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Automotive News & Views Are automobiles a major cause of global warming?
6979 messages, Last post on Dec 05, 2009 at 4:49 PM
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Replying to: larsb (Jul 09, 2008 1:14 pm)
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Replying to: gagrice (Jul 09, 2008 2:23 pm) Also - for the gentleman/lady who posted that comment: Go to NYC and stand at the Subway terminals yelling "You guys are a bunch of dependent thinking CATTLE!" and see how many work boots end up lodged in your backside. My point is that mass transit is not "cattle moving" - it's delivering PEOPLE to work and saving the pollution created when each of those people take a car each to work. You know I have said many times the FACT that "Mass Transit Is Not Perfect And Is Not The Perfect Solution For Every Single American." But the problem in my estimation is that far FAR fewer people use it who COULD use it. If more people used it, more costs could be paid for by the mass transit system and less borrowing from other areas would happen. Increased ridership means increased efficiency and decreases the RED in the bottom line. I too hope personal transportation gets cleaner and cheaper. Even then, people need to ride share and carpool more. But bad-mouthing mass transit will not help anything.
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Replying to: larsb (Jul 09, 2008 2:27 pm) You could have fooled me. It seems my times on mass transit were either jammed in like sardines with people standing in the aisles hanging on for dear life or a completely empty trolley gliding silently from one area of San Diego to the other. I have felt that way on some airlines like Southworst. Strictly a cattle car operation. Running to get a seat. Elbowing your way to be next to the aisle or window and not jammed between two fat people. If those paying the bill want to ride with 60 of their fellow citizens from one end of town to the other, fine. Let them pay the cost. Do not burden the populace with such an inefficient means of travel. If it was efficient it would be self sustaining. IT IS NOT! How much GHG does an empty bus produce? They are empty about half the time when I see them.
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Replying to: larsb (Jul 09, 2008 2:27 pm) That is VERY UNLIKELY to happen. I HATE BIG CITIES.... That includes San Diego and Phoenix. I will drive an extra 100 miles to avoid BIG CITIES. Like buses, big cities are where you store the masses. Warehouses for votes, I think is a common political euphemism. Big cities are huge GHG generators with little to offer in the way of carbon sink. |
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Replying to: gagrice (Jul 09, 2008 2:39 pm) For one, SouthWEST Airlines now has assigned seating. For two: if San Diego mass transit is that full, more power to your system !!! Good Job !!! You are moving the most people for the lowest pollution per person when the buses/trains/trolleys are FULL of people !!! But then, at the end of your post, you say they are empty. So which is it - Sardines or Echoes? We ALL benefit from mass transit - even YOU on your little San Diego hill and your beachfront Hawaii retreat. Mass Transit means one or five or fifty or 100 or 1000 fewer cars on the road. And an empty CNG bus pollutes hardly at all.
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Replying to: larsb (Jul 09, 2008 2:52 pm) My only experience on city buses was in Honolulu. They were either jammed or empty. Depending on the time of day. But then you know they run around the city of Phoenix empty much of the time. And you say a CNG bus has very little emissions when it is running with NO passengers. Very interesting idea. Even if it is WRONG. I doubt that the emissions are much different whether the bus is full or empty. I would be surprised if the average passenger mile on the buses in the US are not higher than a LEV or higher automobile. Then consider the 100s of 1000s of buses at the end of their day dead-heading 5-10-15-25 miles back to the terminal. That in itself would probably raise the temperature of the earth a couple degrees.  I have ridden the San Diego Trolley system several times it was mostly empty. It is a HUGE drain on San Diego city budget. While you like to consider those that pay their way in a private vehicle as selfish & self centered. I consider those riding the bus I am paying for as "FREE LOADERS". So that is how we disagree on mass transit. By the way SOUTHWORST airlines is still open seating according to their website. Our pastor just came back from Seattle and confirmed that to be so in San Diego and Seattle. Because Southwest Airlines maintains an open-seating policy, general-boarding Customers may sit in any open or unclaimed seat. http://www.southwest.com/travel_center/checkin.html
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Replying to: larsb (Jul 09, 2008 1:14 pm) Isn't that the definition of capitalism? On the other hand, you seem to be advocating a system where each person gives according to his abilities and each person takes according to his needs. I seem to remember a system like that. It's name started with a "C" also. 
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Replying to: larsb (Jul 09, 2008 2:27 pm) In NYC if you did that they would probably ignore you and all the other subway crazies who are yelling at any given time. 
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"A 17-year-old man was referred to the inpatient psychiatric unit at Royal Children's Hospital Melbourne with an eight-month history of depressed mood . . . He also . . . had visions of apocalyptic events." (So have Alarmist of the Year Tim Flannery, Profit of Doom Al Gore and Sir Richard Brazen, but I digress.) "The patient had also developed the belief that, due to climate change, his own water consumption could lead within days to the deaths of millions of people through exhaustion of water supplies." But never mind the poor boy, who became too terrified even to drink. What's scarier is that people in charge of our Government seem to suffer from this "climate change delusion", too. http://www.news.com.au/heraldsun/story/0,21985,23991257-25717,00.html It is not just in Australia that these CC delusions are showing up. It is in the USA with some people you would expect to be mentally balanced. The GW Cult may be the most deceptive cult since Jim Jones and his kool aid drinking followers in Guyana. GW is driven by mass hysteria and alarmism that is totally unhealthy. It should be brought under control and the perpetrators tried as you would someone for falsely yelling fire in a theater. |
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Replying to: gagrice (Jul 09, 2008 8:24 am) Thank you >It just does not make any financial sense. French experience show that the high speed lines are the most profitable of any lines and even cover for money loosing ones. Despite being clogged by dark red trotskist unions (a french specialty) and the many subsequential strikes, SNCF, the national rail company managed to post profits this year. Generally, every new high speed line opening see traffic beat initial estimates. the latest opening between Paris and Strasbourg (280 miles now in 2 hours 20 minutes) was no exeption and current booking average is more than 80% I would agree that it won't bring short term profits in comparison with any smart investment or speculation, but -and because those transport means are electric-powered- they measurably lower the carbon footprint and power/oil use. The question is : should we limit our scope to strict short term financial issues or try to think a little further? >At todays fares it is about twice what it would cost for the two of us to drive our Sequoia at 15 MPG round trip. Current train prices in France are about the same as for 2 people in a 25-30 mpg car on same distance. Current medium- Long distance Passenger train services in the US are a joke. >Can high speed rail ever be self sustaining? We have plenty of good examples of improved quality of life, improved economic activity and improved environment thanks to high speed lines. Airplane travel between Paris and strasbourg is down 50%. These are quite a few gallons of kerosene which were not burnt, and I don't mention that fewer planes means less noise. More travel means means more competition. Airlines drastically dropped their prices in reaction to the train, so I have ways to travel for cheaper than before. Is a car-only (or car + airplane only) system à la US sustainable? I am afraid the answer is simply no. >We do not want the massive debt that Japan has built up with trying to do all those things you mention. Japan's debt has little to do with their rail transport infrastructure and a lot to do with speculative investment (real estate or company stocks) that went wrong in the 90s and that nobody has the guts to write off. > Then you have proposed $450 billion in R&D. It would just become more corporate welfare. Why ? I did not discuss the implementation methods. For technological research, whether the apollo or the manhattan project, I consider the US has a pretty good track record. regardless of the motives, objectives were met. >We were in a race with the Soviets. This is a race to save earth and to save US way of life. I understand it does not sound that sexy and the short term dangers are not so visible.
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