LA Times: U.S. Love Affair With The Car Ending

Jack May wrote:
"Anonymous" wrote in message
...
Wow! Then I am sure glad that I bought a Corolla and didn't spend the
extra $8K - $10 K for a Prius.

There are no car pool lanes within 150 miles of where I live, so being
able to drive in them is no advantage to me.

Use of he car pool lane for hybrids has become the primary reason for people
to buy a hybrid. That is actually good because the last census I saw says
the diamond lane did nothing to increase the percentage of people car
pooling. It is definitely increasing the sales of hybrids.

It's also equalizing the usage of the lanes on the freeway. On 101 in
the Bay Area, the carpool lane isn't much faster than the other lanes
because they are now so full of non-carpoolers.

["Followup-To:" header set to ba.transportation.]

On 2007-01-31, Jack May wrote:

Use of the car pool lane for hybrids has become the primary reason for people
to buy a hybrid.

I'm sure we'd all love to see any shred of real (i.e., not Jack May-
processed-and-cooked) evidence of this claim! Yeah, I know, that's
unlikely.

FWIW, using the carpool lane was just about at the bottom of my
list for purchasing my Prius, and I waffled on whether to buy the
HOV sticker at all. (Eventually I did, because it helps my current
commute of my son and I (my wife is temporarily at home) over the
Bay Bridge. But when I was a true carpool with all three of us, I
saw little point.)

--keith

--

(try just my userid to email me)
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"Calif Bill" wrote:

At one time something like every 20 miles
was a stretch that could be used as an airfield.

That's one of those old urban legends:

http://www.snopes.com/autos/law/airstrip.asp

In article , "Jack May"
wrote:

Its not trains, it is all technologies. The British were trying to
understand technology laggards in their process to move towards digital TV.
Every technology transition I have ever followed had technology laggards
holding on the past and exclaiming loudly the inferiority the new
technology.

It has been Laser Disks vs DVD, records vs CD vs MP3, and so on.

I think it is genetic since it is so wide spread and so certain. The 16% of
people being technology laggards and their characteristics in society are
from the study.


Odd then that the computer system administrators that I ride to work with
on the bus use MP3 players and carry fairly high-end laptops. Laptops
must be outdated now. Not to mention all those people who fiddle around
with their blackberry while they are riding the bus. Must be something
out of the stone age.

--
-Glennl
The despammed service works OK, but unfortunately
now the spammers grab addresses for use as "from" address too!
e-mail hint: add 1 to quantity after gl to get 4317.

In article , "Jack May"
wrote:

"Scott en Aztlán" wrote in message
...
SMS said in misc.transport.urban-transit:

Actually what needs to be done is to find ways to encourage people to
leave the SUV or mini-van at home, and use a smaller vehicle for
commuting, and use the larger vehicle only when necessary.

Or, better still, use public transit for commuting, and *rent* the SUV
when you actually need one.

There is no advantage to society in using transit and major negative factors
in using transit.

Scott, please remember that there is no future in the 19th Century. Your
view that transportation technology reached its peak in the 19th Century
and solves the transportation problems of the 21st Century is worthless and
shows no understanding of the society you live in.


QUICK!! Go join the 21st century and buy a bunch of crap you don't need!!!
Hurry !!! Don't rent a U-haul truck to move. Buy one. Better yet, BUY
SEVERAL!!!! SUVs? They're having a 2-for-1 special down the street. Get
one for the wife too! Yard? Who needs a yard? Fill it with
vehicles!!!! Every house must have at least 20 of them. Quick honey!! We
need to buy a couple more RVs!!! We are lagging behind!!!! Gotta own
everything NOW!!!! Never rent what you only need once or twice!!!!

This gives me a whole new perspective on what Jack May's house must look
like. I was thinking of some huge thing with a garage and all that.
Instead, obviously his entire front and rear lawn must be filled with
vehicles he only uses once or twice a year (since renting anything is *so*
20th century). So, the only difference between our illustrious Jack May
and the guy down the street from me that has 20 vehicles is that Jack's
vehicles probably don't have trees growing out of them, and Jack obviously
prefers to work long hours for some high-tech firm rather than sit on the
front portch drinking beer out of a 1940s era refrigerator.

Oh, and for other recreational activities? I'll bet walking and jogging
are way too old fashioned for Jack. I'll bet he prefers having nice games
of Escalator-Squash. Or maybe centrifugal bumble-puppy? Or maybe
Riemann-surface tennis? After all, it can't be good for you unless it
consumes at least 20 horsepower of energy.

--
-Glennl
The despammed service works OK, but unfortunately
now the spammers grab addresses for use as "from" address too!
e-mail hint: add 1 to quantity after gl to get 4317.

wrote in message
...
In article , "Jack May"
wrote:

"Scott en Aztlán" wrote in message
...
SMS said in misc.transport.urban-transit:

Actually what needs to be done is to find ways to encourage people to
leave the SUV or mini-van at home, and use a smaller vehicle for
commuting, and use the larger vehicle only when necessary.

