Tilted Forum Project Discussion Community - View Single Post - 5 cent gallon of gas.....if you live in Iraq

Superbelt · 06-11-2004, 10:53 AM

I'm not afraid of social engineering. Nor using taxes to facilitate it. I don't want to see people able to throw their money away in their own vehicle choice because like it or not it has an impact on me. It impacts me because american is forced to import fuel to keep our economy going at this rate. This fuel is highly volatile ($) and the recent spikes are enough to show you how they can effect us. It's not subjective that Europe has a better grasp on transportation. They have a big lead over us in tech and preparations. We may be giving up a bit of our trans choices but we are gaining more national stability and an improved transportation system overall. So there are tradeoffs.

Europe overall is comparable in size to the US. Don't just think of them as their individual contries. We don't have to have a transit system in the midwest. In a comparison you should be looking at europe to the north east quadrant of the US. That is where density comparisons will be similar. We DO need transit on the level of Europe in the east. About 40% of our population is within 8 hours of Washington. We need to stop building so many highways and start building transit systems.

I work in transportation, with PENNDOT and traffic engineers daily. I see good light rail proposals get shot down for lack of transit money but highways almost immediately get greenlighted for widenings. We should be prioritizing our money better and stuffing it quickly into the various forms of mass transit. And the best way to get americans onto mass transit is to increase gas prices. You do it now while we still have some breathing room. If we wait until market forces decide then we will be stuck and we will be paying even more for the improvements.

Gas is a limited and vital commodity and as such NEEDS to be strictly regulated. Think of it this way: You live in Arizona. Water there is already pretty tight. A 450 home subdivision gets built in your town and everywhere you look, people are running sprinklers and washing their cars in the middle of the day, etc.. You can see the water running down the streets in a torrent every saturday at noon. These people are putting YOU at risk because of their ignorant and dangerously excessive use of the precious water. Your towns reservoir starts to dip and dip and dip. Does your town want to allow them to continue with their lifestyle or do you crack down and require everyone to stop watering their lawns and cease with all other wasteful activities?

06-11-2004, 10:53 AM	#14 (permalink)
Superbelt This vexes me. I am terribly vexed. Location: Grantville, Pa	Seretogis I'm not afraid of social engineering. Nor using taxes to facilitate it. I don't want to see people able to throw their money away in their own vehicle choice because like it or not it has an impact on me. It impacts me because american is forced to import fuel to keep our economy going at this rate. This fuel is highly volatile ($) and the recent spikes are enough to show you how they can effect us. It's not subjective that Europe has a better grasp on transportation. They have a big lead over us in tech and preparations. We may be giving up a bit of our trans choices but we are gaining more national stability and an improved transportation system overall. So there are tradeoffs. Europe overall is comparable in size to the US. Don't just think of them as their individual contries. We don't have to have a transit system in the midwest. In a comparison you should be looking at europe to the north east quadrant of the US. That is where density comparisons will be similar. We DO need transit on the level of Europe in the east. About 40% of our population is within 8 hours of Washington. We need to stop building so many highways and start building transit systems. I work in transportation, with PENNDOT and traffic engineers daily. I see good light rail proposals get shot down for lack of transit money but highways almost immediately get greenlighted for widenings. We should be prioritizing our money better and stuffing it quickly into the various forms of mass transit. And the best way to get americans onto mass transit is to increase gas prices. You do it now while we still have some breathing room. If we wait until market forces decide then we will be stuck and we will be paying even more for the improvements. Gas is a limited and vital commodity and as such NEEDS to be strictly regulated. Think of it this way: You live in Arizona. Water there is already pretty tight. A 450 home subdivision gets built in your town and everywhere you look, people are running sprinklers and washing their cars in the middle of the day, etc.. You can see the water running down the streets in a torrent every saturday at noon. These people are putting YOU at risk because of their ignorant and dangerously excessive use of the precious water. Your towns reservoir starts to dip and dip and dip. Does your town want to allow them to continue with their lifestyle or do you crack down and require everyone to stop watering their lawns and cease with all other wasteful activities? Last edited by Superbelt; 06-11-2004 at 10:57 AM..