[PRCo] Re: Europe vs USA

[Fred Schneider]

Yes, Bob, you can walk to the Acme, providing you make ten separate  
trips to hike home with the week's groceries.   You'll never get fat  
that way.   Seems to me that Acme will be a good two-mile round trip  
for you.

This nation is populated with two groups of people ...

1)  My friends in northern New Jersey and another one who lives two  
blocks from PATCO and who think they can both go almost everywhere on  
mass transit.  These are the urban types.  I saw some of that  
yesterday.   Hudson Bergen Light Rail was running a 7 1/2 minute  
headway on the south end of the line on Sunday afternoon with  
standing loads.  I was astonished by the number of people who boarded  
my West End - Tonelly Avenue car at Pavonia stop who had been  
shopping at the mall ... and 90 percent of them got off at Bergenline  
Avenue ... most of them spoke Spanish.  Middle class people whom none  
of us would mind having in our neighborhoods.   These are the people  
who really aren't going to have a problem as gasoline goes to $6 and  
$8 and $10 a gallon.

2)  The rest of us.  I like to refer to the east as a 200-mile-wide  
belt of suburbs that stretches from Bangor or Lewiston, Maine to the  
North Carolina border.   If you want to argue that it goes to the  
South Carolina border, I might easily concede the point.   Within  
that belt are a few cities where mass transit works ... Boston, New  
York, Philadelphia and Washington.  I'm even ruling out Baltimore  
because it has become a suburb of Washington.   For most of us in  
that belt, like Bob and me, transit just isn't an option.  Of if I  
want to go to the library to read old newspapers, I can walk to the  
corner and ride the bus free into Lancaster.  Great.   But if I want  
to buy groceries, go to the any one of a half dozen doctors, go to  
church, the mall or any of my favorite restaurants, I need a car or  
my bicycle.   Lybarger has the same problem.  So does Ken Josephson  
out in Reno.   I suspect that Mark does knowing what I do about  
Jacksonville.

Look at the U. S. census for commuting to work patterns.   For the  
last forty years only about 1 percent of the U. S. A. used public  
transit to get to work.   The rest of us could not do it and in some  
cases chose not to.   I was told of one man who made his living  
building transit cars for Pullman Standard who refused to ride the el  
across Chicago because, as he put it, "I can fart in my own car."   
I'm sure he wasn't alone.

On Jul 7, 2008, at 9:17 AM, BobDietrich wrote:

