From: utzoo!decvax!yale-com!leichter
Newsgroups: net.politics
Title: Re: gas tax and public transportation
Article-I.D.: yale-com.434
Posted: Thu Dec  2 13:51:20 1982
Received: Sat Dec  4 10:25:22 1982
References: cmcl2.22053

RE:  Call for a "rational" transportation system

It always amazes me how people who call for a "rational" system - based on
fixing up our railroads and cutting back on cars, or whatever - ignore the
element of choice in all this.  The fact is, people made a choice:  They
decided that they liked cars better than trains.  They voted with their
feet.  Sure, this choice has gotten locked in by a positive feedback
effect - as less people use trains, they have less money for improvements,
hence they get worse, hence less people use them - but how do you explain
the fact that, back in those "golden days" that everyone wants to return to,
when the passenger railroads were in great shape and cars were new, roads
non-existent, etc. - people STILL chose cars?  That's how we got here, you
know.  "Rational" has many elements - it's very nice to have a car that is
IMMEDIATELY available, right outside my door, ALWAYS has seating, lets me
play the music I want as loud as I want, has room for the groceries in
the back, etc.  Sure, you can TALK about sophisticated public transportation
systems, plus Walkmen maybe, plus who knows what else, that will give this
to me; but, sorry, railroads are not and will never be that, and the fact
is that no one knows how to build such a system today.

Don't assume that YOUR idea of "rational" is the one everyone else has in
mind - or that other peoples' ideas - in particular, the ideas of good ol'
blue-collar Joe or Jane - are just unreasonable and need to be changed.
							-- Jerry
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