Gas Prices Send Surge of Riders to Mass Transit

With the price of gas approaching $4 a gallon, more commuters are abandoning their cars and taking the train or bus instead.

Mass transit systems around the country are seeing standing-room-only crowds on bus lines where seats were once easy to come by. Parking lots at many bus and light rail stations are suddenly overflowing, with commuters in some towns risking a ticket or tow by parking on nearby grassy areas and in vacant lots.

[Disgusted]

Maybe within the next fifty years the USA Mass Transit Systems might catch up too and equal what Europe and Japan Mass Transit IS TODAY.

Maybe it can be done in fifty years--if the USA and it's Leaders can work in a little efford taken from THE SHOUTING THE USA IS THE RICHEST COUNTRY IN THE WORLD and THE WORLD LEADER(s).

Whatever!!!!1

[frankhou77]

Thats great news!

Looks like the price of fuel is going up even further so hopefully this means that there will be a further push for public transportation.

[Leria]

frankhou.... public transportation is NEVER going to catch on with this country. Why? Because we are too spread out everywhere for it to work, period and done with.

The ONLY thing that is going to work for the United States is personally owned cars, unless you live in a big city or VERY close to a big city where you work.

Now, can we improve our 'consumer cars'? Hell yes, we could turn most of our cars into plugin hybrids and that would save a lot of gasoline, once we built more nuclear power plants.

We could also start mandating that some of the technologies that we have had for YEARS that are used to good benefit on racecars to get them higher gas mileage are used on regular cars.

Please, do not fall into the thinking that 'public transportation' is EVER going to be the solution in America. You forget that both Japan and Great Britain TOGETHER are only 1/10th the size of the United States.

[mind poison]

Fact here:
If your single person has BA/BS drives a 2 door, v-8 vehicle but is still at home. Thats an EGO problem.
Especially if parents are paying house payments, plus the V8 driver's health plans

[ralph]

one of the reasons england has better mass transportation is because gas is $10.00 a gal they are riding bikes ,walking,and have their car jacked up on blocks in the garage!Ihope they put in hitching post up town,Iam going to have to ride the horse to town,its either that or eat him.Ican afford our medications actually its a matter of life or death!!I am serious about that!!

[Coolmind]

about time .. our behaviors will change, by choice or necessity.

[frankhou77]

Increase of the US price in gas is the best thing that could have happen this this country.

Gas was so cheap that people where buys gas guzzlers without a care for the environment, why does anybody need an Escalade, Excursion or a Hummer? I have asked that question and they say because they have 2 children and what ever... So what? I have a fuel economy sports car and the 2 children and all their stuff fits more than perfectly, there is even a TV/DVD in the back seat.

Also, as the gas price starts to go beyond the $4 per gallon (I have been a consultant for the Oil Industry so I guarantee you it will in a few months) people will start considering public transit and will be pushing for the government to do more.

I have lived in countries such as England where it was just so easy and convenient to take a bus or train than to drive a car, I did have a car but it was for weekend trips or grocery shopping. Not here, I see people driving their SUV to the mailbox.

Its sad that in most US cities public transit is seen as something that poor people do. I do say most and not all because places such as New York have a really good public transport system that everybody (rich and poor) use.

[Whiskey Charlie]

The United States once had a railroad infrastructure that was second to none. Light rail in areas that can support it is an alternative to privately owned transportation.

The choices may be hard and a "bitter pill to swallow" to those who cling to individual transportation, for whatever reason. If each of us choose to modify our transportation habits, benefit will be felt not only at the personal, family and community level; but also at a nation level in the long run.

We have to do this among ourselves. Entrepreneurial enterprise needs to be expanded in all transportation related areas and individuals need to embrace positive change. Waiting for any government solutions is a non-starter in my opinion.

[john]

Maybe more people would take mass transit if they made it cheaper and/or more convenient. I for one do not think it is reasonable for me to pay $3 to park a mile away from the train then pay $16.50 one way and to wait an hour between trains if I miss it by minute or so. Then to top it off I have to pay for the subway too. get real. I have a family at home waiting for me. I can't and won't spend 3 hrs each way commuting!

[mixed]

I'm riding my bike to work tomorrow, it is supposed to be beautiful out.

[Donna Atlanta GA]

frankhou77 wrote:

Thats great news!
Looks like the price of fuel is going up even further so hopefully this means that there will be a further push for public transportation.

Be careful what you wish for. Have you seen mass transit in other countries - like Japan, for example, where train employees stand on the platform and literally shove riders into the cars to maximize every square in of space?

Mass transit should be an option, not a way of life. Remember, the wealthy will never be seen on the bus or train. So while you're packed onto the bus with the rest of your sardine cohorts, the rich will be passing you by in their nice new cars.

If you want to lower the standard of living in America, go ahead and hope for the limitations of automobile usage by the majority.

[Donna Atlanta GA]

Leria wrote:

frankhou.... public transportation is NEVER going to catch on with this country. Why? Because we are too spread out everywhere for it to work, period and done with.
The ONLY thing that is going to work for the United States is personally owned cars, unless you live in a big city or VERY close to a big city where you work.
Now, can we improve our 'consumer cars'? Hell yes, we could turn most of our cars into plugin hybrids and that would save a lot of gasoline, once we built more nuclear power plants.
We could also start mandating that some of the technologies that we have had for YEARS that are used to good benefit on racecars to get them higher gas mileage are used on regular cars.
Please, do not fall into the thinking that 'public transportation' is EVER going to be the solution in America. You forget that both Japan and Great Britain TOGETHER are only 1/10th the size of the United States.

You're exactly right, and those touting mass transit should sit and think about that word "mass". The automobile is THE biggest freedom most Americans have. It allows us to come and go as we please. It was the technology that advanced us in the modern world. And now we have people who desperately want to give up that freedom. They want to see millions of Americans crammed onto buses and trains, at the mercy of the transit schedules, to give up the convenience of our cars and join them at the bus stop when it's pouring rain and 40 degrees outside.

You're right. Mass transit should be one of numerous options available for energy conservation, but it shouldn't be considered the means to an end. Because our country is so large, we have to come up with personal vehicles that are easy on fuel, as well as come up with alternative fuels and begin refining our own oil again.

There is not a single solution to this problem. It will take many, but I'm afraid that like the "gas crisis" of the 70's, this is nothing more than a ruse to raise prices and many people are falling for the excuses.

[chris]

If this country fails to get better intercity rail and better transit fast, I mean in the next 5-10 years, we will fall so far behind europe that those of us wanting to actually want to have a quality of life when gas is $7/gal in 2010 are probably going to have to move to europe. We have done nothing but devest in anything involving rail transit in this country since the 1950's now look at the mess we are are in. airlines are no longer an afordable means of transportation and who wants to fly in a sardine can anyway. there is no excuse that america should not have a national rail network as good as those of european countries. the only reason we dont have one now was all in the name of oil.