> We can kick this around all we want comparing prices and wondering  
> why people insist on driving.  The truth is the AAA and government  
> made it that way.  This is the land of wide open spaces and the  
> infrastructure was build so get there.  I don't know about many of  
> you but I can't get anywhere without a car - well I can walk to the  
> Acme (grocery store).  The closest bus is at least two miles and it  
> is one of those infrequent, unreliable, mini-busses.  I suppose I  
> could move into the city but that would only get me close to public  
> transit, it would do nothing for the other 200 million drivers and  
> their 250 million cars.
>
> I think I'll go back to something I can accomplish, like building a  
> model of a PRCo car.
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: pittsburgh-railways-bounce at lists.dementia.org  
> [mailto:pittsburgh-railways-bounce at lists.dementia.org] On Behalf Of  
> Jerry MATT Matsick
> Sent: Monday, July 07, 2008 9:00 AM
> To: pittsburgh-railways at dementia.org
> Subject: [PRCo] Re: Europe vs USA
>
> Fred
> Appears that Americans are still thinking individualism in wanting  
> to drive their own
> vehicles as it proved that over the 4th of July holiday,  Americans  
> are willing to pay
> whatever it takes so that they may drive their own cars, however I  
> have cut back my driving by
> more than 50%.   As a local editorial stated, if Americans are  
> willing to pay $ 4.00 bucks
> for a pack of cancer sticks they most certainly will pay whatever  
> it takes to move their
> butts around the city, state or country.
> Public transportation is just not wanted in this country.   Amtrak  
> stinks and is terrible.
> This was caused by poor decisions by a Government that doesn't care  
> about providing
> transportation that is affordable and inexpensive.
> I look at these new "low floor" buses running "empty" all over  
> Jacksonville and say what
> a waste!    I love to watch the International House Hunter program  
> on HGTV and laugh
> at the prices people pay in Berlin and Paris for 500 sg ft flat  
> compared to what an American
> pays for a 2500 sg ft home with 3 CAR garage  and say voila it all  
> balances out.
> --
> From the RIVER CITY by the Sea!
> Oh for the simple life of riding a Street Car!
> Jerry "Matt" Matsick
> J A C K S O N V I L L E, Florida !
>
>
> -------------- Original message from Fred Schneider  
> <fwschneider at comcast.net>: --------------
>
>
>> Regarding the discussion about gasoline in Europe being $9.00 a
>> gallon. I had a conversation with my German friend this afternoon
>> in which we crunched numbers a different way. How long does a
>> person have to work, on average, after taxes in Germany in the U. S.
>> and in Germany to buy a gallon of gasoline. We both wrote down our
>> answers for the average working man. In both cases he and I had
>> numbers close to 20 minutes! He also pointed out that a huge tax
>> bite has been added to diesel oil since I was over there last October
>> making it slightly more expensive than gasoline instead of
>> significantly cheaper in German and Austrian markets, which in turn
>> is shifting the market for automobiles. Last October 70% of the
>> cars titled in Germany were diesels.
>>
>> But my friend did admit that the only reason he could afford to take
>> two vacations in the United States within twelve months ... long
>> vacations that is ... was because our dollar is so weak. We rode
>> the Hudson Bergen Light Rail today. I was paying 95 cents a pop for
>> senior tickets. He was effectively getting the same thing because
>> the dollar was so weak against the Euro ... he was paying about Euro
>> 1.15 for a $1.90 adult ticket. I think he had something like a $90
>> room at the Newark Airport Days Inn which, in Euros is about 55. A
>> similar hotel in Germany today might be 100 Euros. It's a great
>> bargain for our friends from over there who come here. To him
>> that's like me paying $45 for Motel 6 in Washington PA!
>>
>> His token gift for coming to see him was a copy of the Munich coach
>> repair shop. As the Northern Bavarian General Superintendent for
>> German Rail, this man is responsible for running 800 passenger trains
>> every day. That coach repair shop maintains the cars. It is just
>> a small part of the German fleet. I asked how many coaches does
>> Deutschebahn run ... he said he thought the number was somewhere
>> around 12,000 including DMUs and EMUs. I think that is just a few
>> more than Amtrak plus MBTA, Caltrans, Metro North, SEPTA, Metro Dade,
>> Chicago's METRA, Los Angeles, New Jersey Transit, etc., etc. And
>> Germany only has a population of 80 million people to our 330  
>> million.
>>
>> While I'm giving the bad news, I'm also trying to tease Mark into a
>> vacation because I know he wants to see it......
>>
