[PRCo] Sleeping on the San Jose 22 bus
Fred Schneider
fwschneider at comcast.net
Mon Dec 16 15:43:13 EST 2013
I am honestly surprised that San Jose has owl bus service. Even though it has a million residents, it is one of those cities that is spread out all over the landscape … a collection of suburbs looking for an anchor that isn't there or a shopping center without a department store. It has grown from 68,000 people in 1940 to a million today simply by annexing every suburban home within miles and miles. What we have here is an owl bus service from suburb to suburb to suburb to suburb that happens to go through a downtown that was created back when it was a city of 68,000.
We need to ask Herb how a driver stays awake with 20-some people behind him snoring? (I remember an all night fantrip in Philly about 20 years ago. I asked the motorman how you get used to staying awake. His response was, "You never do."
But the San Jose story does not surprise. There are simply not enough jobs for the population. You cannot have corporations like WalMart buying all their products from China and expect to provide jobs for all Americans. This story shows that the labor force participation rate (those who are working or unemployed and age 16 or over) has dropped from 66.2% to 63.0% between 2008 and 2013. These are people who largely quit looking because they haven't been able to find anything … they're frustrated. So they are no longer unemployed. They are out of the labor force.
But if we were to convert them back to unemployed, what would it do to the unemployment rate? I get around 11% unemployed instead of 7%.
In other words, nothing has really improved since 2009-2010 except that we have masked the problem by having frustrated people drop out of the labor force.
http://data.bls.gov/timeseries/LNS11300000
Now, for the sake of honesty, remember the baby boom after World War II? They are now in their 60s. The population is becoming older.
Between the start of the recession and now, perhaps 3 million Americans reached retirement age and had reason to drop out of the labor force. So that 11% number is a lie. The actual number who dropped out of the labor force because they could not find work is only a portion. If they were all restored to the unemployment number, the total might be closer to 8.5% in 2013 while the published number excluding the discouraged unemployed is closer to 7.5%. Not nearly as bad as it seems at first glance. The rest are out of the labor force because they retired. How convenient is that?
http://transgenerational.org/aging/demographics.htm
And the population is going to continue to age. Where that is going to hurt is is fewer people paying into the social security program to pay for those taking out. Today we have about 45 million people over 65. By 2030 it will be around 70 million. We need all the Mexicans we can get paying into the program! :<)
On Dec 16, 2013, at 1:42 PM, Derrick Brashear wrote:
> Here's the current version of the story, from VTA in the Bay Area.
>
> http://www.mercurynews.com/bay-area-news/ci_24429126/homeless-turn-overnight-bus-route-into-hotel-22
>
>
> On Mon, Dec 16, 2013 at 11:18 AM, Fred Schneider <fwschneider at comcast.net>wrote:
>
>> I recall a similar story from Chicago that made the media. Might have
>> even made Life magazine.
>>
>>
>> On Dec 15, 2013, at 10:15 PM, Dwight Long wrote:
>>
>>>
>>> Fred
>>>
>>> I remember back in the day (the day being the early 50s) there was an
>> article in the Pittsburgh Press about a homeless woman who spent her nights
>> on PRC owl cars. She was quoted as saying they were warmer and safer than
>> any alternative she could afford.
>>>
>>> There was no comment made that I can recall in the article about
>> “sanitary” or bathing facilities.
>>>
>>> Dwight
>>>
>>> From: Fred Schneider
>>> Sent: Sunday, 15 December, 2013 19:25
>>> To: Western PA Trolley discussion
>>> Subject: Re: [PRCo] Cleveland Tidbits
>>> You prompted me to look, Herb, to see if GCRTS still has owl service and
>> I was astonished to see that it does. I only checked two major routes …
>> St. Clair and Superior but found hourly service including weekends.
>> Amazing.
>>>
>>> Makes me wonder how many cities still have owl service.
>>>
>>> To take this back to the list, I remember my dad telling me that
>> Pittsburgh Railways once had hourly service on all the major car lines with
>> everything meeting downtown all night long on the hour so you could make
>> transfers. He used it every night to get back to Oakland from his girl
>> friend on the north side until the girl's mom decided she wasn't going to
>> get rid of this guy and decided to take him in as a boarder … if you can't
>> get rid of the boy friend you might as well make some money on the deal.
>> (That great lady later became my grandma and his mother-in-law.) Seems to
>> me that all the major Pittsburgh car lines like the 8, 82, 88, 76, 71, 73 …
>> I picking numbers that make sense without looking … had owl service through
>> the 1950s and then PRC simply gave up.
>>>
>>> Makes me wonder how many cities still have all night transit service
>> outside of New York, Cleveland, Chicago. And how many outside of New York
>> have all-night rail service.
>>>
>>> I understand your feelings about working on New Years Eve, Herb. I
>> have a friend who used to manage Deutschebahn's southern Bavaria region and
>> I felt sorry for him during Oktoberfest. Imagine having a job making sure
>> your help gets the puke scrubbed out of all the commuter rolling stock so
>> it can be used in the rush hour the next morning and that no one gets hurt
>> by intoxicated riders. Still, they are better on transit than killing
>> people driving cars (CDC statistics -- 2010 data -- showed 48% of all
>> highway deaths were caused by alcohol and drugs). But with statistics
>> like that, if I made my living driving bus, I think I would want to have
>> the flu on Dec. 31st.
