Will Free Rides Make Firm Believers In Transit?
Transit agencies around the U.S. offered free rides on a single day, and large crowds follow. But observers aren't sure they'll stick around when they have to pay again.
"Thursday's offer of free rides on more than 30 transit agencies in the Bay Area certainly lured thousands of new riders, likely at record levels. Transit officials were still tallying the numbers Thursday afternoon.
The key question: How many of those newbies will give transit another shot when rides are not free?
I rode trains, trolleys and buses around the bay Thursday, starting in Campbell on light rail at 8 a.m., and jumping onboard Caltrain in downtown San Jose, switching to BART in Millbrae and returning home on BART through the East Bay, then taking the bus and light rail from Fremont to Milpitas and back to Campbell by 1:33 p.m.
Ridership numbers for most agencies won't be known until today. But on Bay Area ferries, the counts were staggering: up more than 100 percent on the Golden Gate ferries, from 2,168 daily riders to 4,552 on Thursday. And on the Sausalito ferry, the daily count of 435 soared to 2,170."
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make it free all the time
http://www.frepubtra.blogspot.com/
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Make it free all the time and you wouldn't have to spend USD 140B/yr on oil wars.
...or flood cleanup
...or fire fighting
...or parking wars
etc etc etc etc..
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freepublictransit
Peace sells but who's buying?
"Make it free all the time and you wouldn't have to spend USD 140B/yr on oil wars.
...or flood cleanup"
Amazing how after 7 years of war in Afghanistan there are still people out there who think there's a lot of oil in Afghanistan. So much for oil war(s). Check out the price of oil at the gas pump and see if the consumer is getting a bargain from our sixth largest oil importer- Iraq.
oil in Afghanistan?
http://www.frepubtra.blogspot.com/
.
Oil wars are wars for the control of oil. More accurately, oil and natural gas which is just as bad for the environment. Yes, the war in Afganistan is about pipeline routes... read up.
Afghan pipe dream
"Oil wars are wars for the control of oil. More accurately, oil and natural gas which is just as bad for the environment. Yes, the war in Afganistan is about pipeline routes... read up."
"Since the United States military overthrew the Taliban government, the project has essentially stalled; construction of the Turkmen part was supposed to start in 2006, but the overall feasibility is questionable since the southern part of the Afghan section runs through territory which continues to be under de facto Taliban control."
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trans-Afghanistan_Pipeline
It's easier and cheaper to buy off some ruthless local government than to overthrow the government and have U.S. troops try to rebuild and remold a country. The U.S. invasion killed the project and it was dumb idea to think any pipeline could be completely secured let alone one going through Afghanistan.
The natural gas from the field in Turkmenistan was piped through Russia and the former Soviet republics. Now, in order to increase capacity, a new pipeline will be built.
"On 20 December 2007, Russia, Turkmenistan and Kazakhstan agreed to construct a new Caspian pipeline parallel to existing CAC-3 pipeline. The pipeline will be built between the Belek compressor station in Turkmenistan and the Alexandrov Gay station.[8] The capacity of the new pipeline will be 20 bcm and it would be built by late 2010."
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Central_Asia-Center_gas_pipeline_system
There never was an Afghan pipeline and probably never will be one. The route indicated above runs west and not south through Afghanistan.