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Automotive News & Views Are gas prices fueling your pain? 
10042 messages, Last post on Jul 12, 2008 at 3:07 PM
You are in the Automotive News & Views Forum. Your Hosts are steve_ & claires
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My life has changed a bit .In winter i have to use my car so i have beater to take me on my 2 mile drive to the T Station. I use the commuter train and spend 230$ for a monthly pass half of that is refunded by the company and other half is pretax.In summer and grocery run i use my sport bike.The funny thing is my motorcycle which is sporty high performace version had luggage now and give me 50 mpg . for ride below 10 miles and T in summer i ride my pecal cycle. final milage last year 2000 miles on the car 2200 on my bycycle 11000 on my ride - recreational miles are 80% .travelling cross contry and a few states in summer. |
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Replying to: xrunner2 (Jul 10, 2008 5:55 am)  Then I rode it back home! A better example may be Mexico, a country where most people can't afford gas, much less a car to put the gas in. Eight years ago we parked our car in Tucson and caught a bus south, and went to Cancun. We took 2+ months to get there, but when we got ready to hit the next town, we'd walk to the bus station and pretty much hop on. If we were going more than a couple of hours down the road we might reserve a seat the next day on a first class express bus, complete with snacks and video screens. We got stuck in one town due to a bus strike, so we walked 2 blocks to the highway and caught a bus run by another company, never missing a beat. There's plenty of empty spaces down there but getting around without a car is pretty easy. Ditto most other places I've visited, except Canada. Trains are the best though - I'd rather ride a train than fly any day.
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Replying to: xrunner2 (Jul 10, 2008 5:55 am) The surest way to go out of business is to be inconsistent. Would anyone ride a transit system if they thought it may or may not run, and were not sure what it costs? In addition, on at least some of those routes the carrier has a choice - low ridership, or no ridership, since they need to get the vehicle back to where it is needed. |
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Replying to: xrunner2 (Jul 10, 2008 5:55 am) San Diego Transit is doing an interesting thing. On the heavy morning and evening runs to our little town the fare is $5.25. The mid morning and early afternoon run is $2.75. They also have monthly passes that would save a lot of money. It still does not solve the problem of empty or nearly empty buses polluting the air.
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Replying to: gagrice (Jul 10, 2008 7:26 am) I wonder where the gas price is that will start really putting people into mass transit? I admit I'd rather not find out. |
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Replying to: steve_ (Jul 10, 2008 6:57 am) Need a lot of flexibility for 2 month bus trip. Were buses like Romancing the Stone bus on mountain in Columbia, with lots of people carrying odd things such as chickens? Public not-for-profit transportation has to do a much better job at scheduling "and" filling the buses, train cars, etc. Have many, many times in past years seen small amount of passengers (1,2,3, 4...) on full-size public buses, both in semi-rural and suburban settings. When fuel was cheap and plentiful, obviously didn't matter. But, not today.
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Replying to: flash11 (Jul 10, 2008 4:20 am) I agree with much of what you said but this statement sticks out for me. In times of change that is often when the most money can be made by those with a clear balanced view of what could happen in the future. These people are often called visionaries but they are also entrpreneurs. Right now there is a fantastic opportunity to make a fortune giving the US public what it wants in terms of fuel availability. All the alternate fuel sources you noted are certainly immediate opportunities to 'get ahead'. Pessimism serves no purpose. Optimism see opportunities in everything. Just Do It! ( to borrow a phrase )
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Replying to: xrunner2 (Jul 10, 2008 7:48 am) Schedules are posted all over so it's easy to plan if you don't have much flexibility. A few times we just did a flag stop and got on a bus that way. It wasn't much different in Italy last year when we went over for a week or so - took a train for a couple of hours, then bused around until it was time to train back to the airport. We're meeting friends in Chicago in a few weeks and they get to take the train - we're stuck with flying (not enough time to drive). I keep waiting for Northwest to call and say our flight has been cancelled. If gas does double in price, maybe that will make more public transportation options feasible just from the economics - the last thing I need when I get to Chicago is a car (already got a transist pass in the mail)
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Replying to: steve_ (Jul 10, 2008 6:57 am) There are a lot of smaller regional bus companies, but I bet they're now being decimated by psychopathic pump prices.
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Replying to: nippononly (Jul 09, 2008 7:03 am) |
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