>>>
>>> On Dec 15, 2013, at 6:12 PM, Herb Brannon wrote:
>>>
>>>> Three interesting items are in the current issue of Cleveland RTA
>> e-news.
>>>>
>>>> The first deals with New Years Eve. It seems they have decided to run
>> all
>>>> light and heavy rails lines ALL NIGHT on December 31/January 1 for a big
>>>> downtown New Years Eve party. I'm glad I'm here and not there.
>>>>
>>>> Second, is the rollout of the first of 40 rebuilt heavy rail cars for
>> the
>>>> Red Line.
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> Third, the 100th anniversary of light rail rapid service is this month.
>> The
>>>> first section of what was to become Shaker Height Rapid Transit and RTA
>>>> Green & Blue lines began December 17, 1913.
>>>>
>>>>> From the news letter: (Be advised three photos accompanied these news
>>>> articles. They may or may not come through the Server For The List.)
>>>> Rapids run all night on New Year's Eve, serve major party downtown Ride
>>>> RTA to *Cleveland Rocks*, community celebration on Public Square with
>> Drew
>>>> Carey
>>>>
>>>> Comedian Drew Carey returns to his native Cleveland on Dec. 31, to
>>>> host *Cleveland
>>>> Rocks*, a New Year's Eve party on Public
>>>> Square<
>> http://click.icptrack.com/icp/relay.php?r=62511047&msgid=883868&act=NAHI&c=345125&destination=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.ohiohomecoming.com
>>> .
>>>> To better serve that party, and hundreds of other parties planned for
>> that
>>>> night, RTA will operate the Red, Blue and Green Rapid lines all night.
>> That
>>>> means there will be continuous rail service from the morning of Dec.
>>>> 31through the evening of Jan.
>>>> 1. Happy New Year!
>>>>
>>>> [image: Cleveland rocks, and on New Year's Eve, RTA will roll all night
>>>> long. Let us be your designated
>>>> driver!]<
>> http://click.icptrack.com/icp/relay.php?r=62511047&msgid=883868&act=NAHI&c=345125&destination=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.ohiohomecoming.com
>>>
>>>> Extreme makeover: First renovated Red Line rail car goes into service
>> Entire
>>>> fleet of 40 cars will be done within two years, preview impresses many
>>>> customers
>>>>
>>>> RTA unveiled its first renovated Red Line
>>>> car<
>> http://click.icptrack.com/icp/relay.php?r=62511047&msgid=883868&act=NAHI&c=345125&destination=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.riderta.com%2Fnews%2Fdec-10-11-rta-unveils-new-red-line-cars
>>> on
>>>> Dec. 10 at Tower City. Customers who saw the display were impressed
>>>> and
>>>> delighted. The first renovated car will go into service after Jan. 1.
>> RTA's
>>>> goal is to renovate two cars each month, until all 40 cars are in
>> service.
>>>> The interior renovation features brighter lights, upgraded seats and
>> seat
>>>> frames, new windows and more space for wheelchairs, strollers and
>> bicycles.
>>>>
>>>> [image: RTA's Red Line is getting a long-awaited makeover. Find out here
>>>> what you can expect to see over the next two
>>>> years.]<
>> http://click.icptrack.com/icp/relay.php?r=62511047&msgid=883868&act=NAHI&c=345125&destination=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.riderta.com%2Fnews%2Fdec-10-11-rta-unveils-new-red-line-cars
>>>
>>>> Happy Anniversary: Light-rail service began here 100 years ago A few
>>>> miles of track in Shaker Heights grew into the system we see today
>>>>
>>>> 100 years ago, on Dec. 17, 1913, Cleveland's Rapid Transit began growing
>>>> into the system we know today. Trains began operating on the first 1.6
>> mile
>>>> segment<
>> http://click.icptrack.com/icp/relay.php?r=62511047&msgid=883868&act=NAHI&c=345125&destination=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.riderta.com%2Fdec-17-1913-first-light-rail-service-operates-shaker-heights
>>> in
>>>> the median of what would become Shaker Blvd., from Coventry Road east
>>>> to
>>>> Fontenay Road. The fare was 3 cents. That section is now part of RTA's
>>>> Green Line. It is the oldest local section of continuously operating
>> Rapid
>>>> tracks still in use today.
>>>>
>>>> [image: One hundred years? It seems like only yesterday that light rail
>>>> service began in Cleveland. Find out more about our history
>>>> here.]<
>> http://click.icptrack.com/icp/relay.php?r=62511047&msgid=883868&act=NAHI&c=345125&destination=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.riderta.com%2Fdec-17-1913-first-light-rail-service-operates-shaker-heights
>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> --
>>>> Herb Brannon
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> *In Pittsburgh.............................A City And .........A State
>> of
>>>> Mind*
>>>> Let's Go Pens
>>>> Let's Go Steelers
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
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