Or, better still, use public transit for commuting, and *rent* the SUV
when you actually need one.

There is no advantage to society in using transit and major negative
factors
in using transit.

Scott, please remember that there is no future in the 19th Century. Your
view that transportation technology reached its peak in the 19th Century
and solves the transportation problems of the 21st Century is worthless
and
shows no understanding of the society you live in.


QUICK!! Go join the 21st century and buy a bunch of crap you don't need!!!
Hurry !!! Don't rent a U-haul truck to move. Buy one. Better yet, BUY
SEVERAL!!!! SUVs? They're having a 2-for-1 special down the street. Get
one for the wife too! Yard? Who needs a yard? Fill it with
vehicles!!!! Every house must have at least 20 of them. Quick honey!! We
need to buy a couple more RVs!!! We are lagging behind!!!! Gotta own
everything NOW!!!! Never rent what you only need once or twice!!!!

This gives me a whole new perspective on what Jack May's house must look
like. I was thinking of some huge thing with a garage and all that.
Instead, obviously his entire front and rear lawn must be filled with
vehicles he only uses once or twice a year (since renting anything is *so*
20th century). So, the only difference between our illustrious Jack May
and the guy down the street from me that has 20 vehicles is that Jack's
vehicles probably don't have trees growing out of them, and Jack obviously
prefers to work long hours for some high-tech firm rather than sit on the
front portch drinking beer out of a 1940s era refrigerator.

Oh, and for other recreational activities? I'll bet walking and jogging
are way too old fashioned for Jack. I'll bet he prefers having nice games
of Escalator-Squash. Or maybe centrifugal bumble-puppy? Or maybe
Riemann-surface tennis? After all, it can't be good for you unless it
consumes at least 20 horsepower of energy.

--
-Glennl
The despammed service works OK, but unfortunately
now the spammers grab addresses for use as "from" address too!
e-mail hint: add 1 to quantity after gl to get 4317.

Great post!

Jack May wrote:

Its not trains, it is all technologies. The British were trying to
understand technology laggards in their process to move towards digital TV.
Every technology transition I have ever followed had technology laggards
holding on the past and exclaiming loudly the inferiority the new
technology.

It has been Laser Disks vs DVD, records vs CD vs MP3, and so on.

There is absolutely no doubt that AS USED, digital broadcasting
is inferior to analog in quality. This is because the amount
of artifacting is adjustable, and it is almost always adjusted
so that it is large and noticeable. This is not true, for example,
with the CD. Its not true with privately generated MPEG3 either,
of course, if you dedicate enough bits. DVDs are a special case:
they are capable of being transparent in some cases, but there
are movie scenes that ordinary DVDs are incapable of reproducing
correctly. BluRay has the bits to do it for non-HD material,
but it is not being used for that.


Doug McDonald

Jack May wrote:
"Bolwerk" wrote in message
...
David Nebenzahl wrote:
Jack May spake thus:

"Bolwerk" wrote in message
...

Jack May wrote:

You forgot to mention that everyone who takes a train is a pea-brained
laggard with a welfare check. Upstanding white folk such as yourself
should never stoop to such lows!

The British government did the latest work on trying to understand
technology laggards

http://www.mngt.waikato.ac.nz/ejrot/...%20laggards%22

Its not trains, it is all technologies. The British were trying to
understand technology laggards in their process to move towards digital TV.

There was some study in the U.S. regarding the slow transition to
digital TV. The two main reasons we

1. Too expensive
2. Current system is adequate

The complaints were more about the content, than the picture quality.

In any case, once the prices come down to comparable prices of SDTV, the
adoption will be widespread.

Calif Bill schrieb:


Ike pushed for the Interstate system for 2 reasons. He was the main mover
behind the action causing it to happen. When he was a lowly Captain in the
service he had to take a convoy across the country. Took about 2 months.
When he saw the Autobahn in Germany and the efficiency of moving people and
materials, he pushed hard for the same here. Was a defense build.


Like everywhere else, military transports over longer distances go by
rail in Germany.


Hans-Joachim


--
The United States has the best recovery money can buy.

Kenneth Rogoff

Hans-Joachim Zierke writes:

Calif Bill schrieb:


Ike pushed for the Interstate system for 2 reasons. He was the main mover
behind the action causing it to happen. When he was a lowly Captain in the
service he had to take a convoy across the country. Took about 2 months.
When he saw the Autobahn in Germany and the efficiency of moving people and
materials, he pushed hard for the same here. Was a defense build.


Like everywhere else, military transports over longer distances go by
rail in Germany.

Usually, but not always. For instance, if enemy action has taken out
the preferred route, it's a lot quicker to bulldoze a dirt road than
to lay even a temporary railway. The convoy with Eisenhower did
actually happen.

However, it's also true that the massive federal subsidy for the
interstates was motivated by truckers, commuters, and recreational
drivers, and "defense" was a secondary consideration at most. But it
was during the cold war and helped sell the project to Congress.

-- Patrick