a visual example of why public transportation works in europe but not america

I stopped looking at the prices...you'll have to fuel up anyway... todays record on the news here: Shell regular starts at 1.36 euro/L , should be close to 6.69 USD/gallon.....!! Yeah and I aint complaining....

In my country a significant part of the tax on cars and petrol is used to improve public transport. Doesnt always work well but there are several highspeed railways in germany and france which compete quite well with airliners on short to mid distances...

I know my opinion may not be popular but OH WELL such is life.
If you realy dont like the cost of gas

A) Invent a new fuel that will relax the need for gas.
B) Buy your own gas company and sell us gas cheap.
C) Drive a GEO or ride a bike.
D) Hybrids are a joke and a scam. No REAL gain at all in the big picture but you can buy one to make yourself feel better about "doing your part to clean the air"
E) Or STOP CRYING. The gas aint yours so if you want it you will have to pay the people that own it. It is there gas and they will sell it for what ever they want to sell it for. The stuff dont just grow in the ground. The crude needs to be refined and transported and that aint cheap. This is no "conspiracy" this is pure and simple free market profit. If you dont like it dont buy it. Heck it's better off at a higher price anyway, because people will not be so quick to waste it.

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quote Originally posted by Kohburn: a mojor problem is America is fairly large and other than the centralized major cities which do have public transportation, everything else is MUCH to spread out.. or the comercial zones are all clumped without enough residential area for the company employees to be close to work.. things tend to be layed out with a central comercial zone with employees traveling from up to 60 miles away for work every day -- it would require billions of dollars and 20+ years of total infrastructure change to change americas layout to make nationwide public transportation even remotely viable. The commercial center of Washington DC and Baltimore has a comuter base traveling from 3 states to get to work every day. what we really need is the government to start programs to help encourage and support the use of alternative fuels like alchohal/eletric charging stations / something cost effective other than petroleum products. because for the cost of building enough public transportation to effect enough of the population the govt could just stocp taxing fuel all together and save themselves the trouble.

From what I've read, the car companies are the ones we really have to thank. Back in the '30s, the big car companies successfully lobbied Congress to invest in a national highway system instead of developing rail and other public transportation systems. Now, you can take a train anywhere in Europe for a reasonable price, but very few people take a train anywhere here. We have millions of miles of crumbling 50+ year old highways that are ridiculously expensive to repave and more cars than anywhere else in the world. Everyone drives their own car everywhere, the Big 3 are ecstatic with the money they've made, and its all coming back to bite us. We now have bad highways, little alternate transportation, and skyrocketing gas prices.

quote Originally posted by Fastback 86: From what I've read, the car companies are the ones we really have to thank. Back in the '30s, the big car companies successfully lobbied Congress to invest in a national highway system instead of developing rail and other public transportation systems. Now, you can take a train anywhere in Europe for a reasonable price, but very few people take a train anywhere here. We have millions of miles of crumbling 50+ year old highways that are ridiculously expensive to repave and more cars than anywhere else in the world. Everyone drives their own car everywhere, the Big 3 are ecstatic with the money they've made, and its all coming back to bite us. We now have bad highways, little alternate transportation, and skyrocketing gas prices.

Its a good thing the big three won that one. Could you imagine replaceing 50+ year old rail road tracks and trains? Way more than the roads we drive on. But an even bigger problem with public transpertation is that the public dont want it. We can sit in our own car and listen to the music we want and eat the food we want without the crowded stinky old busted down public carrier. And lots more reasons we as Americans dont want public trans. Only in conjested arias where we cant drive our own cars is it tolerated. A very low % of people actualy want public transpertation. The rest of us want cheap GOOD cars and FREE gas.

quote Originally posted by Fie Ro: In my country a significant part of the tax on cars and petrol is used to improve public transport. Doesnt always work well but there are several highspeed railways in germany and france which compete quite well with airliners on short to mid distances...

Same in Canada, but with a difference. They collect $16 Billion in "road tax" on gasoline, but spend less than $6 Billion of that actually on the roads. The Liberal government piss away the rest. That's ONE reason why we're MAD up here.

quote Originally posted by Rickady88GT: The rest of us want cheap GOOD cars and FREE gas.

Ahh, the new American dream.

I hear ya, Rick. Damned if we do, damned if we don't.