Get ready for Gas increase!

[voodoo22]

Originally Posted by talnlnky

I think we should copy the japanese on this. Not just do bullet trains, but also put lots of money into local loop lines and such to reduce so much of the wear & tear on local roads & highways. The amount of money saved in road construction & maintenance would nearly offset the initial construction costs...

And to think if we could build a network of trains like japan has, you'd never get shit from your boss for being late when in reality there was a wreck on the roads.... trains in japan almost never get in wrecks, and run on time... nearly to the second.

A big reason the Japanese are so successful is that they are willing to copy. They copied London on their subway system and tried to improve it a little. The biggest thing I noticed in these subways, is they have a circle of tracks around the centre, not a bunch of straight lines like we do here in Toronto, which lead to nowhere and make the system useless to anyone who isn't traveling along one track.

Did you know that if your train is a couple of minutes late they will give you a note to give your Boss so you can prove it wasn't your fault you're late? I think the trains are on average 7 seconds late. That's the average for the entire country. The company you work for also pays for your transit pass and you can actually use the train systems to go all over the place. This is why the next generation in Japan is not interested in cars... you don't need one! Car sales have been declining for the last 5 years and are at their lowest in over 30 years Japan. They even have a word for this trend - kuruma banare - which means demotorization. Imagine not having to spend $5000 a year on transportation, not because you can't afford it, but because it takes longer to travel by car than by mass transit. Most people, from the lowest paid to the highest paid executives take mass transit to work for this very reason.

For me in Toronto the story is quite different.

Driving - 50 minute commute, 4 dollars in gas come and go as I please.

Mass Transit - 2 hours if I get all 3 buses perfectly, if one is late you can quickly add 30 minutes to that, over $19 in tickets and you can't even break even on a bus pass unless you use both ways on a 5 day work week and for 2 other trips.

Anyone think that maybe the people who benefit from our economy most don't want us to have a viable mass transit system?

[talnlnky]

Originally Posted by voodoo22

Did you know that if your train is a couple of minutes late they will give you a note to give your Boss so you can prove it wasn't your fault you're late? I think the trains are on average 7 seconds late. That's the average for the entire country. The company you work for also pays for your transit pass and you can actually use the train systems to go all over the place. This is why the next generation in Japan is not interested in cars... you don't need one! Car sales have been declining for the last 5 years and are at their lowest in over 30 years Japan. They even have a word for this trend - kuruma banare - which means demotorization. Imagine not having to spend $5000 a year on transportation, not because you can't afford it, but because it takes longer to travel by car than by mass transit. Most people, from the lowest paid to the highest paid executives take mass transit to work for this very reason.

yes i did know that... and this is why...

http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&hl=e...QOCotCwDg&cd=1


thats my old apartment.