[PRCo] 9/5/65 - Last day for PAT trolley lines

Thu Apr 24 22:19:18 EDT 2014

I think we both know who would be so perspicacious to have said that.   

But I would agree that it might be the youth.   Funny thing how the eastern people say light rail will not work but the people in San Diego, Los Angeles, Portland, Phoenix, Dallas … places with younger populations … are riding.   The kids may also be understanding that you cannot grow more 50-million-year-old trees-in-swamps and then put them thousands of feet underground to make more oil.   What we have is finite.   The old folks are in denial.   Maybe the kids get it.   

Our local paper printed a chart showing gas prices two days ago and suggested that it is terrible that gas prices are going up again.

Click on this link and then click on the six month chart and you will see what they printed in the paper.   They showed it had gone from 3.33 to 3.66
nationally since last October … the change in the last six months.   Anything to make people angry and stir up the readers so that they will buy more papers, right?

     http://www.gasbuddy.com/gb_retail_price_chart.aspx

Now click on the 10 Year link…
Now you will see that it climbed from about $1.75 in April 2004 up to $4.12 in the summer of 2008 (summers are always high because of different formulations to prevent air pollution on hot days).   Then the recession hit.   But the recession still isn't over.   But reliable friends of mine in the oil industry suggested that worldwide demand would probably begin to exceed supply around 2010 … but the recession masked that.   If demand had exceeded supply, there would have been a sharp upward curve in prices.   Even if supplies were adequate and inflation normal, had there been no global recession, ---- then project what was happening before 2008 and you can see that we should have gas prices over $6.00 now.   And they could have been closer to $7 if the demand curve exceeded supply.

Maybe John, some of those kids understand.    Does this also have something to do with the revelation that a lot of our kids today are not in a hurry to get drivers licenses like we were?   

Yes,  "It's amazing what people would rather have than money".

On Apr 24, 2014, at 9:31 PM, John Swindler wrote:

> 
> Don't know.  But it might be reversed, now.  It's a very small sample size, so subject to noticeable fluctuations.  Would probably average out and not be noticeable looking at system numbers.
> 
> Maybe younger folks have a greater appreciation of the cost of auto travel?????  Also noticed that we passed/or were passed by a lot of single occupant SUVs on 322.    
> 
> To quote a friend in Washington County:  "It's amazing what people would rather have than money".
> 
> 
> 
>> From: fwschneider at comcast.net
>> Date: Thu, 24 Apr 2014 21:07:42 -0400
>> To: pittsburgh-railways at mailman.dementix.org
>> Subject: Re: [PRCo] 9/5/65 - Last day for PAT trolley lines
>> 
>> The men in Hershey and women in Hummelstown is perplexing.   Why?
>> 
>> Older versus younger might represent a change in how some state or federal government agencies awarded parking spaces.  
>> 
>> 
>> 
>> On Apr 24, 2014, at 6:58 PM, John Swindler wrote:
>> 
>>> 
>>> 
>>> When I first started riding the 7:20 am Hershey bus to Harrisburg around 2000, ridership never exceeded 6 during first year, and occasionally I was the only rider.  After 5-6 years, a 40 foot bus was assigned when ridership routinely exceeded 20.  By 2010, a third bus was added to the schedule to alleviate overcrowding.
>>> 
>>> About the only constant for a dozen years was that I rode this bus.  There was constant change in the ridership.  For a few years it was mostly women.  Then for a few years mostly men.  Then switched back to women.  At the end, men tended to board in Hershey, while the women boarded in Hummelstown.  Even the age of riders fluctuated.  Older riders in early years.  A lot of young people at the end.    
>>> 
>>> 
>>> 
>>> 
>>>> Date: Thu, 24 Apr 2014 18:26:03 -0400
>>>> From: shadow at dementix.org
>>>> To: pittsburgh-railways at mailman.dementix.org
>>>> Subject: Re: [PRCo] 9/5/65 - Last day for PAT trolley lines
>>>> 
>>>> On Thu, Apr 24, 2014 at 5:44 PM, Fred Schneider <fwschneider at comcast.net>wrote:
>>>> 
>>>>> Unduplicated route miles in Toronto after the Bloor subway opened might
>>>>> have been around 40ish.   At that time Pittsburgh was still running to
>>>>> McKeesport, Drake, Library, West View.  Millvale and the West End One of my
>>>>> favorite examples is a comparison of two almost identical cities …
>>>>> Harrisburg, Pa. and Victoria, BC.   Both have populations on the same order
>>>>> of magnitude but the Canadian city has ten times more bus riders than the
>>>>> Pennsylvania city … 150,000 on a weekday in Victoria versus 15,000 in
>>>>> Harrisburg.   You stand on the main streets in downtown Victoria in the
>>>>> rush hour and you see buses swallowing up crowds of people.  I did that in
>>>>> 2007.  Harrisburg?  Why would I humble myself to ride a bus?   I own a car.
>>>>> 
>>>>> 
>>>> Why would I do either? my bike certainly took me from Camp Hill to the
>>>> Eisenhower Interchange and back easily enough ;)
>>>> 
>>>> 
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>> 
>> 
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