Lived in Holland.
Read TopGear. Magazine. Complete article in there on the three cars purchased, licencsed and everything cheaper than the three train tickets to Manchester and back again.
The 98% figure was in an article IIRC, Car and Driver, Patrick Beddard quoted it from figures he got out of a government report on Mass Transit. (Basicly it was an article noteing that Mass Transit is a total failure to save energy, money or provide a service that really works for the customers they'd like to have.) I don't doubt it works for the folks who have no other choice, and have to ride the bus. It's the only choice they have. Offer them a limo or taxi, and they would jump at it, and we would spend less money per rider volume. Of course, everyone would then want a limo or taxi, and kaos would follow. Another idea is providing cheap alternate forms of transportation, like scooters, but many who ride the buss can't legally drive, so that's not always possible.
I bet you like "Global Warming" too? Read "State of Fear" by Michael Crighton. very interesting book with ton's of reference material you'd like. He's pretty liberal, but the facts are very interesting, and his book was excellent.
I don't have the time to look up the C&D sources, but your welcome to do so.
Travel to England or Holland and do your own reasearch. (The rest of Europe sucks just as much, so have at it.)
Also, don't just say I hate busses. I like mass transit in the downtown areas of major cities. IT works as long as your dealing with areas where parking is a problem, and you can mostly walk from place to place inside of 10 min. There buses, monorails light rail or whatever works great. I also think some light rail works in very congested cities where large blocks of people live in one area, and work in another. I don't think our tax money should be spent to build the rail system, but if private companies want to build a rail, and then price it competitive to the cost of driving to work every day, good luck to them. I don't live in a city where any form of mass transit is remotely effective. I also work in 8 states, so I fly quite a bit, but that's private companies selling me a seat on aircraft, not me riding a bus or train paid for by tax dollars. (I suppose if I fly United, or Delta, or any of the airlines who are going out of business due to poor mangement and high pension costs that ultimately the tax payer is supporting those flights, but I like Southwest and Frontier best, and they are actually making money selling me air flights to where I'm working to make money. When I get to where I'm working, I get a rental car. Never even thought about using a bus or light rail to do my job. It would be totally out of the question, and make my life a living hell.
So, I ask you, show me a bus system in any city in the USA that makes money, and opperates solely on fares collected from it's riders. I'd love to see it, and I'll personally write Beddard and let him know his article was incorrect.
Southwest makes money on fares.
Frontier makes money on fares.
Many other "innovative" airlines make money, and are profitable on fares charged for flights, even in this time of high gas prices.
Also let's get our politics correct.
I don't hate liberals. I hate socialists. (Most "liberals" are socialists, so go figure.) Socialism has not, and will never work. Look at Russia. Look at other fallen great societies. As soon as the people figure out you can just "vote" yourself money, they lose the will to work, and the government fails. In Russia, they said everyone was employed, and equal, That basicly setup everyone to be poor as church mice, and a few powerfull people in government lived like kings while the masses barely existed.
It's happening in Europe right now. And to some extent here in the USA. Tax the rich, give to the poor, and we are all better for it is the cry of today's socialists. (Liberals.) Does not work. Look at Katrina. Those who for generations have been living on Welfare lacked the ability to think for themselves as a result of not having to think for themselves, and then bleated like lost sheep when the storm hit, and nobody was around to tell them what to do anymore. Where is my government was the cry of the day. I ask where is your brain dumbass? Get off your butt and walk out of town, help is just down the road, and thousands never even tried to go find it. (BTW, where was mass transit at this time of need? Parked in the bus barns of course, nobody in government told them to go get/rescue anyone, so the busses sat around and were flooded with the rest of the city v/s being used to help tens of thousands to escape when they should have left the dangerous areas.)
Is Mass Transit responsible for Katrina? Heck no. Should LA's government used better judgement in asking Mass Transit to help? Absolutely. I think it's Bush's fault you know. He hates LA residents. (LOL now that's funny.)
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