[PRCo] Re: PAT trolley routes

[Fred Schneider]

I'm not going to say get real.   I can think of a case in St. Louis  
in the early 1960s where asphalt was temporarily scraped off rails.    
But I'm going to ask you to look at the numbers, look at what is  
happening in the rest of the world, look at what is unique in the  
American mind (we love our cars),  and draw your own conclusions.

Picture this scenario, Jerry:

                     The Europeans have been living with high fuel  
costs for a lot longer than we have and it has failed to discourage  
them from driving automobiles.  Nor has it discouraged them from  
owning as many automobiles as we do.   It has only discouraged them  
from driving as many kilometers as we do and from owning monstrous  
SUVs like we do.  Their annual auto mileage is probably around 7000  
miles a year compared to around 15,000 in this country.

Ownership of cars:
Japan  0.394 car per 1 person
France 0.463 car per 1 person
Germany 0.511 car per 1 person (Note this is higher than the U. S.  
and gasoline is much more expensive)
Sweden 0.436 car per 1 person
United Kingdom (England, Scotland, Wales, Northern Ireland, etc.) .372
Canada 0.444
Mexico 0.243 (1990 data)
United States 0.481 car per person.

You might also note that this is crude data it that it is cars per  
people and not cars per persons of the age where they could hold  
licenses.   These were also the numbers I could quickly find.    They  
came from a US DOT file.   I think I remember that Switzerland also  
had more cars per capita than the U. S. and they also have, in my  
mind, the best public transport system on the European continent.
Point is that in the United States, France and Germany, the numbers  
round to a car for every two people.

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

Before I start out on these next theme, I acknowledge that there are  
some exceptions.  San Francisco and New York are so congested that  
they have become forced U. S. exceptions to what follows.   Portland,  
Oregon is an exception which I admit I do not fully understand.   It  
seems to have managed to keep its downtown and accepted trolleys.    
Yet only a few hours away, Seattle seems to want to fight to the  
death to keep automobiles.    With the preamble established... Now  
think about the mind set in different countries.  We talk about doing  
all sorts of things in this country because they work in other  
countries and then we find out they just don't work here.

The Europeans freely accept banning traffic from downtown streets.  I  
can't think of one western European country where it hasn't been done  
and has been overwhelmingly accepted by the populace.   (The east  
still needs to find out how disastrous the auto can be.)  Now can you  
imagine an American being told he has to park his car somewhere else  
and walk down the street?  Get real.  Can you imagine an American  
city with a scheme like Amsterdam where you cannot drive through the  
city ... if you want to drive from one quarter to another, you need  
to go outside, around, and back in simply because autos are an  
infidel?    Can you imagine an American city with a $10 a day tax if  
you want to bring your car into it ?   London has such a tax and not  
without the BMW owners squealing that they "can't afford it."   But  
somehow the world goes on.    I cannot think of a single German city  
where automobiles are not banned from the central core.   That's  
where people walk.   Not where cars run over people.  The most  
affluent shopping street in Zurich, Switzerland is open to  
pedestrians and public transport vehicles.

  I can think of several examples in the U. S. where it was tried.   
Downtown Buloxi, MS ... they tried to turn the old downtown into a  
downtown mall with a covered street and parking behind every store.   
All that did was drive everyone to the brand new mall at Gulfport.    
And another good example was East Liberty.   So just because it  
worked somewhere else, don't expect an American to get out of his  
automobile.   He or she will go to Europe, think about how wonderful  
the concept is, then come home and reject it because it means getting  
out of the car.   (I gave up looking for international weight charts  
after 15 minutes ... the 50th percentile for men in the U. S. is 180  
lbs but I can't find other countries.   But my opinion is we are much  
heavier simply because I've heavy but I can find my sizes in stores  
in the U. S. but not in Europe.)  So we drive to the spa to work out.

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

There was a piece on "All Things Considered," the late afternoon  
Public Radio news show last week that looked at increased transit  
riding because of higher gas prices in several U. S. cities.  I think  
Houston might have been one of the cities.   Another was much  
smaller.   The conclusion reached was simple.   Paraphrased, "As soon  
as the public perceives the cost of gasoline is again affordable,  
they will be back in their cars."   And guess what, Jerry.   That is  
the same thing that happened in several previous fuel cost surges.



On Oct 23, 2005, at 4:38 PM, <mtoytrain at bellsouth.net>  
<mtoytrain at bellsouth.net> wrote:

>    Picture this scenario, fuel prices continue to rise higher and  
> higher and the average guy can't
>    afford gasoline at 4 or 5 buicks a gallong,  bus fares equally  
> too high, what is the possiblity of
>    PAT opening up former trolley lines?    Have all the rails been  
> picked up?   any just paved over
>    I know you all are saying Matsick get real that won't happen!    
> Never say never, just curious what
>    has happened to the various routes if the track is still there?
>
>    Jerry Matsick
>
>
>>
>> From: "James B. Holland" <PRCoPCC at P-R-Co.com>
>> Date: 2005/10/23 Sun PM 04:30:00 EDT
>> To: pittsburgh-railways at dementia.org
>> Subject: [PRCo] Re: Homewood + early PCC days
>>
>> Boris Cefer wrote:
>> .
>>
>>
>>> OK.
>>>
>>> I attached a picture, a draft of Homewood shops. The picture was  
>>> drawn
>>> by a guy from Czechoslovakia who visited Pittsburgh (and also other
>>> PCC operations) in 1949 to observe the PCC design, operation,
>>> maintenance and other aspects. No, you did not have commies  
>>> spying on
>>> Pittsburgh. Nor Nazis as Jim indicated after my statement regarding
>>> previous visit of a Czechoslovakian guy to Pittsburgh in the early
>>> 1939. The guy then made a long report (I have it) on everything
>>> relative the PCC technology (various details of Westinghouse and GE
>>> development and improvements) and streetcar operation in Pgh and
>>> several other US cities. His conclusion was that as early as in 1939
>>> the Westinghouse equipped cars were more popular than GEs.    I hope
>>> it is clear.
>>>
>>> B
>>>
>>
>>
>> Loud  And  Clear!
>>
>> The  World   K-n-o-w-s   That  Europe  Chooses  Nothing  But  The
>> Best    ----    WEstinghouse!!!!!!!
>>
>>
>>
>>
>> Jim__Holland
>>
>>
>> I__Like__Ike.......And__PCCs!!
>>
>> down with pantographs ---- UP___WITH___TROLLEYPOLES!!!!!!!
>>
>>
>>
>>
>
>
>