[Mpls] FW: Public Transit

[Gary Hoover]

Mr. Holtman scribes, in part...

>>>>>
 What should our transportation system look like in 2054?
Well, 2004 is the time to get started on it (actually 1954 was the time, but
let's not dwell on the past).
<<<<<

This is the crucial question, the crucial problem, and the seed of awareness
which we all -- and especially our leadership -- tries desperately to avoid.
It is the question of what our transportation system will look like in 50
years.  It is even important to prioritize our transportation expenditures
to look ten or twenty years ahead.

Petroleum is likely to go well above $60 or $80 per barrel in the next four
or five years.  (Now it is about $37 to $40/barrel, if i remember rightly.)
Not only that, but light, sweet crude (less expensive to extract and refine)
is becoming more rare as oilfields age.  The heavy, "sour" crude is more
expensive to extract and refine.  And of course, world demand for petroleum
is skyrocketing.

While we might have a few years of relatively cheap petroleum left, we
should invest our city infrastrucure dollars preparing for the time when gas
will cost ten bucks a gallon.  This will happen, and it will happen in the
next 10 years or so.

If we invest  hundreds of millions of dollars in diesel-hybrid busses and in
more light rail, we will making a much better transportation investment than
widening roads and adding freeway for a time when driving will be
prohibitively expensive for most people.

Even such a bland, middle-of-the-establishment-road publication as Newsweek
interviewed physicist David Goodstein about his new book "Out of Gas: The
End of the Oil Age."   Goodstein points out what so many economists and
scientists working on energy have also pointed out.  We have delayed too
long, and now the transition to the post-peak-oil age will be very painful.
Citizens and political leaders alike need to educate themselves about these
issues and plan radically more energy-efficient urban infrastructure for the
coming years.  The Newsweek article is at:

http://msnbc.msn.com/id/4287300/site/newsweek/

At this point, we need to invest in rails, walkable-bikeable urban
neighborhoods, and diesel (biodiesel) hybrid busses.  Money spent on bigger
roads is money spent irresponsibly.  It will cost more to undo the damage of
expanding auto-centered transportation than we can possibly imagine.  We
need to face the facts about urban infrastructure now.  Transit, bikes, and
feet are the future.

-- pedaling through cool rain today from Kingfield -- Gary Hoover