>> And until you see it, you just cannot imagine such things as a center
>> city commuter tunnel in Munich with S-Bahn (suburban) commuter trains
>> dashing through downtown at 50 mph (ooops, 80 km/hr) on 2 minute
>> headways. It is just beyond the comprehension of most Americans who
>> would be prone to say, "It can't be done."
>>
>> fws
>>
>>
>>
>>
>> On Jul 6, 2008, at 9:46 AM, John Swindler wrote:
>>
>>>
>>>
>>> I don't know why you would say that the American dollar is
>>> worthless, Fred. Apparently didn't stop Dennis from visiting Paris
>>> and Rome, and we are already considering a second trip to Europe
>>> this year. And Phil and his wife were in Spain/Portugal just a
>>> couple months ago. There are some great deals out there - and they
>>> are priced in American dollars.
>>>
>>> John
>>>
>>>> From: fwschneider at comcast.net> Subject: [PRCo] Re: Why did
>>>> trolleys take the business?> Date: Sun, 6 Jul 2008 08:58:04 -0400>
>>>> To: pittsburgh-railways at dementia.org> > However, Dennis,> >
>>>> remember that the American dollar is > worthless. When the Euro
>>>> was first created it was deliberately > issued on par with the
>>>> dollar .. one for one. The dollar has > slipped to the point where
>>>> it now costs more than $1.60 to buy one > Euro. So 1 Euro 54 per
>>>> gallon in terms of the hours an Italian needs > to work is cheaper
>>>> today than our $4.00 a gallon. About $3.75. > And you probably
>>>> noticed that most people are driving diesels because > #2 diesel
>>>> in earning power over there equates to about $3.25 and gets > 50
>>>> miles per gallon. We're the ones being screwed, not them.> > I'm
>>>> leaving in a few minutes to have dinner with a friend who is an >
>>>> executive in Munich with German Rail. He vacations here twice a >
>>>> year because the exchange rate is so good that he "can buy the
>>>> whole > U. S." I could!
>>> not get angry when he said that because I could > remember back
>>> in 1959 when the dollar was worth four times the German > Mark in
>>> spending power. And I know John Swindler remembers when he > earned
>>> more in a few days driving a bus in Chicago than a London > subway
>>> motorman earned in a month. But that has all changed.> > Fred the
>>> Third> > On Jul 6, 2008, at 7:53 AM, Dennis F. Cramer wrote:> > >
>>> Henry Ford gave the country what it wanted, or at least he > >
>>> convinced us that> > is what we wanted; Independence. The
>>> streetcars gave us the first > > suburbs> > and then the post WWII
>>> housing boom created suburbs to the suburbs > > and we> > just
>>> continued to grow. The peak of the electric age was circa > > 1918
>>> and> > peak bus ridership was in the early 1950's. Our country
>>> continued > > to move> > farther and farther away due to incredibly
>>> cheap fuel prices and > > now we are> > beginning to see the
>>> mistakes that were made.> >> > We got spoiled and now want to
>>> complain. The talk!
>>> everywhere is > > about the> > price of fuel, but I see few
>>> people pa
>>> rking their large vehicles. > > There was> > a brief bit on the
>>> news this morning that a developer is making > > condos out> > of
>>> the old Horne's and Murphy buildings in Pittsburgh because > >
>>> people are> > wanting to move back into town.> >> > I just got back
>>> from Italy and fuel there is 1.54 Euros a litre. > > That comes> >
>>> out to about $9.00 a gallon at the current rate. A Ford Focus is a
>>>>> large> > car and flying into both Paris and Rome show few
>>> sprawling suburban > > areas> > like we have. I bought a 24 hour
>>> pass on the Rome system for 4 > > Euros. That> > covered bus,
>>> Metro, trams and their regional rail line; much > > cheaper than a>
>>>> taxi at morning rush.> >> > Europe and Asia want more fuel than
>>> ever before. Our gas is still> > relatively cheap and we still are
>>> unhappy. When I started working > > 33 years> > ago, gas was close
>>> to $2.00 a gallon and it has doubled. My salary > > went up> > over
>>> 7 times in the same position. Is the glass half full or half > >  
>>> empt!
>>> y? I> > have had a wonderful weekend: drove home from Delaware
>>> County on > > the 4th,> > played a wedding with my quintet in
>>> Clarion and came home to barbecue> > outside on the 5th; and will
>>> finish the weekend off today by > > driving 120> > miles round trip
>>> to volunteer at PTM. Now if I can just get Air > > France to> > get
>>> my luggage to me from Paris I will come home to a much more > >
>>> relaxed> > wife.> >> > I bought a new Nikon D60 before I left for
>>> Europe and have posted > > the raw> > images here:> >> > http://
>>> picasaweb.google.com/altotrombone> >> > Dennis F. Cramer> >
>>> Trombone> >> >> >> >> >
>>> _________________________________________________________________
>>> It’s a talkathon – but it’s not just talk.
>>> http://www.imtalkathon.com/?source=EML_WLH_Talkathon_JustTalk
>>>
>>
>>
>>
>
>
>
>
>