Without buses, rail will fail

Development and transport are systems that achieve critical mass and then cannot easily be changed. One hundred years ago U.S. cities and towns had extensive streetcar systems and were connected to each other by electrified rail. The current U.S. system of autos and sprawl was forced upon us.

This system is economically and environmentally unsustainable, and is propped up by USD trillions in subsidy and ignored externalities.

Superimposing rail solutions on top of autosprawl will not work. Instead, we must dismantle the system gradually by turning to buses, then streetcars, then bicycles and walking.

Planka Nu - Annual Report - 2009 - a busy year

Plank Nu - ["all aboard"] The Free Public Transport group in Sweden is also the force behind the informal center of the international campaign for free public transport. Follow this link for their 2009 report on the international site.

Does Dayton, OH care about its citizens?

Fares provide only 16 percent of RTA’s operating budget. The rest comes from taxes of one kind or another. Why can’t taxes provide the other 16 percent?

Eliminating fares would offer the following advantages:

• Bus travel time would be reduced, as the driver would not have to wait while passengers paid fares. This would also save fuel.
• Coins would not have to be counted.
• Those most in need of financial help would benefit.
• Many may choose the bus rather than their cars, saving fuel, traffic and parking spaces.

Fare-free public transportation would send a message that Dayton cares about its citizens.

Harvey R. Tuck
Harrison Twp.
DaytonDailyNews

YES - Climate Change affects tectonics!

All around the globe there are many points where tectonic plates are straining against each other and need only a slight change in temperature or weight to cause a slip. If the oceans rise by a millimeter how much weight shift is that? Think about it.

Looking back to other periods in our planet's history when the climate was swinging about wildly, most notably during the last ice age, it appears that far more than the weather was affected. The solid earth also became restless, with an increase in volcanic activity, earthquakes, giant submarine landslides and tsunamis. At the rate climate change is accelerating, there is every prospect that we will see a similar response from the planet, heralding not just a warmer future but also a fiery one. Guardian UK

West Yorkshire, UK Blogger advocates Free Public Transport

'Free' in the sense that all pay into the community pot according to their means and equally share the benefits. It is called taxation, but really ity is about sharing....

...By forcing an increase in public transport, by increasing capacity at the same time as reducing the need for extensive personal transport, a carbon free future can be created for our future generations. Free Roads

Cars are inherently anti-biosphere - fossil fuel or no

...However, even if we were to devise a perfect car, one made out of recycled tires and printer paper, one that harnesses photosynthesis to not only be carbon-neutral, but actually make energy from atmospheric C02, even if we could make a car with no direct environmental impact, it would still be an environmental and social disaster. Our waterways are contaminated by engine fluids and lubricants that run off of road surfaces. Our natural groundwater tables are falling because rainwater is unable to penetrate pavement. Cars still allow sprawling development that eats up wild lands and spits out bland suburbia. Species' ranges in the few precious areas of wilderness that we have are disrupted by highways. We would still live in a society where we shut ourselves off from one another in our own private boxes, promoting inequality and a lack of respect for shared humanity. We would still leave our inner cities to dangle. Our streets would still be unsafe places for children to play, and we would still kill thousands every year in automobile crashes. Alternative fuels are, on a perfect day, a solution to only a few of the myriad problems that cars cause.... Riding in Riverside

Earthquakes caused by global warming

 Photo from Radio Telegin en Haiti

FAR from being the benign figure of mythology, Mother Earth is short-tempered and volatile. So sensitive in fact, that even slight changes in weather and climate can rip the planet's crust apart, unleashing the furious might of volcanic eruptions, earthquakes and landslides.New Scientist

Baltimore - new free bus

A parking tax is allowing Baltimore to implement a FREE fully-funded downtown bus service. Called the "Charm City Circulator"... City Reimagined

Cleveland - downtown loop buses 10 minutes apart - FREE

Trolleys are back in Cleveland, and the fare is "free with a smile". Two routes operate from 7:00am - 7:00pm Monday-Friday. Each line runs with a 10-minute service interval, so you're never far away from quick, easy, and FREE downtown transportation! Greater Cleveland Transit Authority

Burning down the house

Our house is the biosphere. We built a fire, autosprawl, in our house to give us comfort and reduce our labors. The fire is out of control.

How to stop a fire?

Add different fuels?

Add fuel to a fire?

The most clever climate cover up - misdirection

...Could it be that the enthusiastic fight of infectious diseases is a way of tacitly supporting the industries that enhance global warming? I want to believe there is no conscious decision. But again this year Exxon had the greatest profit year ever - $45 Billion. Exxon and two other oil companies make up over $1 billion in the foundation trust investments.... theboywhodeniedwolf

A few years ago Greenpeace outlined this trick when they exposed "Africa Fighting Malaria" an ngo funded in part by Exxon:

AFM promotes short term solutions to the malaria problem, and criticizes expenditures on mitigating climate change as having benefits too far in the future to be useful. They advocate spending money on quick-fixes for problems which could be solved in the future by successfully combatting things like climate change....