Quote:
Originally Posted by The Dirt
Meh, something is better than nothing. A frequent branded bus line to CC in a year is better than nothing for 10 years, which is how long it would take to put in a streetcar line if one was planned today.
Ken and Cirrus have convinced me that incremental is the way to go if you want to see anything done in your lifetimes. That goes for Front Range rail. I'd rather see some sort of standard commuter rail to Ft. Collins rather than wait 50 years for HSR. Meanwhile, you'll get customers that have much more exposure to a commuter rail system and support improvements to that system rather than drivers that would support a pie in the sky HSR.
|
I believe, sir, that how we do things changes. 50 years ago, transportation improvement (freeways) were done quickly. Things changed: writing environmental reports became a way of life, the federal government for various reasons became less interested in alternate transportation options, the country became poorer, etc. How we do things will change again: the rising cost of energy and resources and the steady decline of easy to extract oil is going to affect all forms of transportation in unpredictable ways. What the voter wants on a federal, state, county, and, city level will evolve in response.
The key, IMO, to transportation issues is right-of-way. What agencies can do now is to try to secure right-of-way, bearing in mind that in 2020 or 2025 the railroads might leap at the chance to get less government money than UP and BNSF request today.
So far we have escaped real price shocks in energy and resource inflation. For example new cars are more expensive, yet new cars last longer and get better mileage as the auto industry absorbs true inflation through technological improvement. But this is finite and will end, as real inflation exceeds the ability for auto manufacturers to raise prices to a public that can afford them. This is true, too, for electric cars. The key, I am afraid is the rate of rise of true oil cost (the related cost of extracting lower quality resources with more energy, too) and how this increase relates to the transportation matrix.
Things will change when the public starts to yell about cost despite the best efforts of the media to tell us all is Ok. This has not occurred yet, as we have avoided the problem via increasing our personal and government debt. However, most of us know that sooner or later the ability to pay for increased real costs via currency stability created by printing money will end. At that point change will occur, and, things again, will be done differently.
And, very likely in your working lifetime and no where close to retirement age.
Prev
Linear Mode
