.
Others???
2 Comments:
PRT is a hoax and a scam promoted by anti-transit politicians like Rep Mark Olson and Michele Bachmann
Learn more about PRT at the PRT is a Joke web site.
PRT is neither a hoax nor a scam. Infeasible? Ugly? Inefficient? One must realize that there are PRT or PAT systems currently working. They are not perfect. But, look at and Washington quick overview of PRT.
Personally I think that the worst part of it is simply the asthetics or lack there of.
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