THSCC Forums

Yes. If you want to save the planet. What do you need all that land for anyway?

People keep moving farther and farther outside of urban areas looking for that idealic lifestyle. It has lead to sprawl and increased commute times, polution, blah, and blah.

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Silver Honda
Green Ford
Blue/White Suzuki
Red Triumph
Grey BMW

"Never let life be shaped by fear of its end"

No, you're a towel!

Maybe Aaron can weigh in on this, but last I heard the property around the mass-transit route in Charlotte is booming.

Some people want to be in an urban environment.

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Not spectacular just decent.
I'm not sure what I'm driving.
Maybe an ITR in DS.
Or half-assed STX prepped 330.

Yep - Lived in Cambridge/Somerville, MA for 2 years within a block of the T. Used it all the time, it was a good system. I bet it was profitable for the government too. I also bet that if it was privately owned it would have worked even better.

There's a time and a place for mass transit. I want a government that enables private industry to build mass transit. Clear the path, sell land, give permits, tax breaks, whatever. But I don't want it run by the government. Because governments have a long track record of excellent intentions and disastrous execution. Let someone else execute.

I would bet that no one would touch mass transit in the triangle as a viable business. It just wouldn't work. But hey I could be wrong and I hope some company tries it.

PS -- I'm also the only person in the world (it seems) who actually WANTS the price of oil to go through the roof. Want to guess why?

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Mike Whitney
whit32@gmail.com, 919-454-5445
V10, V8, V8t, I6, I6, V6, F4t, I4, I4, I4, I4, I2, 1, 1

Everybody I know in Charlotte is always complaining about having to see all those busses zooming through traffic jams in their special lanes with NOBODY on the busses...


--Donnie

Yeah, the light rail system should be going soon. He'll I've even been using the bus to get to work because it's downright convenient, and for anyone living in Charlotte knows that parking has been going through the roof cost wise. - AB

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'14 Toyota Sequoia Platinum 4WD
Super Westerfield Bros - '93 Integra - LeChump Du Jour
STX 93 - Scion FR-S

That's why the TTA light rail system got poopoo'd, not enough funding from the federal gov't. I think they are still trying to get funding.

But the TTA kind of sucks to begin with.

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Silver Honda
Green Ford
Blue/White Suzuki
Red Triumph
Grey BMW

"Never let life be shaped by fear of its end"

No, you're a towel!

Hmmm...you're margin limit long a boatload of crude oil futures contracts?

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Current stable:
2019 BMW M2 Competition slicktop 6MT
2011 BMW M3 sedan slicktop 6MT
2007 BMW 328i wagon (slushbox for now)
1975 CanAm 125MX2

I know why I want the price of oil to go through the roof. I want to see people actually care about the cost of their commute. If you want to live in the country go ahead. It'll cost ya though. Unfortunately it would be better if the massive profits that these high gas prices are generating went somewhere other than in the oil company coffers and their stockholders.

Why do you Mike?

--Kevin H.

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2003 WRX (again!)

TTA has issues.

As I understood it, TTA was originally delayed because the same time they were getting their proposal together, the State decided to make a play for some Federal $ for high-speed rail between here and DC.

The rail line owners said "you people need to get your act together."

Once TTA got around to applying for the federal money the requirements changed from chicken to egg to Catch-22.

Charlotte's rail came in with the Federal funding. With the expectation that development would take place around the stations to deliver the population density.

TTA tried the same tactic and was told that there wasn't sufficient population density in the region.

I live in Raleigh and worked in Durham for 8 years. I really wanted regional rail to get cranked up.

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Not spectacular just decent.
I'm not sure what I'm driving.
Maybe an ITR in DS.
Or half-assed STX prepped 330.

Oil companies profit margins are puny compared to the banking industry and software companies (ie Microsoft). Yet big oil is the cause of all evil in the world.

Yes, I know the dollars of profit are astounding, but profit margins are bit more than 10% for Exxon/Mobil. Compared to 25% for Microsoft and 26% for Wachovia and 31% for BoA.

