On Mon, 06 Dec 2010 22:42:05 -0500, aemeijers
wrote:

On 12/6/2010 8:07 PM, wrote:
On Sun, 05 Dec 2010 22:42:47 -0500,
wrote:

On 12/5/2010 10:32 PM, Michael B wrote:
On Dec 5, 9:23 pm, zzz
wrote:

But rest assured they will find a way to tax it if electric autos become a
lasting reality.

As they should. Someone has to pay for the roads. Who better than the users?

Who better to pay for the roads? I see it this way.
The municipal governments pay for maintaining
the roads, then they put another chunk of money
into trying to set up urban mass-transit. They've
got it all wrong. They are subsidizing the oil
companies by repairing the roads that are being
used by their customers. Let the oil companies pay
for the roads.
And hey, the U.S. owns about 40% of GM, let GM
be turning out cablecars.

Oh, grow up. You can't put a streetcar track down EVERY street, even in
dense urban areas. Roads will ALWAYS be needed. Even where mass transit
passes the common-sense test, the cheapest solution is almost always
rubber-tired bus service. Steel wheels only make sense on high-volume,
high-traffic corridors.

Standard disclaimer- if the buses ran out this far, and went where I
needed to go, I would ride them. I did in college, and liked it a lot.
But I'm not gonna freeze my ass off downtown waiting for a transfer, or
take an hour each way getting to work, when I can drive it in 12 minutes
on a bad day.
Or bike it in 15 on a good day.

For a young jock, maybe. For a fat old fart like me, not much faster
than walking. 7.6 miles, about half uphill. Even 20 years ago when my
knees and butt were in better shape, I'd have to walk it up a couple of
those hills. With the traffic and idiot drivers on the roads in
question, I want steel around me. Not to mention, of course, that this
is frigging Michigan, and winter is 5+ months long here. Only a fool
rides a bike in traffic on a dark road.

The bus used to run to the apartments I lived in before I bought this
house, about 3/4 a crow mile closer to work. I rode it a few times when
car was in the shop. 2-3 of those times, I got tired of waiting for the
transfer bus, and walked the last 3/4 mile uphill to the office. Bus
system in this town is dying- they have collapsed the routes back to the
ones that had any actual ridership, mainly in the older poorer parts of
town.

I'm 58 and not what you call a prime specimen - bad knees and hips and
shoulders and ablut 20 extra lbs.
I've got an electric assist bike - just a low powered Schwinn . When
the office was 8km away it took me 18 minutes to get to the office on
the bike, and about 10 by car. Never done it by Grand River Transit,
but a good guess would be 45 minutes to an hour with 2 transfers.

Moved the office -3km now but the same amount of hills (hey, Kitchener
was called SandHills before it became Berlin, then Kitchener, so you
KNOW it's not flat), I can do it in 7 minutes if I hit all the lights,
about 4 with the car (the bike trail is a wee tad shorter in distance
and 3 less lights) - and THAT is better than a 20 minute bus ride.