Who's gouging who? Its all in perspective

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02 Focus SVT
STF 9

Ha, that's funny. Maybe they need to put signs on the sides of the buses saying, "YOU could be zooming through traffic if you were on this bus"...


I want to see oil prices go through the roof so people will care about the cost of their energy usage in general. Not just gas for the ubiquitous SUVs, but heating and lighting costs for all the 4000+ sf houses, wasteful personal habits, all the way through to trash. Everything takes energy to happen. IMO Americans have an entitlement mentality WRT cheap energy- I think it's clear that this is going to have to change, but I hope that the timeframe will be more like 10-20 years than 50-100.

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Carl Fisher

Be Cool to the Pizza Dude:
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/stor ... Id=4651531

I agree Americans need to be more conscious of their energy usage all over, not just transportation. That said, what I think should happen and what will happen under its own momentum are two different things. I think the gov't has a responsibility/necessity to encourage good behavior. They talk about recycling batteries, anti-freeze, flourescent light bulbs, thermometers, styrofoam etc . ever tried? It is extremely inconvenient and the excuse is that it costs money that is needed elsewhere for tax breaks for Dell, Google, Optometrists, prosecution of Duke LaCrosse players etc. If they want to encourage the single person SUV drivers who all go to a central location to ride the rails, then develop a swipe card that decrements their tax liability. Pay people to recycle, or charge people who don't - BUT MAKE IT CONVENIENT (drop your lightbulbs off at your local Lowes).

I live 30 miles from work, but 3.5 out of 5 days my wife and I carpool since we work at the same place. Car gets 26mpg. I can't live in Cary with the 2 dog limit (if I wanted to) I would ride the rail if they ever build one near me.

Now onto the PAX/Tire/LAD debate

It just seems like to me that mass transit is a chicken and egg problem. It might be "working" in the Charlotte area now in the sense that development where the rail terminals are (or where they are going to be, I guess) is going well, but that may just be because Charlotte has finally reached a population density that it can support it. Perhaps the people handing out the federal dollars for that stuff actually know what they're doing and it really wouldn't help here in the Triangle.

I tend to agree because we don't have ANY heavily populated enough areas other than the downtown Raleigh area that people can consolidate transportation for. I really think you need bi-directional traffic rather than just "in and out of downtown" to make it work. Charlotte tried that sort of thing for YEARS with no success. Now that Charlotte has such booming "suburb" type areas (toward Lake Norman, the Pineville area, etc) that you can connect up with downtown, you have something that will probably get used. I don't think Cary by itself is much of an addition because it's actually too close to Raleigh. Nobody wants in or out of Durham, so it's not much help. People in Chapel Hill would love a train to Raleigh, but there's not enough of them to matter. RTP has the "one way" problem...you just have commuters in and out and I-40 has it so convenient to drive for most that I really don't see rail saving much time for anyone, if ANY. So unless rail was WAY cheaper for someone, it still doesn't help.

I honestly just feel like if we built the rail systems I've seen proposed, hardly anyone would actually use it. I'd love to be proven wrong, though.

Energy use is a problem, but I don't see why one would care to see fuel prices rise now versus later. I don't see any inherent advantage to an energy crisis in the next 10-20 years versus it happening in 50-100. Seems like, in fact, we'll just naturally be better equipped technologically to take care of it in 50-100 years than we would in 10-20 even without trying. That's not to say we shouldn't try now...we definitely should. But I don't see why you'd want to accelerate the problem in the name of making people accelerate the cure.


--Donnie

Ditto. I work at Dook.

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Silver Honda
Green Ford
Blue/White Suzuki
Red Triumph
Grey BMW

"Never let life be shaped by fear of its end"

No, you're a towel!

That doesn't get rid of the problem that people are living 30 miles from work. Moving closer to work gets rid of the problem altogether. How about a tax break for anyone who lives within 5 miles of work?

That would save money on road construction, road maintenance, energy use and save time. Seems like a no brainer to me, instead of coming up with more complicated ways for the government to spend money (ie raise our taxes)

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In need of car.